Sad news . . . the death of B.B. (Blues Boy) King.

Yamaha FJR Motorcycle Forum

Help Support Yamaha FJR Motorcycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Niehart

Pie Smuggler
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
5,592
Reaction score
2,999
Location
Pacific Northwet [Woodinville, WA]
You might say that I liked this guy. I went to 13 of his shows.

B.B. King, Legendary Blues Guitarist, Dies At 89It seemed as if he'd go on forever — and B.B. King was working right up until the end. It's what he loved to do: playing music, and fishing. Even late in life, living with diabetes, he spent about half the year on the road. King died Thursday night at home in Las Vegas. He was 89 years old.

He was born Riley B. King on a plantation in Itta Bena, Miss. He played on street corners before heading to Memphis, Tenn., where he stayed with his cousin, the great country bluesman Bukka White. His career took off thanks to radio; he got a spot on the radio show of Sonny Boy Williamson II, then landed his own slot on black-run WDIA in Memphis. He needed a handle. At first it was Beale Street Blues Boy. Then Blues Boy King. Finally B.B. King stuck.

You can't mention names without talking about his guitar, Lucille. It was actually more than one. The story goes that the first was a $30 acoustic he was playing at a dance in Arkansas when two men got in a fight, kicked over a stove and started a fire. When King was safe outside, he realized he'd left the guitar inside. He ran back into the burning dance hall to save it. After he learned the fight had been over a woman named Lucille, he decided to name his guitar for her to remind himself never to get into a fight over a woman. And since then, every one of his trademark Gibson ES-355s has been named Lucille.

The sound he got out of her was what set him apart. Playing high up on the neck, he'd push a string as he picked it, bending the note to make it cry. He didn't burn a lot of fast licks, but you could feel each note he played. Nobody sounded like B.B. King, though later on plenty of rockers tried. (Fleetwood Mac's Peter Green got closest.)

King scored an R&B hit in 1951 with "Three O'Clock Blues" and began the next stage of his life as a touring musician. According to his website, King and his band played 342 one-night stands in 1956. He performed more than 250 nights a year into his 80s, his distinctive guitar sound and smooth vocals filling just about every major venue in the U.S. and abroad. In 1991, he opened his own spot, B.B. King's Blues Club in Memphis. Others followed, and King remained involved in how they were run.

He was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1984 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in '87. He was so beloved that he received honorary degrees from the Berklee College of Music as well as Yale and Brown universities, among others.

In 1970, he scored a crossover hit with "The Thrill Is Gone." It's the tune everyone knows — classic B.B. King: Lucille's piercing single notes punctuating each phrase.



The thrill is gone.

The thrill is gone away from me.

Although I'll still live on,

But so lonely I'll be.


That pretty well sums up how a lot of fans are feeling right now, now that B.B. King is finally gone.

112809966_wide-08ef92063b78d3511ec6156878eb5de4c14a9cf9-s800-c85.jpg


 
We've known this was coming. B.B. will be greatly missed, but his music will live on for a very long time...as will the inheritance battles for the rights to that fortune in his music catalog.

 
I like Mr. King. Never saw one of his shows though. RIP.

I also like John Lee Hooker, and Buddy Guy...love me some funky blues.

 
Back in my college days, I attended a couple of IBA conventions (Intercollegiate Broadcasters Association). One was in DC. We were having a pretty raucous party in one of our hotel rooms when one of the staff came to our door and demanded we keep it down. "BB King is on this floor and you're disturbing him!" One of us, in our drunken fog, said "We can change the music! We'll play da blues! BB don' mind if you play da blues!!" It was not met with enthusiasm from the hotel...

RIP Mr. King.

 
How the hell will he be missed?

He hasn't been relevant for years and years.

Whose going to miss him? His 15+ bastard children?

Sure he was a great musician, but............

 
I think this thread was created to pay respect to a man, who brought great music to the masses. Not to degrade his character, but maybe I'm wrong.

I remember seeing an interview with him, where he said he couldn't play chords, only lead. I thought it was funny that someone who had such a brilliant, intimate relationship with a guitar, couldn't play a chord.

R.I.P.

 
Seriously? Musical relevance is completely relative. (to you, not them).

Isn't being an epic musician enough? Does one also have to be a role model?

Although I grew up in the, now metrosexual Boston area, my first and true musical love has always been for the blues. For some odd reason I couldn't relate to the modern music unless it also had a blues angle to it. When we were teens just barely old enough to drive we would jump in a car and ride into Somerville or Cambridge and hit the black blues clubs. Maybe because we were so young, so clearly into the music, and not pains in the ass the (mostly ethnic) patrons didn't give us a hard time at all and mostly left us alone. And they would serve us beer.

BB may not have been the best blues frontman ever, but he was certainly the best known. Anything that gets people to appreciate the blues is a good thing IMO.

RIP, BB.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
The blues is the foundation for all great rock and heavy metal. The current crop of emo-rock is a disgrace. Kudos to Mr. King and those who came before him.

 
Top