Rating: ** (2 stars)
Title: King of the World
Company: Philips
Catalog: PHS 600-331
Year: 1970
Grade (cover/record): VG/VG
Comments: minor ring, edge and corner wear
Available: 1
Price: $25.00
Living in the small town of Groolo, the mid-'60s found singer Harry "Cuby" Muskee and guitarist Eelco Gelling starting their own band. Known as Cuby & the Blizzards, by 1965 the line up consisted of Muskee, Gelling , drummer Dick Beekman, guitarist Hans Kinda and bassist Willy Middel.
Produced by Tony Vos (with Robin McBride credited with post-production work for the LP's American release), 1970's "King of the World" wasn't a major change in direction. Sticking with a hardcore blues attack, for us part of the fun has always been laughing a Muskee's horribly slurred and accented English (imagine Joe Cocker with a mouth full of cotton after a month long bender). Doubt the comparison? Try understanding a fragment of the lyrics to the title track ... Okay, okay it wasn't all that bad. Cuby could actually sing, though the band's pedestrian arrangements (complete with extensive BS&T-styled horns), added little to tracks such as "The Sky Is Crying" and the original "Big Blue-Eyed Girl". Maybe due to the fact so much of their blues catalog sounded similar (shades of John Mayall), the occasional all out rockers such as "Another Day, Another Blues" provided the set's highlights. (Confronted with miniscule sales, the album proved the band's final American release.)
"King of the World" track listing:
1.) King of the World (John Lee Hooker) - 4:42
2.) Feel So Bad (S. Hopkins) - 4:00
3.) The Big Bell (Eddie Boyd) - 3:08
4.) Big Blue-Eyed Girl (Harry Muskee - Eelco Gelling ) - 3:16
5.) Goin' Home (Harry Muskee - Eelco Gelling ) - 2:28
6.) The Sky Is Crying (E. James - M.C. Robinson - C.L. Lewis) - 5:06
7.) Another Day, Another Blues (Herman Brood - Harry Muskee) - 2:10
8.) Trippin' Thru a Midnight Blues (Herman Brood) - 2:30
9.) No Shoes (John Lee Hooker) - 4:32
1978 saw a major shakeup in the band; Gelling quitting to join Golden Earring, while namesake Muskee went solo, forming the Harry Muskee Band (see separate entries). In spite of their departures, the band continued to tour though the late-'80s.
Following an erratic and troubled solo career (see separate entry), Brood committed suicide (jumping from the roof of a Dutch hotel), in July, 2001.