Burglar

Burglar arrived in 1974 as Freddie King's first album for RSO, cut mostly at Chipping Norton Studios in rural England with producer Mike Vernon and a crew of British session players, with one Miami-cut track rounding out the set. King was by then an established veteran of the Texas blues scene whose early 1960s instrumentals had already shaped a generation of guitarists, and his move to a rock-oriented label reflected the blues-rock audience Eric Clapton and other admirers had helped build for him. The session brought King together informally with Clapton, whose own Texas-blues fandom had long championed King's playing, lending the record some of its loose, rock-leaning energy alongside straight blues and funk-inflected numbers. Songs ranged from barbed commentary on hard times to horn-driven shuffles, sourced from a mix of outside writers and band originals credited jointly to King and his backing musicians. Critics have long regarded the album as one of the stronger entries in King's 1970s run, prized for the interplay between his guitar and the tight UK backing band even though it produced no chart hit on the order of his early singles. It stands as a late-career high point from an artist who would record only a little more before his death two years later, and it remains a touchstone for collectors of his post-Shelter, RSO-era work.