For Your Weekend Listening Pleasure: The Texas Cannonball Takes Over The Zoo in '75

When we took a long, deep hit of Foghat at January Sound Studio back in April, a Friend of Unfair Park was kind to remind: Freddie King also recorded a set there in '75 for KZEW. March 31, 1975, to be exact -- about a year and a half before...

By Robert Wilonsky

July 30, 2010

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When we took a long, deep hit of Foghat at January Sound Studio back in April, a Friend of Unfair Park was kind to remind: Freddie King also recorded a set there in '75 for KZEW. March 31, 1975, to be exact -- about a year and a half before the Gilmer-born guitar-slinger died of heart failure at a mere 42 at Presbyterian Hospital and was buried at Sparkman/Hillcrest.

This here must-have, featuring the man who bridged the gap from T-Bone Walker to Stevie Ray Vaughan, is actually a rebroadcast of the March '75 in-studio. As evidenced by Ken Rundel's solemn intro, it was played again shortly after King's death as a tribute to the station's "special friend," who'd moved back to Dallas in '63 and never left. It serves as the perfect primer for the newcomer and glorious reminder for the old hand, this sweat-drenched best-of delivered with a wide grin and gorgeous growl as King rips, dips and rolls through the likes of "Big Legged Woman," "Have You Ever Loved a Woman," "Woman Across the River" and, but of course, "Hideaway" while backed by a band that included Freddie's brother, Benny Turner, on bass.

The perfect flashback for a sweltering weekend -- blessedly cool and decidedly hot to the touch all at once. I'm not sure if we shouldn't call off this rock-and-roll-and work-week adios after this evening's offering -- surely, it's all downhill after this.

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