Live Wire–Blues Power captured a crucial moment in blues history when the music was captivating a new counterculture audience under the spell of a master bluesman who could not only bend the guitar strings beyond belief but could also impart the meaning of the blues through his stories and songs. “Blues Power” joined “flower power” as an anthem of the era, and no one was more a guru to the new movement than Albert King. San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium was the natural temple for King to spread the message to an adoring throng. Live Wire–Blues Power was recorded June 26-27, 1968, and became such an iconic album that Stax later released two more live albums from those two nights at the Fillmore. King worked his magic on and on, squeezing the nuances out of every note; one track goes on for ten minutes and another for eight-and-a-half, one of the first examples of such extended soloing ever issued on a blues record.
Released as Stax STS 2003 (LP) in October 1968.
— Jim O’Neal
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