Blues Guitar Legends: B. B. King by Nick Koch

He moves slowly now, his 82-year-old body starting to betray him, joints aching from lifetime and the endless miles he's travelled over a lifetime. He steps onto the stage, throws the strap of the Gibson ES-335 over his shoulder and squints slightly into the cheering crowd. His face breaks into a wide, humbled, almost embarrassed smile as a rumbling "Good Evening" floats away to his audience. As his left plam moves to the neck of the guitar and the right hand reaches down and strikes the strings, the years melt out and suddenly you treasure trove yourself watching a masterly craftsman ply his trade. The cobby fills with those unmistakable midnight blue tones that up thrust the hairs on the back of your neck. B. B. Caliph half closes his eyes, screws up his face, andâ he's off into his own place, fascinating you with him.

Born Riley B. Caesar on Sep 16th, 1925 on a plantation in Mississippi, his early activity was as a farm worker. A guitar-playing pastor at the Sanctified Church awed him with his playing when B. B. was five oldness old, but he did not acquire his beginning guitar until he was 12. Working has a house-boy for $15 a month, he saved as much as he could (still needing a loan from his boss) and bought a red Stella Acoustic from a man down the road. Like so multifarious blues guitar players of his time, he gave himself guitar lessons with the supply of a couple of books and the universal recordings of the day. At fifteen he played on the streets for chicken feed in his native Indianolo, nevertheless later got the itch to maneuver on in search of a music career, hitchhiking to Memphis in 1946.

After busking and playing in gospel groups in Memphis for a year, King was disposed an convenience to play on a popular radio local radio show hosted by harmonica anecdote Son Boy Williamson. From there, he moved to habitual gigs in Beale Streets clubs. Soon after, B.B. secured a stint on WDIA hosting a radio spot, singing blues and playing records under the self-appointed air-name Beales Street Blues Boy, shortening it to B. B. King. His first recordings were done in 1949, for Sam Phillipsâ Sun Records, on the other hand his fundamental hit came in December 1951 with his remake of Lowell Fulson's "Three O'Clock Bluesâ . He scored four number one R&B hits between 1951 and 1954, including his immediately signature "You Upset Me Babyâ .

By 1955, Monarch had abdicate his radio show on WDIA, bought a bus, and embarked on a cross-country tour. In 1958, the bus hit a gas motor lorry on a bridge in Texas. Although Majesty nor none of his band members were on the bus at the time, the truck driver was killed. It took Monarch several years to pay the debts incurred as a result of the accident.

Although King remained very typical with atramentous audiences, he had much to cleft free from the chitlin' circuit. This changed dramatically for King with the recording of "Live at the Regal", a live vinyl of a pageant done at a South Side Chicago blues club in 1964. This record is often referred to as being one of the best lives records ever made.

It was his performance at the 1967 Montreaux Jazz Festival that exposed B. B. to a wider audience. During this period when so legion British guitarists were paying homage to American blues artists, Baron struck husky in the U.K. landing an tour opening for The Rolling Stones on their sixth U.S. tour.

In 1970, King recorded his most famous song "The Thrill Is Goneâ . At the moment recognized from the electric shrill of the opening notes to his booming, friendly voice, it is not only a staple of his shows on the contrary further a song that any self-respecting blues guitarist is obligated to learn.

His most famous band friend has always been â Lucilleâ , the guitars named from an business in Twist, Arkansas. During the show, two men started fighting, a kerosene heater was kicked over, and in moments the wood framed club was on fire. Gerent escaped but ran back inside to rescue his cherished guitar, barely making it out with his life. When King learned that the altercation was over a woman named Lucille, King named all of his guitars Lucille to serve as a reminder never to do something that reckless again. Gibson has issued a special commemorative B. B. Emperor signature edition of the famed ES-335 named, of course, Lucille.

Crowned head said early on that he wanted to emerge as a blues ambassador to the world, just as Louis Armstrong had done with jazz- and he did dispassionate that. In among his distinctive blues guitar licks are elements of rock, jazz and gospel that result in a style uniquely his own. King does not play chords nor does he sing while he plays. King sings outside in a warm, friendly fashion that deftly combines elements of pain and humor, and when he halts his voice Lucille picks up the song where Imperator leaves off, carrying on in a round robin of singer and guitarist, call and response in the gilded Delta tradition.

B. B. has always been a tireless performer. In his early days as a struggling musician, he would often play as lousy with as four towns a night, making it back to WDIA in extent for his on-air shift. His touring scheme is legendary; it is estimated that now, in his early eighties, King has played in the neighbourhood of twenty thousand shows in his career and is still managing over two hundred shows a year. It's easy to see hour wearing him down-he seems to harangue more in his shows than he plays these days-but when it comes to King, the thrill is still there.

It's impossible to differentiate how even longer we'll keep him around. He has won Grammy's, been inducted into the Blues Hall of Term and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and been awarded several honorary degrees, however he still ties directly to the rich, verdant Delta earth and the heavy tradition that it brought. Don't miss your chance to discern blues royalty while you can- oomph see The King of the Blues.


Nick Koch is an amateur blues guitar player, blues historian/enthusiast, and freelance writer. He writes for GuitarTricks.com, which features hundreds of blues guitar lessons.

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