Albert Collins, 'Cold, Cold Feeling' 1981
Info: Born
on the 1st of October, 1932 in Leona, Texas, at the age of seven
Collins’ family moved to Houston, and it was from this base that his career
would begin to take off. His earlier exposure to music came via the piano, but
as he reached his late teens the guitar would become his focal point, and at this
young age he was lucky enough to regualrly see his heroes, John Lee Hooker,
T-Bone Walker and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown perform in the same clubs where he
would cut his cloth in the fifties. Much of his early success came from the
release of several 45’s, including the million-selling hit single ‘Frosty’ in
1962, however, Collins’ earnings were not enough to keep him from having to
work a regular job supplemented by touring at weekends. He would eventually
have the opportunity to focus solely on his music in the late-60’s, a time
during which a revival of interest in blues guitar was underway, when he was
brought to California by Canned Heat’s Bob Hite, who arranged for Collins to
open for The Allman Brothers at The Filmore West in San Francisco.
Strangely,
for a career that began in the late 1950’s, it wasn’t until 1977 that Collins
finally made it big when he signed to Chicago label Alligator Records, Ice Pickin’ being his first release.
This was also a time when Collins began to embark on European tours,
particularly to Holland and Sweden and his reputation was reaching stellar
status. His best years were still ahead of him and he released another 6 albums
on the Alligator label, sadly, at the peak of his powers, a long battle with
liver cancer got the better of him and he passed away in November, 1993, at
only 61 years of age.
My initial
introduction to Albert Collins was the 1965 compilation The Cool Sound of Albert Collins which is great, but when I dug
deeper I came across Ice Pickin’ and
it has become the one album that survives every cull when I’m updating the
tracks on my iPod, I was even lucky enough to get a first press on vinyl about
6 months ago for a very reasonable price. Constantly referenced by Jimi Hendrix
as a major influence and quoted as being Albert King’s favourite guitarist of
all time, it’s easy to see why he was nicknamed The Master of the Telecaster on
this album and why he was so respected by peers. The best examples of his
electric blues playing can be found on track 4, ‘Cold, Cold Feeling’ and the
following track, ‘Too Tired’ but especially his tale of poverty and desperation
on ‘When The Welfare Turns Its Back On You’. One of Collins’ greatest
attributes is his story-telling and humour, while he may be singing the blues,
it’s always with a smile on his face and a large dollop of wit, perhaps never
better shown than on ‘Master Charge’ where Collins bemoans that his wife is
spending his money wreckelessly on clothes and the high life, leaving him
constantly broke.
Finally, I
love the ‘ice’ theme with this album, especially on the cover where Collins’
Telecaster is plugged into a massive block of ice, incidently, on his live
shows he would have a 100 foot long guitar cable and would regularly walk
through the crowd and even onto the street outside the venue and continue
playing to the bemusement of both his audience and passers-by. When I first
started reviewing albums from the 1950’s onwards, it was really to highlight
albums that may be a little bit less well-known but are really great pieces of
music. Out of the 29 albums I’ve reviewed in the series, Ice Pickin’ is easily the most over-looked, with almost no
reference to it or the man himself in any of the major music books I would
normally consult, this is despite Collins being voted in at #56 in Rolling Stone Magazine’s ‘100 Greatest
Guitarists of All Time’, ahead of the likes of Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green,
Slash, and Carl Perkins. So I echo what Hendrix said of Collins in 1968;
“There’s one cat I’m still trying to get across to people. He is really good,
one of the best guitarists in the world.” Amen Jimi.
Track
Listing:
1. Honey, Hush
2. When The Welfare Turns Its Back On
You
3. Ice Pick
4. Cold, Cold Feeling
5. Too Tired
6. Master Charge
7. Conversation With Collins
8. Avalanche
