This is almost too good to be true. It certainly ranks with the most important film/video discoveries in blues history. In 1966 a Black music variety show called The !!!! Beat ran for 26 segments and was shown in about a dozen major cities in the U.S. where there was a large blues and soul market. It was intelligently and tastefully done with live performances (no lip-synching) from some of the best Black artists on the scene at that time. Little Milton, Etta James, Joe Tex, Don Covay, Al “TNT” Braggs, Bobby Bland, Jr. Parker, Ike and Tina Turner and Freddie King were just some of the featured performers and Freddie became a regular guest, making several appearances at the behest of the show’s gregarious host “Hoss” Allen from WBAC, one of the most popular deejays on the continent. Allen was usually the only White face to be seen on the show, so it really was a revolutionary piece of work.

A TV show, put together by Blacks for a Black audience (every hip White kid on the continent was watching it too) in 1966 and it seemed even too good to be true back then. It blew the hell out of American Bandstand, Hullabaloo, and Shindig, that’s for sure. And to top things off the live band on the show was led by none other than Gatemouth Brown and he was at his peak, providing ass-kicking support for all the guests and really stretching out on their own whenever they got the chance. Gatemouth really looks like he’s enjoying himself on this video, a collection of winning performances by Freddie King and what’s extra special is that most of the 14 tunes are of the obscure (somewhat) variety such as Funny Bone, Sitting On A Boat Dock, She Put The Whammy On Me and San-Ho-Zay. Watching and listening to two of the greatest Texas bluesmen of all time work out together is such a rare treat that you’ll find yourself watching this over and over again. Crank it up full volume and do the Boogaloo in your living room. Hoss Allen’s a real treat as a host too (whatever happened to him?) and the 60 minute tape closes off with 3 tunes recorded in 1973 at a concert in Sweden. This tape is absolutely mandatory viewing and a treat for the eyes and ears. 6 bottles for the video of the year.

Vestapol 13014 reviewed in Blue Suede News

Widely revered blues guitarist Freddie King was also an extremely soulful singer, as evidenced both by his records and this video from Vestapol (distributed through Rounder). The television program The!!!!Beat was short lived, with only 26 episodes filmed in 1966, several of which featured Freddie King. While King’s guitar instrumentals are better served by the recordings than these videos, they do serve as a document of an interesting era and of a show which I’m sure a lot more people would like to have seen than did. But the visual presentation of King as a singer greatly enhances appreciation of those songs (about every other one on this video is a vocal number) on which he does sing. Like Buddy Guy, the reputation of Freddie King's guitar playing has overshadowed his singing not necessarily with total justification (which is a comment about both of there vocal abilities, not a put-down of their playing). I have to say that I like King’s singing at least as much as that other King, B.B.!

Anyhow, on this video Freddie performs several of his more famous tunes like Hideaway, San-Ho-Zay, Funny Bone, and Shuffle, my favorite vocal number Have You Ever Loved A Woman (which appears twice, also performed on the Swedish concert from 1973 of which 3 tunes are included), and others like She Put The Whammy On Me and Sitting On The Boatdock, which very likely inspired Sitting On the Dock Of The Bay a few years later. A priceless document that you can buy for about $25. Vestapol also has another Freddie King In Concert video available.

Speaking of priceless documents that you could also buy, the Legends Of Country Blues Guitar series features more filmed performances of legendary country blues singer/guitarists. Since most of these guys are dead now, for many of you this is your only way of checking them out visually, other than similar documentaries that are available from Yazoo and perhaps other companies. Volume One features Mance Lipscomb, Mississippi John Hurt, Henry Townsend (still alive!), Son House, Rev. Gary Davis, Big Bill Broonzy (!!!), Robert Pete Williams, Brownie McGhee, and Josh White. Volume Two has Bukka White, Sam Chatmon, Big Joe Williams, Houston Stackhouse, Son House, Rev.Gary Davis, and Leadbelly. For those of you who did get a chance to see these guys perform, here’s a chance to reconnect with that thrill. All three of these Vestapol videos come with a nice little booklet with biographical info on the performers.