Rant #2,209: Incense and Alabama

Ed King has died at age 68.

And no, I don't expect most of you to know who Ed King was, and while he was a figure in popular music, no, he did not have the impact of Aretha Franklin, who we lost last week.

But Ed King made his mark on popular music in his own way, as a member of two classic rock bands, and he had a major hand in the success of both of these groups.

And you hear his songs on the radio just about every day, in particular if you listen to any type of classic rock radio.

King was one of the founding members of the West Coast psychedelic rock band the Strawberry Alarm Clock. Although they were together for a number of years and posted several hit singles and LPs on the Billboard charts, the band is etched in our memories with one of the most recognized songs of the late 1960s.

"Incense and Peppermints" was the tune, which hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 in mid-1967 and is one of the most remembered tunes of the psychedelic era.

Although the song is credited to be written by John S. Carter and Tim Gilbert, it has been acknowledged that it was inspired by an instrumental idea from Strawberry Alarm Clock members Mark Weitz and King. King was the guitarist and bassist for the band.

The Strawberry Alarm Clock placed a couple of other singles on the Hot 100, including "Barefoot in Baltimore" and "Tomorrow," but the band never could achieve the success that "Incense and Peppermints had had, and by the early 1970s, the band had broken up.

His next musical excursion led him to become a member of southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Early versions of Lynyrd Skynyrd had been the opening act for the Strawberry Alarm Clock when the band toured in the late 1960s, but King did not join the band until 1972.

His joining that band in 1972 was a turning point for Lynyrd Skynyrd, where they soon afterward reached national popularity with "Sweet Home Alabama," probably southern rock's most popular tune, which was penned by King and two others, Ronnie Van Zandt and Gary Rossington.

The song--which reached No. 8 on the charts in 1974--was basically an answer to two Neil Young songs that some felt ripped into the southern lifestyle, "Southern Man" and "Alabama," and Young is even name-checked in "Sweet Home Alabama."

In that classic song, King can be heard counting "1-2-3," and then the song goes into its classic guitar riff.

King stayed with the band for three years, and left prior to the tragic plane crash that killed several members of the band.

He returned for a second go around in 1987, and left again in 1996. He and the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.

King's last years were years where he battled numerous illnesses. He experienced congestive heart failure, underwent a heart transplant, and finally succumbed to cancer on Wednesday of this week.

Although a Californian by birth, King is looked at as the figure that helped bring Lynyrd Skynyrd to rock respectability. He was the outsider of that group due to his birthplace, but due to his success with the Strawberry Alarm Clock, people looked at Skynyrd as a more professional band with him as a member, and pretty much the rest is history.

Although not well known to the public, King was very respected within the music industry. He did something that few popular musicians can claim to have done: he played in two classic rock bands, pretty much in the shadows, but could two songs be so diametrically different than "Incense and Peppermints" and "Sweet Home Alabama?"

But the glue that held those songs together was Ed King.

He will be missed.

Have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.