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King Fred

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Remastered and reissued on compact disc.

Release Info
Cover Art
Band Memoirs

Release Info

Tracks – Song Title (Rock Opera Character)

Act One

Coming Home (Fred XII)
The People's King (Fred XIII)
Old Soldier's Song (Del Rogarto)
My One and Only (Bill II)
Coronation (Town Crier)
Apple Butter (Sir Weingarten)
Royal Courtship (Fred XIII)
What Could I Do? (Fred XII)
Rally Song (Fred XIII)
Silent Butter Feet (Instrumental)
Vanessa (Thomas the Rogue)

Act Two

Here's to Us (Admiral Woolworth)
Working for the Bastard (Eric the Imbecile)
When the Saints Go Marching In (Franklin)
Stanwig (Fred XIII)
You'll Never See (Sir Weingarten)
Young Soldier's Song (Daryl)
The Battle of Audrey Hill (Jobe the Barber)
King Fred Reprise (Townspeople)
Pot Bellied Blues (Fred XIII)
The King's Lullaby (Fred XIII)
Onward (Fred XIII)

Kar: vocals, synthesizer, keyboard, and guitar
Ran: bass, guitar, keyboard, and vocals
Ed: Guitar” Rufus – guitar, bass, keyboard, and vocals
Spike: drums and vocals

Produced, written, and performed by The Blanks. Recorded at Prince Studios, New York, NY, Prospect Studios, Brooklyn, NY, and Woodhead Studios, Houston, TX. Mixed at Woodhead Studios, Houston, TX. Mastered for CD and digital distribution in 2006 by Kar at Lopwood Studios, Cypress, TX. Cover art by Ran. Reissue package design by Kar.
©1995 The Blanks.

1995: First issue, cassette, Blanks Enterprises.
2006: Remastered, compact disc, Blanks Enterprises.

Cover Art

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King Fred CD

King Fred CD liner notes

King Fred CD label

Band Memoirs

Here is The Blanks King Fred album. The first song “Coming Home” is King Fred the Twelfth talking about his kids but focusing on the fact that he is about to turn the crown over to Fred the Thirteenth. The next song “The People's King” is Fred the Thirteenth talking about what a great king he will make. “Old Soldier's Song” is Del Rogarto, the king's best general, talking about how he serves the king and keeps the soldiers motivated through the power of song. “My One and Only” is Bill the Second courting a young woman in the kingdom and warning her not to be frightened by the many ladies he has bedded in the past. The “Coronation” song announces Fred the Thirteenth as king, declares that the number thirteen will now be considered a lucky number, and insinuates that a certain Sir Weingarten is disturbing the peace. Sir Weingarten in the song “Apple Butter” describes his plot to kidnap Fred's sister in an attempt to usurp the throne. He gains the assistance of crooks and roughnecks in this plan by offering them all the apple butter sandwiches they can eat. “Royal Courtship” is the song in which Fred the Thirteenth declares his undying love to Jennifer of Eckerd. The outcome is their wedding. “What Could I Do?” is the song in which Fred the Twelfth tells his sons about Sir Weingarten kidnapping their sister and they declare war against him. “Rally Song (Oh, Yeah!)” is King Fred the Thirteenth's army getting psyched up to fight Sir Weingarten's forces. Toward the end of the first act, the instrumental “Silent Butter Feet” captures the essence of Audrey Hill, which is the location where the battles will take place.

The first song of second act “Here's to Us” seems out of place, since at this point in the story the war has already started and Fred is at Audrey Hill fighting Sir Weingarten. It is however a great song. “Working for the Bastard” is a song sung from the position of a psychotic supporter of Weingarten who goes berserk and starts running around the town square of Fred's Kingdom killing civilians with a sword he has found. He is quickly killed by the crowd who brandishes hoes, hammers and other common tools. “When the Saints Go Marching In” has no place on this album. We just wanted to play it, but we did it under the auspices that it is the battle song that is sung by Fred's Army. “Stanwig” is King Fred the Thirteenth talking to his sword, which he has named “Stanwig.” “You'll Never See” is Sir Weingarten talking to King Fred the Thirteenth. Fred has come to Weingarten to offer a truce, but Weingarten has men hold Fred and he stabs Fred in the eye and forces him to pay tribute to him in the form of a necklace. Fred returns to his men blind in one eye, humiliated an8d resolved to defeat Weingarten. This is my favorite song on the album. “Young Soldier's Song” is a depiction of one of Fred's soldiers who is fighting on the front line. His attitude is that the cause he is fighting for doesn't matter to him. He would rather be home than fighting. All he cares about is surviving. At the end of the song he screams with rage as he fights. “The Battle of Audrey Hill” – in this song the triumph of King Fred the Thirteenth over Sir Weingarten is described. The noise that follows this song is a recording of Spike saying King Fred in the original song (recorded in 1983). His voice has been put into a keyboard sampler and is being played at several different tonal levels. “Pot Bellied Blues” is King Fred the Thirteenth talking about the conflicts that accompany the life of a man who is a husband, father and king of a nation. “The King's Lullaby” is King Fred the Thirteenth, teaching his son about how to handle being a child prince. Spike does the vocals on this one. It's the weirdest song on the album. “Onward” is a recapitulation of the whole story and a hope that King Fred and his adventures will be remembered.

– Ed

It's not possible for me to give this album enough praise. I think a larger than normal slice of credit goes out to Kar for the way this project came together.

I'm not exactly sure how it started. I think that we had recently listened to the original “King Fred” and were intrigued by the world the song created. Also interesting to us was the mention of the character Del Rogarto. I think I had written the lyrics to the original song and couldn't remember what I was thinking when I sang Del Rogarto or if that was even supposed to be a person at all. With no assigned personality to the original Del Rogarto we started making up a kind of character about him being a King's advisor of some sort. I think the stories got pretty intricate, and I suggested maybe an album around the world of King Fred XIII. Everyone seemed eager, and thus the project was born.

We all gathered in New York to get to work on the album. One of the key innovations at this time, which accounted for part of our new sound on songs like “Coming Home,” was Ran's experimentation on guitar as opposed to bass. Some songs have two guitars and no bass on them, and breathed some fresh new life into our sound.

The story was great, and we all chipped in ideas, but Kar took those ideas as well his own, and crafted a great epic, full of all the things that epics should have. There's love, battles, flawed heroes, villains, regrets, fears, doubts, hopes, everything, and all set to some of our best music. Kar was the master. I'm the one in our group that reads about fantasy kingdoms, historical fiction set in times of kings and advisors, but Kar comes along and molds all of that in a one hour album far better than I could in a novel. I've even asked him about how he captured the moods of the “Coronation” and songs like that, and he's told me that he wasn't even sure himself. That's just pure talent.

Ed, does some great lead vocals on “Old Soldier,” and he as well captures the theme and mood of a slightly crazy old advisor well.

The only things I would improve on the album would be the song that I sing, the “King's Lullaby,” and also to just have more of it. The song is King Fred XIII with his own child, now singing him to sleep. I think the idea is that King Fred XIII, like many parents wants his child to have a better life than he's had. I didn't know what kind of music I wanted at the time, and I wasn't able to communicate that well with Ran and Mr. Ed. Meanwhile with each new attempt to communicate it, time and money was going by, so everyone was getting impatient. I think the song is by far the weak point on the album.

I wouldn't mind putting up a live version sometime of this Rock Opera, and adding some more tunes to the story. Who knows if that will ever come to pass or not?

– Spike

This was a landmark album for The Blanks. It was hard to believe we could ever come close the triumphs of Sweet Love and Nature's Timeless Rhythm, but King Fred does. It resurrects an old Blanks' theme from Eggheads about a magical king. This rock opera takes us through the global and inner-family struggles of King Fred. A roller coaster ride of emotions – optimism, anger, fear, love, tenderness, jealousy, victory, and more.

In addition to great story telling, this album shows a creative and technical leap for the band. The entire band rose to the occasion. I feel I did my best vocal work up to this point (and maybe still today) and some of my best lyric writing, too.

– Kar