|
|
| justinkurian |
Legendary bluesman B.B. King turns 80 and hits the road
By Mike Hughes
Lansing State Journal
A half-century ago, B.B. King decided his timing was perfect.
A former cotton-picker from the Mississippi Delta, he was playing rhythm-and-blues records on a Memphis radio station. King - who reaches the MSU Auditorium tonight - was bridging eras.
"My blessing, I believe, had to do with the times," King later wrote. "I was old enough to have felt first-hand the old country blues. (And now) it felt like black music was on fire."
Today, at 80, he continues to bridge generations. "B.B. King is universally recognized as the leading exponent of modern blues," says the Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Fireside, 2001).
And tonight, he helps salvage the week for local music buffs.
The schedule had seemed ideal, with back-to-back concerts featuring members of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: It would be King (chosen in 1987, the Rock Hall's second year) tonight at the MSU Auditorium, then Aerosmith (chosen in 2001) Friday at the Breslin Center.
Then came the news Wednesday that Aerosmith was canceling its show, another in a string of illness-related cancellations.
People can grumble about that or shrug it off: This is still a great week for music. Besides, King is the star who led to Aerosmith and more. Consider a two-step process:
• Aerosmith loved the Rolling Stones. "To say I worshipped the Stones was an understatement," singer Steven Tyler once wrote.
• And the Stones loved B.B. King.
He opened for them during a 1969 tour, Stones bassist Bill Wyman wrote in "Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey" (DK Publishing, 2001). It was a rare chance to see "one of the all-time greats in the flesh. We used to go on the side of the stage and watch B.B. play."
It was awesome, Wyman wrote: "He would hammer it out and then just go down to a whisper. I absolutely adored that. There was just a silence in the place and you could hear a pin drop. He would suddenly start to build and it would build and it would build to a big climax."
This was the genuine stuff, a sound that came straight from the Delta.
On the surface, King's life was filled with tragedy.
He was 5 or so when his mother went blind and then died, possibly from diabetes. "In the country, modern medicine was minimal," he wrote in "Blues All Around Me" (Avon, 1996). "For blacks, it didn't exist. Losing my mother left me bewildered, lost and afraid."
He was 10 when his grandmother died and he lived by himself, among other farm workers. He was 13 when his dad arrived and took him to the city; it was King's first chance to live in a house with electricity.
That didn't last long. Six months later, King bought a bike and, without telling his dad, rode back to the country.
The other thing he bought, for $15, was a guitar. "My guitar gave me life," he wrote. "It helped me cope. And gave me a little discipline."
He would savor the instrument. When a nightclub fire began, King raced inside to rescue his guitar. He soon learned the fire began during a fight over a woman named Lucille; that promptly became the name of all King guitars.
Even before King became famous as a musician, he was known as a disc jockey for WDIA in Memphis. He talked his way into the job in 1948 and kept getting better and longer shifts.
"I never even owned a record player," King said. "Now I was sitting in a room with a thousand records and the ability to play them whenever I wanted. I was the kid in the candy store. ... I was positively blessed."
He sang and played his own music at clubs and in tiny Memphis studios. At Sun Records, he wrote, many of the white musicians - Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash - didn't say much to him.
"Elvis (Presley) was different. He was friendly. I remember Elvis distinctly because he was handsome and quiet and polite to a fault. Spoke with the thick molasses Southern accent and always called me 'sir.' "
That was the same sort of upbringing King had. He saw the horrors of racism, he wrote, but was taught to persist.
"I was raised to be a good boy," he wrote. "In the hill country, segregation was born into my blood. My mother had been strict to tell me where to go and where not to go. ... That was the way of the world. I wasn't taught to hate white people."
That helped him bridge the gap. King was the one who could explain the blues to people from other places and other generations.
His music rarely reached pop radio. His only song on Billboard's top 20 was "The Thrill is Gone," which peaked at No. 15 in 1970.
But his impact and popularity persisted.
"His reputation with other guitarists gave him the position of elder statesman of the blues," Wyman wrote. "He has always been articulate in explaining the meaning of the blues. He helped to keep the fire burning when it was all but gone out."
Then that flame was fanned by new King buffs.
"B.B. was like a hero," Mick Fleetwood told Wyman. "You listen to the way that band swings on 'Live at the Regal.' It's just like a steamroller."
In 1989, King was on U2's "Rattle and Hum" album with "When Love Comes to Town." In 2000, he linked with Eric Clapton for "Riding With the King"; it won a Grammy and topped Billboard's blues-album chart for more than a year.
In between, he received the Kennedy Center Honor for 1995. That put him alongside an Oscar winner (Sidney Poitier), a Tony winner (Neil Simon), an opera singer (Marilyn Horne) and a choreographer (Jacques d'Amboise).
The former Delta kid was honored by a tuxedo crowd for career achievement.
Except that the career has continued from there. The thrill, apparently, still isn't gone. |
|
|
| jb |
Why no wrinkly bluesman comments...the media are fucking hypocrites. |
|
|
| Break The Spell |
Guys like B. B. King and Chuck Berry continue to tour and put on great shows in their 80's. Its rediculos to think some people say the stones should retire just because their in their 60's. If you're still able to put on a good show and you love what you do, why should age matter? |
|
|
| jb |
quote:
Break The Spell wrote:
Guys like B. B. King and Chuck Berry continue to tour and put on great shows in their 80's. Its rediculos to think some people say the stones should retire just because their in their 60's. If you're still able to put on a good show and you love what you do, why should age matter?
word----------------------------------.> |
|
