Here's just under one hour of a Swedish concert from 1980 in which Albert King sings six numbers and gives two interviews.
Songs are Born Under a Bad Sign, The Sky is Crying, The Very Thought of You, Cadillac Assembly Line, Cold Women with Warm Hearts and As The Years Go By.
That's pretty short shrift, but this is still the only video evidence we have here in Region 4 of Albert King, a hugely influential singer and guitarist. His trademark guitar, a Gibson Flying V, influenced musicians such as Eric Clapton, Taj Mahal and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and is heard here to fine effect.
He is supported by a reasonably assured backing group which calls itself Nirvana - but when they venture into their only instrumental number, Gershwin's Summertime, it's clear that they desperately need the strength of Albert King at the helm.
This DVD is from a series called 'Blues Legends', but that's a bit of a misnomer when applied to Albert King. He was lots of things, but certainly not a blues purist. Here's evidence of his blues-tinged soul, especially on the standout number Born Under a Bad Sign. He's even able to switch to some very soulful crooning, in a great reading of the classic The Very Thought of You.
Take away the instrumental number and the interviews, and there's only about 40 minutes here of actual performance by Albert King. But what we get is strong and hot, and his guitar is really soaring - it's as if we're listening to Clapton with supercharged heart and soul.
Because this is derived from television material now almost a quarter of a century old, there are imperfections and flaws. But, for the most part, the full-screen image is fine enough for enjoyable viewing. There isn't much subtlety shown in shadow detail; but the very bright lighting does result in strong colours and the picture, despite its occasional flaws, is surprisingly clear.
The Linear PCM soundtrack has fared better over the years than the image. Even though this does sound like a mono track spread across two channels, it's gutsy and rich, with a lot of power.
There are no extras of any kind.
