B. B. King
B.B. King is in the eighth decade of his life. His seventh decade as a performer and his sixth decade as a recording artist. King is, and remains, a force of nature, still at the top of his game and still looking down new musical avenues in which to present his brand of the blues. King may have moved his touring schedule down a notch from the early average of 300 gigs a year – in 1958 he clocked in a bone-wearying total of 342 one nighters.
Today they are building a Museum for B.B. King down in Indianola, Miss. which will serve as a combined B.B. King showcase, learning facility, recording studio and tourist attraction. This is heady stuff for Riley B. King (his real name) who was born September 16, 1925.
King had an aunt, married to a preacher who played guitar during his services. This was King’s introduction to the instrument he would later call Lucille.
Enter another Auntie! This one, a young teenager,who had a record collection, and a lot of them were blues recordings, mostly non electric country blues by such showman as Blind Lemon Jefferson and Robert Johnson. It was King’s first taste of the music that would shape his life.
He also heard some jazz guitarists and early electric bluesmen such as T. Bone Walker, Charlie Christian and the French musician Django Reinhardt. All went into the mix.
King’s name for his guitars, Lucille, comes from the time when he ran into a burning juke joint, at great danger to himself, to rescue his $30 acoustic. The fire broke out because two men were fighting over a woman called Lucille. So he called his guitar Lucille to remind himself not to do anything stupid over a woman. "It has not exactly worked", he admits.
King started playing on street corners in small towns nearby and would come home from these outings with $25 to $30 in his pocket. Nearby Memphis called and in 1947 King arrived in the city to explore the possibility of a career in music.
He checked in with his cousin Bukka White, a country blues player who had already been recording then for 20 years. Cousin Bukka became another influence, as did Sonny Boy Williamson No 2, an eccentric blues harp player and singer in Memphis. Memphis was the place to be – a blues crossroads (literally) that supported a strong musical community for every kind of black music.
King’s first real public exposure came as a kind of disk jockey/performer on the black-owned Radio Station WDIA. It evolved into a 10 minute show which was unpaid at first but allowed King to promote his own gigs over the airwaves. A number of names were tested: King: The Boy From Beale Street, the Beale Street Blues Boy and finally B.B. King.
In 1949 King began his still-continuing recording career, cutting a number of sides for a now forgotten Nashville label. A year later he cut Three O’Clock Blues, his first hit and the recording that found King his audience, a real booking agency and access to all the major R&B clubs. A No. 1 R&B hit, Three O’Clock Blues opened up the road for King and started that odometer clicking…
King’s early recordings found their way to Britain and the audience for these recordings included young white boys with names like Jagger, Clapton, Beck, Harrison, in groups with such names as Bluesbreakers, Yardbirds, Animals…all part of an emerging blues scene that was to combine with rock and become the dominant music force of the time. King became a hero and established himself as a global entity as both a performer and recording artist.
King has recorded more than 70 albums. Has a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award to go with his 14 other Grammy Awards. Has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame. He has seven W.C. Handy Foundation Entertainer of the Year Awards. He has honorary doctorates from Yale University, Berklee College, Rhodes College of Memphis, Mississippi Valley State University, Brown’s University and a National Award of Distinction from the University of Mississippi.
In 2006 B.B.King gave his 10,000th live performance.