"Old King Gold" 1975 Volume 1

From 1968 to 1971, King was owned by Starday, or more accurately, both Starday and King were owned by Lin Broadcasting of Nashville. In 1971, Lin sold James Brown's contract to Polydor, then sold the labels to Tennessee Recording and Publishing, a company formed by Lieber and Stoller. Although Starday had made minimal changes in the label design, the new company completely redesigned the label to a yellow color with a sitting king on the right side. Surprisingly, King then went semi-comatose on releases, putting out only a few albums in the next four years, before it sold the company to GML, Inc. of Nashville, better known as Gusto. This series used the yellow Starday / King label.

I first saw the ten volumes of this series in bargain bins when I was in college in the late seventies. I didn't yet know about the legendary King Records or how much I loved rhythm and blues of the late forties through the mid-sixties. Once I did, the albums had become sparse. I missed out on the four "Battle of the Blues" records for the same reason. Gusto Records recently issued CD versions of volumes two through ten of the former and volumes one, three, and four of the latter. Like their vinyl predecessors, they're in bargain bins and cost very little.
If the CD version of this LP ever appears, and it's like its sisters, the liner notes will be informative and the sound good, but neither will be excellent. The songs are American music at its most hard rocking and down-and-dirty.
I'm annoyed when people do an Amazon review and give a rating to a book they haven't read or music they haven't heard. My excuse for doing just that is my having heard all but one of this CD's songs and knowing how much I like the other volumes -- well, that and the hope that someone at Gusto reads this and takes the hint. I'll keep an eye open. - By timoton