Paul King

Paul King entered the British club circuit toward the end of the 1960s and quickly garnered a series of notable distinctions, some of which bordered on the questionable. For instance, he became the initial individual to conceive, construct, and play an 18-string guitar across the London pub venues circa 1968, only to also become the first person whose remarkable creation self-destructed unexpectedly during a live performance before a full house. Following the Beatles, he earned the distinction of having a track prohibited due to perceived religious offense, as "Plastic Jesus" joined "The Ballad of John and Yoko" on the list of banned recordings; additionally, he pioneered the use of the pseudonym Duran Duran—more accurately rendered as D'Jurann Jurann—six years prior to the Birmingham group adopting the title from Jane Fonda's Barbarella for their own successful recordings.

Yet his commercial achievements surpassed even those of the later Birmingham act, because his role as a founding member of British jug band Mungo Jerry placed him at the helm of successive major successes such as the global and still-selling blockbuster "In the Summertime," "Baby Jump," and "Lady Rose." During that same era King completed his debut solo album, the acclaimed Been in the Pen Too Long, which drew mainly on material written for Mungo Jerry but turned down by vocalist Ray Dorset for failing to match the group's established persona. Although now viewed as a minor classic, Been in the Pen Too Long achieved only modest sales at the time of issue. Heartened by the favorable notices, King and pianist Colin Earl left Mungo Jerry within months and joined bassist Russell John Brown plus Dave Lambert and Joe Rush—both veterans of the Pen sessions—to create the King Earl Boogie Band.

Strawbs mainstay Dave Cousins took on production duties, and Trouble at Mill, its title drawn from a contemporary Monty Python sketch, appeared in late 1972 together with the divisive Christmas novelty single, the country-styled "Plastic Jesus." Though the single looked poised for immediate success, public protest and resulting bans halted its progress and triggered the group's swift dissolution. Even while a follow-up, "Goin' to German," was being prepared, Lambert departed to join Cousins in the Strawbs, and King declared his retirement from music altogether.

He honored that pledge for a full year by raising dogs, yet early in 1974 he planned a return under the D'Jurann Jurann name with a single saluting the then-popular habit of shedding clothes to go "Streakin'" locally. Ray Stevens pursued the identical notion at the same moment; while Stevens's version reached the top of charts worldwide, King's release vanished without impact.

Roughly twelve months afterward King reappeared as the memorably titled Levi Grumble and spoke of cutting a concept album centered on the signs of the Zodiac, but he halted recording before the halfway point. Five more years passed before he surfaced again, this time fronting the Jigilo Jug Band for the 12" single "Live at the Limping Whippet." Another single, "Hey Rosalyn," emerged on Red Bus in 1983 under the credit P. King; the following year he teamed once more with Pen alumnus Steve Bloomfield in Russian Roulette, which issued only the one single "Come Into My Room" before disbanding. Rhode Island Red, another short-lived project, entered the studio alongside Denny Laine yet produced no releases. Greater longevity attended his reunion with Colin Earl in Skeleton Krew, completed by Colin Pattenden—formerly of Manfred Mann's Earth Band—and ex-Nashville Teen Ian Campbell. The group proved a steady attraction on the London club circuit and issued the live album The Complete Works before folding around the time King began work on a fresh solo set, Houdini's Moon.

Composed of thirteen new compositions plus six previously unreleased archive tracks, Houdini's Moon reached stores in 1995 amid modest attention but respectable sales. The next year King and Earl revived the King Earl Boogie Band for a new album, fittingly titled The Mill Is Gone.

King stepped away from performing once more in 1996, although the King Earl Boogie Band remains active today.