Fillmore slim biography of albert

photo by erik lindahl

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON AUG. 30, 1990

By Steve Newton

The influence of the blues on British supergroups is well documented. The Stones, Zeppelin, Cream—they all lapped up the seminal works of people like Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, and Howlin’ Wolf.

Across the sea in Ireland, a young guitarist named Gary Moore also picked up on the feel and technique of the blues, and his biggest idol was Albert King.

Moore went on to play hard rock in bands like Thin Lizzy and G-Force, but recently he’s come full circle and released Still Got the Blues, an LP that features the 67-year-old King playing guitar on an old gem he’s noted for, “Oh Pretty Woman”. There’s also a song Moore wrote in homage to King, called “King of the Blues”.

But hold on there, bub. I thought that title already belonged to a guy called B.B.

“No comment on that,” laughs Albert, on the line from Poughkeepsie, New York. “I let people judge for themselves, you know.”

Local blues fans can do just that when Albert King visits the PNE Exhibition Bowl this Saturday (September 1), but yours truly tends to agree with Moore. And we’re not the only ones who feel this way. Albert King’s famed versions of tunes like “Oh Pretty Woman”, “Crosscut Saw”, “As the Years Go Passing By”, and “Born Under a Bad Sign” (all still in his current repertoire) had a tremendous effect on English musicians like John Mayall, Mick Taylor, and Eric Clapton—who even copied King’s singing guitar style note-for-note on tunes like “Strange Brew” and Cream’s cover of “Bad Sign”—as well as on the late, great Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Born Albert Nelson near Indianola, Mississippi on April 25, 1923, King’s early life involved hard farm work on various plantations and singing in country churches. Around 1931 his family—which included 13 kids—moved to Osceola, Arkansas, a hopping blues spot not far from Memphis and the Missouri state line.

There, King continued to pick cotton and started to develop as

1999 film

American Pimp is a 1999 documentary that examines the pimpsubculture in the United States. It was directed by the Hughes Brothers, the filmmakers behind Menace II Society and Dead Presidents.

The documentary consists of first person interviews of people involved in the pimping lifestyle ("the game"). The interviews are separated by short clips from 1970s blaxploitation films such as Willie Dynamite, The Mack, and Dolemite.

The first portion of the documentary focuses on pimps working illegally. The illegal pimps that are interviewed are from all over the United States, e.g., Charm from Hawaii, Fillmore Slim from San Francisco, and Payroll from Las Vegas. These pimps, and many others, discuss their theories on the history of prostitution. The pimps go on to talk about their philosophy on pimping, and how they live their daily lives.

The film also discusses the legal sector of prostitution. The film also interviewed Dennis Hof, the owner of the Bunny Ranch in Nevada. He feels that Nevada is much smarter than the other states because they have imposed the proper health and background checks on prostitution, instead of trying to suppress prostitution by making it illegal.

The majority of the documentary glorifies the pimping lifestyle. The pimps and prostitutes interviewed mainly discuss the perks of the lifestyle. They talk about the money they have made and the expensive suits and cars they were able to buy. However, near the end of the film, the interviews involve prostitutes that have died from the lifestyle as well as pimps who