No sadness from me at all. What a life! A rags to riches story; a central figure in the history of the blues, and the blues guitar and blues singing; a major American and world musician in the 20th century. How many people manage to enjoy such sustained, ever-expanding popularity and achievement for nine decades? He squeezed out every last drop of what he was put here with.
I just hope we won't get a lot of foolishness about "The end of an era" and "the last of a dying breed."
BB King was an innovator and modernizer, above all. He was determined to create a new sound, not recycle an old sound. He says that repeatedly in his autobiography, BLUES ALL AROUND ME. He loved the music of Robert Johnson and was related to Bukka White--both great Mississippi musicians--but he didn't want to sound like them. He didn't want to fingerpick or strum a guitar behind his voice. He wanted to be a lead player, calling and responding to his voice with a second guitar-voice. He fused a gospel approach to singing with what he found in the blues; he saw no necessary divide between God's music and the blues.
Although he came from Mississippi, he vigorously resisted blues scholars who tried to place him within a Mississippi blues tradition. He insisted that T. Bone Walker, from Texas, and Django Reinhardt, from the French gypsy-jazz tradition, were more important to him than any Mississippi guitar sound. He modeled his DJ radio voice on Arthur Godfrey, a white man.
He never sold out--he always kept his lead guitar sound and approach, no matter what the idiom--but he had extremely wide tastes, the fruit of his years as a major-market DJ, and he kept throwing himself (thanks in part to Sid Seidenberg, his manager) into new collaborations. "Into the Night." "When Love Comes to Town." He worked with rockers. He endorsed commercial products. He was a blues businessman; he kept his big band on the road for many decades--until the end.
He was a huge crossover artist, as blues artists go. The most important WORLD blues artist--known, and popular, in more countries around the world than any other, I'm quite sure.
He took T. Bone's approach, inflected it in his own way, and added just enough sustain and hummingbird vibrato to permanently shift the way that blues guitarists who followed thought about the instrument's possibilities.
He never played the race card. He was always praising white blues performers and reaching out to them.
By the same token, he recorded a handful of songs, above all "Why I Sing the Blues," that white artists can't do, because they speak pointedly to the trials of black history in a way that white blues artists can't and don't want to claim.
Everybody wants to know Why I sing the blues Yes, I say everybody wanna know Why I sing the blues Well, I've been around a long time I really have paid my dues
When I first got the blues They brought me over on a ship Men were standing over me And a lot more with a whip And everybody wanna know Why I sing the blues Well, I've been around a long time Mm, I've really paid my dues
I've laid in a ghetto flat Cold and numb I heard the rats tell the bedbugs To give the roaches some Everybody wanna know Why I'm singing the blues Yes, I've been around a long time People, I've paid my dues
I stood in line Down at the County Hall I heard a man say, "We're gonna build Some new apartments for y'all" And everybody wanna know Yes, they wanna know Why I'm singing the blues Yes, I've been around a long, long time Yes, I've really, really paid my dues
Now I'm gonna play Lucille.
My kid's gonna grow up Gonna grow up to be a fool 'Cause they ain't got no more room No more room for him in school And everybody wanna know Everybody wanna know Why I'm singing the blues I say I've been around a long time Yes, I've really paid some dues
Yeah, you know the company told me Guess you're born to lose Everybody around me, people It seems like everybody got the blues But I had 'em a long time I've really, really paid my dues You know I ain't ashamed of it, people I just love to sing my blues
I walk through the cities, people On my bare feet I had a fill of catfish and chitterlings Up in Downbill Street You know I'm singing the blues Yes, I really I just have to sing my blues I've been around a long time People, I've really, really paid my dues
Now Father Time is catching up with me Gone is my youth I look in the mirror everyday And let it tell me the truth I'm singing the blues Mm, I just have to sing the blues I've been around a long time Yes, yes, I've really paid some dues
Yeah, they told me everything Would be better out in the country Everything was fine I caught me a bus uptown, baby And every people, all the people Got the same trouble as mine I got the blues, huh huh I say I've been around a long time I've really paid some dues
One more time, fellows!
Blind man on the corner Begging for a dime The rollers come and caught him And throw him in the jail for a crime I got the blues Mm, I'm singing my blues I've been around a long time Mm, I've really paid some dues
Can we do just one more?
Oh I thought I'd go down to the welfare To get myself some grits and stuff But a lady stand up and she said "You haven't been around long enough" That's why I got the blues Mm, the blues I say, I've been around a long time I've really, really paid my dues
Fellows, tell them one more time.
Ha, ha, ha. That's all right, fellows. Yeah!
Last Edited by kudzurunner on May 15, 2015 8:33 AM
Just about every guitarist in just about every genre owes a debt to him. His late 40's to mid 50's recordings could be described as far as his guitar playing as basically T-Bone Walker with a dose of steroids and many people in the black blues community often used to compare his vocals to the great jump blues singer Roy Brown, both of whom were HUGE influences on his sound.
His ability to say more with a single note than most with notes by the dozen is classic and something EVERY musician needs to get into their skill set.
First time I saw him was in 1970 at the old Sunset Series Concerts on Boston Common where his opening act was Paul Butterfield And Better Days ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Just got to thinking about BB more and I remember one night I was at the Speakeasy in Cambridge MA and Big Walter Horton was playing there and BB was playing across town at KKK Katy's and I was at the Speakeasy quite early hanging with BW and in comes BB, who came over to us and BB and Walter were talking old times back in their days in Memphis. Just one more time I wish I had a tape recorder with me.
Just before starting a tour with Jimmy Rogers, who we just picked up at Logan Airport in Boston and went to the Speakeasy and we bumped into James Cotton and the both of them were talking about the old days and how they both had laughed at BB King and thought he wasn't all that hot, and then he had a big hit with 3:00 Blues and then everybody and his mama all seemed to have King in their name trying to be a copycat.
Below is a recording of BB King Live At The Regal in the mid 60's to an entirely black audience, and it's one of the finest live blues recordings ever made and it's an excellent example of interacting with your audience and keeping them involved rather than being rather aloof to he audience (which I find quite problematic with a number of white blues bands over the years), plus a lesson in what REAL dynamics is all about and how to use space and UNDERstate to get your point across. Sonny Freeman's drumming is something to really pay attention to, especially for the uptempo flat tire groove, which is a really difficult groove to keep the time straight on. If you want a valuable lesson on how to work the audience, this is it!
---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Bob, Thanks for putting up that recording. It's terrific as you said, really enjoyable and with lots of valuable elements for a performer to glean. I could be wrong (often am), but to me, along with hints of T-Bone Walker, I hear some Cleanhead Vinson. I don't know who infilenced who - perhaps they are both spokes off the Walker wheel. Whatever, very cool stuff. Thanks.
@Rgsccr -- I hear far less of Cleanhead, but much more vocal wise from Roy Brown and if you check out Roy Brown's recordings, you can REALLY hear it clearly and many other singers were influenced heavily by Roy Brown, including Bobby Bland, Little Milton, Junior Parker, Jackie Wilson and James Brown, to name a few. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
@Rgsccr -- For jump blues stuff, Roy Brown is absolutely ESSENTIAL listening. BTW, Louis Jordan was also a huge influence on BB King as well along with Django Reinhardt. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
I think Barbequebob should have his own little corner of the web and he can just post lot's of his recollections on it!!! I never get tired reading stuff like that about all those cats!
