Mix CD #28 - Shot Of Love: The Best Of King's X

It's been a while since I did a themed post, I've been listening to this fine band a lot lately and I figured they'd be splendid candidates for one of these Best Of's's. Unfortunately, I didn't count on how hard it would be but more about that later. Firstly, a little bit about the band for those who might not know of them.

They initially formed in Missouri (soon after they relocated to Texas) in the early eighties, though they didn't release their first album, as King's X, until 1988. At the very core of it, they're a classic Hard Rock trio but with strong ties to Prog Rock. There's also hints of Soul and Funk, particularly in Doug's vocals. Their musicianship is of a flawless standard; Ty is an incredible guitarist and Doug is a wildly influential bassist with a unique playing style. All three of the band contribute lead vocals, to a greater or lesser extent, but the real magic of the band comes when they sing together. Their voices mesh together perfectly and they create lush harmonies that are often compared to The Beatles, though that's a lazy comparison.

At the time of their commercial peak, they stood far apart from their contemporaries, fitting in with neither the Hair Metal or Thrash Metal scenes, on later albums they took slight influences from both Grunge and Nu-Metal during those era's, though never deviating much away from the overall King's X sound.
In their earlier career, they were considered part of the Christian music scene, mostly due to a lot of their lyrics being along a spiritual theme. The band themselves distanced themselves from it somewhat, the feeling eventually becoming mutual when Doug came out as gay in 1998. There's an interesting interview with him about it HERE. 

(l-r) Ty Tabor, Jerry Gaskill and Doug 'Dug' Pinnick

They've always been a prolific band and have absolute masses of brilliant songs. Whittling them down for a single CD length mix was so hard, I got stuck at around 46 songs, none of which I wanted to get rid of. After a load of swearing and head scratching, I decided I was going to have to be brutal and set to. As a result, there are a lot of songs that should be on this mix that aren't. I'd already used two of my favourite songs, Won't Turn Back and Fine Art Of Friendship on previous mixes which helped, but I also didn't include some of their better known songs like Summerland, King, Pleiades, Black Flag, Fade, Groove Machine, Junior's Gone Wild, Dogman, Pillow, Fool You, A Box, Alone, Pray, etc. I'm sure other big fans of the band will disagree completely with my eventual decisions. 

Most albums only have one or two songs included and there's nothing at all from 2000's Please Come Home...Mr Bulbous or any of the new tracks recorded for The Offical Best Of King's X. I also wanted to include something Doug recorded for various tribute albums, The Unforgiven maybe, but no chance. Perhaps I'll do another blog focusing on his many side projects one day. One day. 

If I'm being honest, this is more of a Beginner's Guide To King's X than a Best Of and I really hope that those of you unfamiliar with the band will track down some of the albums because you're missing out!

Cheers,
Luke
x

Tracklisting
Inside Outside
Shot Of Love
Black Like Sunday
It's Love
Shoes
Don't Believe It (It's Easier Said Than Done)
Jenna
Fly
We Are Finding Wo We Are
Ono
Lost In Germany
No Lie
Goldilox
Over My Head
Finished
(Thinking And Wondering) What I'm Gonna Do
Complain
Bebop
Go Tell Somebody
We Were Born To Be Loved

You can download the mix HERE