B.B. KING / “Live B.B. Mixtape”

Woke up this morning Rain was falling down     (yall don’t hear me) When I opened my eyes this morning Hard, hard rain was rolling down My big sheetless empty bed was cold and lonely I was sad as a circus without no clown
bb king 06.jpg The blues is always good for whatever ails you. A sonic liniment to salve your aching soul regardless of the source of the hurt. The blues just makes feeling bad feel good. Mr. Riley is about one of the best blues doctors practicing today. Fact is Riley B. King, born September 16, 1925 round Itta Bena, Mississippi (not too far from the metropolis of Indianola) is worldwide known to be one of the best of all time. ‘Course he didn’t quite start off as no great shakes. bb king 15.jpg Back in ’46 when he was fresh out the army, he went up to Memphis to seek fortune and fame, or more likely to get away from ‘no fortune, no fame’ which was the name of the game down in ‘Sippi. Seem like most anybody who became somebody from Mississippi had to leave before they could make a name for they-self. Why you even much take old Robert Johnson—and they don’t get no more known than Robert Johnson. Hell, even the few sides that Robert recorded in his legendary lifetime (I believe it was 28, might have been 29 or even as few as 27 songs) but anyways, even Robert had to go to Dallas to record what later became known as the classics of Mississippi Delta blues. Now what do you think would have happened if Shakespeare would have had to go to France to get his plays produced—would he still be considered the ‘King of English writing’? I don’t know but I betcha a plum to a raisin, the ways we speak would have been different. My point is that you have to be tough to come up out of Mississippi but if you didn’t come up out there, well then few if any souls would of knowed who you was. Being born in Mississippi is like being born with a veil over you. It’s a blessing and a curse. Let’s you see things others don’t but it also prevents others from fully seeing you. So anyway, Mr. Riley he had to track back and wait a spell, two years all told, before returning to Memphis. Even though Memphis is right cross the line, it was a different world form Mississippi. bb king 05.jpg On his second go round, Mr. Riley, he even much got him a little radio job. He was both a singer and a disc jockey on WDIA. Originally called his-self "Beale Street Blues Boy,” but that was a double mouthful, so it got shortened to ‘B.B.’ (with no space between the b’s cause them two letters was now one name). And the rest as they say is history. Except I would like to highlight one aspect of the man’s career that sometimes gets overlooked. B.B. King he was a through and through blues man and not no upitty-upitty concert hall kind of singer. Yaknow, one of them peoples that expect the paying customers to be real quiet whensoever they opens up they mouth to throw out a song. bb king 11.jpg B.B. he come from the type of background what likes people to make some noise, let ‘em know who all up in there, let ‘em know that they feeling it and really enjoying themselves. Cause you see the purpose of the blues is not so much to just say how you feeling but to communicate how you feeling. To touch somebody else and they in turn kind of spur you on to empty the whole of your heart into their ears. And then they shouts and hollers to let you know that they not only know what you talking about but they know you know what you talking about. So what I decided to do was put together a collection of songs—some of them real well know, others of them less known but just as good as the ones what is well known. And, with the exception of one selection, this collection is gathered up from just two albums. I kept it down to two albums on purpose so as if you have a mind to, you can get you a truckload of the best of Mr. Riley at a reasonable expense. For first timers, How Blue Can You Get?: Classic Live Performances, 1964-1994 [LIVE] is the best way to shake the man’s hand and make his acquaintance. It’s draws from his best known live recording, 1962’s Live at the Regal, as well as the Grammy winning Live At San Quentin. And speaking of Grammies, B.B. got more Grammies than folks got fingers on their hand, on both hands even. Hell, come to count it out, you could give B.B. a third hand to count how many Grammies he got. And furthermore, speaking of prisons, some of B.B.’s best work was recorded in places like San Quentin or Chicago’s Cook County Jail. bb king 16.jpg B.B. King is a true man of the people. Although he live in Las Vegas nowadays, every year he go back to his Mississippi home and play for free to the people down there. He may be gone but he ain’t forgot about where he long gone from. The other record, Together for the First Time...Live, is a collaboration with another legendary blues man, Bobby Blue Bland. Back in the day, Bobby used to work for B.B. and they still now remain close. You can hear it in the back and forth bantering between them, like two delta fathers boasting about watermelons and catfish: who growed the sweetest or catched the biggest. It’s just about the happiest blues album you might ever want to hear. There’s a whole lot more that can be said about Mr. King but I guess that’ll be for another time. Right now, I was just hoping that you could get to meet him and his guitar Lucille and get a kind of introductory earful of all the wonderful music they be making. bb king 13.jpg B.B. King may not be no what they call ‘virtuoso’ on the guitar. They got plenty that can play more notes faster than him but there ain’t none, no, not a one, what can reach down and touch people the way Mr. King can. Indeed, B.B. King’s guitar sound and blues style has influenced two or three generation of blues guitar players, indeed, of guitar players period. bb king 12.jpg I’ve had the good fortune to interview B.B. He is one of the most charming and humble individuals I’ve ever met especially considering how far he has gone in life. He’s known worldwide. He has played for kings and things—but then again he is a king, not simply by birth but rather as a result of years spent on the road entertaining people. A king from the people, of the people who stands by the people. Mr. Riley has achieved his royalty status the old-fashioned way: he earned it by paying dues and playing over three hundred dates a year for years and years. All hail the king of the blues. —Kalamu ya Salaam Live B.B. King Mixtape Playlist bb king 07.jpg If you buy only one B.B. King album (and we can all understand if you can only scrap together enough pennies to make one purchase, so if you gotta buy only one) How Blue Can You Get? is the one to get! Enough said. bb king how blue cover.jpg 01 “All Over Again” 02 “The Thrill Is Gone” 03 “Nobody Loves Me But My Mother” 04 “Please Send Me Someone To Love (featuring Gladys Knight)” 05 “Please Accept My Love” 06 “Sweet Little Angel” 07 “Ain’t Nobody’s Business (featuring Ruth Brown)” bb king san quentin cover.jpg 08 “Never Make A Move Too Soon”Live at San Quentin I believe I kind of like this album a lil taste more than Live At The Regal, and I loves me some Regal. bb king and bobby bland cover.jpg From Together For The First Time All of these tracks feature Bobby Blue Bland in a real down home kind of session which ends with Bobby Bland walking through the audience letting audience members shout out the refrain. 09 “I’ll Take Care Of You” 10 “Medley” 11 “Why I Sing The Blues” 12 “Goin’ Down Slow” 13 “I like To Live The Love”

This entry was posted on Monday, July 13th, 2009 at 1:44 am and is filed under Classic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


6 Responses to “B.B. KING / “Live B.B. Mixtape””

Kiini Ibura Says:
July 13th, 2009 at 3:51 pm

I just saw Soul Power, the documentary about Zaire 74, the three-day concert in Zaire that pulled together legendary black soul singers with legendary African stars, and threw Celia Cruz into the mix as well. This concert was intended to go along with the Ali Foreman fight (that was delayed so long it didn’t happen until 6 weeks later). The footage was amazing and featured these amazing performers, B.B. King was among them–and while he seemed fun, he also seemed serious about his business… like a preacher or a teacher. Yes, regal, and certain about what he needed to get done, meandering on to get done what he knows he needs to get done will all the madness fluttered around him.

Loved hearing Gladys Knight with him and really loved the repartee between him and Ruth Brown.


C. Liegh McInnis Says:
July 16th, 2009 at 2:00 am

First, Jimi said that B. B. was the best, nuff said. Second, Prince needs to get off his a** and answer King’s call to make a record together, especially since King has made this known publicly twice.

Great choices to represent the power and range of B. B. King. Together for the First Time is my favorite King record, tying Indianola Mississippi Seeds. Unlike How Blue Can You Get, IMS allows me to feel the full effect of “Nobody Loves Me But My Mother” as it kicks off the album, letting you know that this ain’t no fake a** stuff you ’bout to hear, kicking an 8 year old kid in the gut, then, much later, when he turns 18 and is just beginning to know what that phrase means, “Nobody loves me but my mother, and she could be jivin’ too.” That’s all you need. That’s the blues. Put that in some top papers and smoke it. What follows on IMS is the dissertation on his thesis statement in “Nobody Loves Me but my Mother.”

How Blue Can You Get is great for teaching people who to play yo’ instrument, how to put on a show, how to touch people, how to be unbelievable, how to be other worldly on your instrument of choice, and it is especially great for long drives across this nation where ghettos and poor people are connected by the same chains of white supremacy, but while the songs are an example of a great showman, they ain’t connected to a time or space or feeling. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a great collection. Guitar licks and vocal thunderstorms kick yo’ butt for the full length of the collection. The guitar and vocals remain penetrating, slicing you to the bone. But too many people seem to cheapen or marginalize the fact that the Blues had movements and trends, rivers breaking off and going elsewhere, eventually coming back to the lake and ocean of soul called blues. As the artists were grappling with the change in time, the music was shape-shifting to articulate that old problem in new clothes. So, IMS and Together for the First Time capture those moments in time better than the greatest hits collections.

Together for the First Time also captures perfectly them hot a** juke joints and hot a** outside festivals my family would drag me to see. Two bad dudes, both on top of their game, and knowing it, and understanding that being technically well-crafted and being showmen was supposed to converge at an intersection called greatness. It makes me remember when I wanted to be badass like them kinda dudes, wear slick a** shirts with slick a**shoes and a whole lotta slick a** attitude. And it makes me happy that I was never ashamed to be from Mississippi ‘cause I thought that the blues and blues people where the people who got the most from life. We ate better, dance more freely, loved more fully; we licked the bowl of life and squeezed all of the juice from the fruit, and all of that can be heard in Together for the First Time.

B. B. King is one of the reasons why I never had to drink or get high. His vocals and pluckin’ get in me, go down like dark liquor and salty tears, lifting me from wherever I was to where I wanted to be, which was usually just away from where I was, away from the cesspool of pain I was in, bending dem damn chords, holding them, as they punctuate his growl, blending gospels and gut bucket like the greatest peanut butter and jelly sammich yo done ever had…anyway y’all know, why I keep rambling…good choices.


C. Liegh McInnis Says:
July 16th, 2009 at 2:21 am

I forgot to add that I was raised on WDIA where there wasn’t but one type of music, good music, and the range of music, man…it’s a shame that radio, even black radio, doesn’t still articulate the whole soul and humanity of a people. On WDIA I was able to access all types of black people from the types of music that they would play. But then, it wasn’t just oldies, it was the current with the tradition. My parents’ music was my music and my music was played with my parents’ music. WDIA, as many black radio stations, was making sure that the generation gap was something with which dem other folks had to deal. Now, the accountants, posing as music men, have separated our music, and black adults and black children can’t stand each other.


Jazz Lunatique Says:
July 19th, 2009 at 10:27 pm

Just came back from the Delta and went to the B.B. King Museum in Indianola. Don’t miss it, or make a special trip. State of the art and photos, memorabilia, and commentary that emphasize and elaborate on what Kalamu says here.

Sometimes I wonder if they are still makng human beings like Mr. Riley King.


Erik Says:
January 11th, 2010 at 1:11 am

“B.B. King may not be no what they call ‘virtuoso’ on the guitar. They got plenty that can play more notes faster than him ”

I’ve seen the Man 12 times and I think that he is definitively one of the ever best Electric Guitar Players of all time.
His bellrining “Hand-Vibrato” puts John Scofield still in envy.
It needed Jimi Hendrix to further B.B.’s command of sustain and feedback.

Erik


kt Says:
March 3rd, 2010 at 11:49 am

Love BLUES
LOVE B B KING


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