Freddie King and Eric Clapton - who needs duelling banjos?

How does one make the transition from being a die hard rock fan to searching for rare, scratchy old folk blues tracks on iTunes? For me it was the penetrating solos of Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton - music that could touch your soul.

As a 20 year old guitar wannabe, the only blues artists I knew about were the Kings (BB, Albert and Freddie). These were the electric bluesmen, who let their guitars do a lot of the talking. It took a lot of searching to find good blues records in New Zealand in the early 80's. Freddie King's "Stayin' Home with the Blues" was one of the first blues albums I ever bought, and it still has a special place in my heart.

It introduced me to "Sweet Home Chicago", a song which seems to have been mandatory for every blues man to try at some point. Freddie's version remains my favourite, with the possible exception of the Robert Johnson original. King had a powerful voice, and his vocals, along with his elegant guitar soloing made songs like "Woman Across the River", "T'aint Nobody's Business If I Do" and "Sugar Sweet" classics that stayed in my head for years.

But the song that really made an impression was "Further on up the Road". Apart from the lyrics (further on up the road, someone's gonna hurt you like you hurt me), which give me some consolation every time something goes wrong in my life, there is the guitar work. The climax of the song is a guitar duel between Freddie and Eric Clapton, which climaxes with Eric playing one of the best solos of all time.

I lost the album somewhere along the way, but was thrilled when I found it last night on iTunes. I guess as you get older and start raising a family, things like record collections disappear into the garage, never to see the light of day again. There was a Clapton quote on the cover, which makes a poignant eulogy for Freddie (apologies if this isn't entirely accurate, I'm quoting from memory here):

"... he taught me just about everything I needed to know, when and when not to make a stand, when and when not to show your hand, and most important of all: how to make love to a guitar"