More bad news I'm afraid


April 21, 2003

Earl King, New Orleans Bluesman, Dies at 69

By JON PARELES
New York Times

Earl King, the New Orleans rhythm-and-blues guitarist and
singer who wrote songs that became Mardi Gras standards,
died on Thursday in New Orleans, his lawyer said. He was 69.

The cause was complications related to diabetes, according
to the lawyer, Greg Eveline.

Mr. King, who lived in New Orleans, was a flamboyant
performer, singing with bluesy ease and playing guitar solos
that curled and sliced across the rolling New Orleans beat.
He recorded hundreds of songs that were rooted in both the
12-bar blues and New Orleans lore, with lyrics that could
tell wry, compressed stories or come up with wild-eyed
imagery. "Whatever gymnastics jump through my head, I write
about it," he once said.

While Mr. King performed widely, his songs also traveled by
way of other musicians: Jimi Hendrix, who recorded Mr.
King's "Come On" as "Let the Good Times Roll" on "Electric
Ladyland"; the Meters and Robert Palmer, who recorded Mr.
King's "Trick Bag"; and Professor Longhair, who played piano
and had the performer credit on the original 1964 version of
Mr. King's "Big Chief," although it featured Mr. King's
vocals and whistling. The Professor Longhair recording and
remakes of "Big Chief" by performers including Allen
Toussaint and Dr. John are still heard every year at Mardi
Gras time.

Mr. King was born Earl Silas Johnson IV in New Orleans in
1934. He started performing as a gospel singer but then
turned to the blues, at first singing with the band led by
Huey (Piano) Smith. He made his first single as Earl Johnson
in the early 1950's, playing guitar in a style strongly
influenced by Guitar Slim (Eddie Jones). When he signed with
Specialty Records, the label's owner, Art Rupe, persuaded
him to bill himself as King Earl, but the typesetter
reversed the names. As Earl King he had a regional hit, "A
Mother's Love," and then, after he moved to Ace Records, a
national one with "Those Lonely, Lonely Nights," which sold
a reported 250,000 copies. His own recording of "Trick Bag"
was a Top 20 rhythm-and-blues hit in 1962.

Mr. King was signed to Motown Records in the early 1960's,
but Motown never released any of his recordings.

Back in New Orleans, he revived the career of Professor
Longhair, a revered New Orleans pianist, with "Big Chief" in
1964, and his songs were also recorded by other New Orleans
musicians, including Lee Dorsey, Fats Domino and the Dixie
Cups. Hendrix recorded "Let the Good Times Roll" for the
1968 album "Electric Ladyland," which provided significant
royalties through the years for Mr. King; Stevie Ray Vaughan
also recorded the song.

During the 1980's and 90's, Mr. King made albums for Black
Top Records, including a 1986 collaboration with the band
Roomful of Blues, "Glazed," which was named because he made
a Tastee Donuts shop his regular office and
hangout. "Glazed" was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Mr. King followed it with "Sexual Telepathy" in 1990, "Hard
River to Cross" in 1993 and "New Orleans Street Talkin' " in
1997. Although declining health limited his performing in
recent years, collections of his songs were released on
Westside, Fuel 2000 and Charly Records.