The Beat 1966

The!!!!Beat (sic) was a short-lived (26 episodes), syndicated show in 1966 that featured R&B, soul, and blues, mostly by Southern performers. Freddie King was a semi-regular on the program, and this nifty video (in color) is a compilation of 14 tunes that he sang and played on the show, live -- no lip-synching. King is in really good form as he runs down a lot of songs from his early and mid-'60s recordings, including "Hide Away" (two versions) and "Have You Ever Loved a Woman." About half instrumental and half vocal, a lot of this actually travels the edge between blues and R&B/soul; a horn section accompanies Freddie on most of the songs, and he even takes a swing at an instrumental version of James Brown's "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag." The sound is fairly good (especially considering the standards of the era), King's guitar tone is distinctively fuzzy and keening, and wildly frugging go-go dancers remind you that this was 1966. The backup band includes bassist Billy Cox (who would play with Jimi Hendrix in the Band of Gypsies), and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown briefly duels with King on lead guitars on one clip. As a bonus, the video also includes three lively songs from a 1973 Swedish concert. ~ Richie Unterberger|