THE RAY SHASHO SHOW
WELCOMES 'E D K I N G'
LEGENDARY GUITARIST & SONGWRITER FOR
L Y N Y R D S K Y N Y R D
“I am the luckiest guitar player
on Earth,” Ed King declares.
King caught lightning in a bottle
twice: First as a co-founder of the hit-making Strawberry Alarm Clock and
then as a member of
Southern rock giants Lynyrd Skynyrd.
As a teenager, King was a
founding member of Thee Sixpence, the high school group that transformed itself
into the Strawberry Alarm Clock. He and keyboardist Mark Weitz wrote
the music for the smash hit “Incense and Peppermints,” starting with a
memorable riff dreamed up by Weitz. King contributed the bridge to the
then-instrumental.
Weitz tells the story: “I
couldn’t figure out a bridge for the song. Ed King lived pretty close. I called
him and told him I need a bridge for this new song idea I’m working on. He
drove over, and about 45 minutes later we had it.”
The single’s songwriting credits
notoriously failed to note their role in creating the song, but “Incense and
Peppermints” hit No. 1 in 1967 and remains a rock-pop radio staple to this day.
Credit for “Incense and Peppermints” went
to a songwriting team that worked with the publisher. He and Weitz collaborated
again on “Tomorrow,” which charted at No. 23 in early 1968. Once again, King
came to the rescue with a bridge.
King continued to write songs
with Weitz as well as guitarist Lee Freeman. Strawberry Alarm Clock songs that
King co-wrote include “Sit with the Guru,” “The Black Butter Trilogy,” “Pretty
Song from Psych-Out,” and “Soft Skies No Lies.”
King says, “The Strawberry Alarm
Clock tours with the Beach Boys in ’67 and ’68 outshine any other period in my
life. Carl Wilson coming over to my room to show me the chords to ‘God Only
Knows’ far outweighs any Skynyrd experience.”
King stayed with the band until
1972, when he took a flyer and joined a Southern rock band that had opened for
the Strawberry Alarm Clock on a regional tour. That band was Lynyrd Skynyrd,
which was heading into the studio to record its first album with producer Al
Kooper.
King started out playing bass and
then switched to guitar.
He formed a songwriting
partnership with singer Ronnie Van Zant, which produced “Poison Whisky” on that
album and then later “Sweet Home Alabama,” one of the band’s two signature
songs.
Other Skynyrd songs co-written by
King include “Saturday Night Special,” “Swamp Music,” “I Need You,” “Workin’
for MCA” and “Railroad Song.”
King’s guitar playing and
songwriting skills were an essential element to the band's first three albums: Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd, Second
Helping, and Nuthin' Fancy.
King decided to leave the band in
1975 during the "Torture Tour." He was replaced in 1976 by Steve Gaines,
who was killed in a plane crash along with lead singer Ronnie Van
Zant, backup singer Cassie Gaines,
assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary, and co-pilot William
Gray. Other band members (Collins, Rossington, Wilkeson, Powell, Pyle, and
Hawkins), tour manager Ron Eckerman, and several road crew suffered serious
injuries.
Ironically Gaines and King share
the same birthdate.
In 1987, King joined the Lynyrd
Skynyrd survivor’s reunion tour and played with the band until his retirement
from music in1996.
In 2006, King entered the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Visit Ed King on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ed.king.52687
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