{"id":608,"date":"2015-05-15T12:48:19","date_gmt":"2015-05-15T12:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/?p=608"},"modified":"2021-01-16T08:39:48","modified_gmt":"2021-01-16T08:39:48","slug":"the-king-of-the-blues-die-at-89","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/?p=608","title":{"rendered":"THE KING OF THE BLUES DIE AT 89!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

 <\/p>\n

Riley B. King<\/b> (September 16, 1925\u00a0\u2013 May 14, 2015), known by his stage name B.B. King<\/b>, was an American blues<\/a> singer, songwriter, and guitarist<\/a>. \u00a0Rolling Stone<\/a><\/i> magazine ranked him at No. 6 on its 2011 list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time<\/a> (previously ranked No. 3 in the 2003 edition of the same list)<\/p>\n

His reign as King of the Blues has been as long as that of any monarch on earth. Yet B.B. King wore\u00a0his crown well. At age 76, he is still light on his feet, singing and playing the blues with relentless passion. Time has no apparent effect on B.B., other than to make him more popular, more cherished, more relevant than ever. Don\u2019t look for him in some kind of semi-retirement; look for him out on the road, playing for people, popping up in a myriad of T.V. commercials, or laying down tracks for his next album. B.B. King is as alive as the music he plays, and a grateful world can\u2019t get enough of him.\u00a0\"bb<\/a><\/p>\n

For more than half a century, Riley B. King \u2013 better known as B.B. King \u2013 has defined the blues for a worldwide audience. Since he started recording in the 1940s, he has released over fifty albums, many of them classics. He was born September 16, 1925, on a plantation in Itta Bena, Mississippi, near Indianola. In his youth, he played on street corners for dimes, and would sometimes play in as many as four towns a night. In 1947, he hitchhiked to Memphis, TN, to pursue his music career. Memphis was where every important musician of the South gravitated, and which supported a large musical community where every style of African American music could be found. B.B. stayed with his cousin Bukka White, one of the most celebrated blues performers of his time, who schooled B.B. further in the art of the blues.<\/p>\n

B.B.\u2019s first big break came in 1948 when he performed on Sonny Boy Williamson\u2019s radio program on KWEM out of West Memphis. This led to steady engagements at the Sixteenth Avenue Grill in West Memphis, and later to a ten-minute spot on black-staffed and managed Memphis radio station WDIA. \u201cKing\u2019s Spot,\u201d became so popular, it was expanded and became the \u201cSepia Swing Club.\u201d Soon B.B. needed a catchy radio name. What started out as Beale Street Blues Boy was shortened to Blues Boy King, and eventually B.B. King.<\/p>\n

In the mid-1950s, while B.B. was performing at a dance in Twist, Arkansas, a few fans became unruly. Two men got into a fight and knocked over a kerosene stove, setting fire to the hall. B.B. raced outdoors to safety with everyone else, then realized that he left his beloved $30 acoustic guitar inside, so he rushed back inside the burning building to retrieve it, narrowly escaping death. When he later found out that the fight had been over a woman named Lucille, he decided to give the name to his guitar to remind him never to do a crazy thing like fight over a woman. Ever since, each one of B.B.\u2019s trademark Gibson guitars has been called Lucille.\u00a0\"bb<\/a><\/p>\n

Soon after his number one hit, \u201cThree O\u2019Clock Blues,\u201d B.B. began touring nationally. In 1956, B.B. and his band played an astonishing 342 one-night stands. From the chitlin circuit with its small-town cafes, juke joints, and country dance halls to rock palaces, symphony concert halls, universities, resort hotels and amphitheaters, nationally and internationally, B.B. has become the most renowned blues musician of the past 40 years.<\/p>\n

Over the years, B.B. has developed one of the world\u2019s most identifiable guitar styles. He borrowed from Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker and others, integrating his precise and complex vocal-like string bends and his left hand vibrato, both of which have become indispensable components of rock guitarist\u2019s vocabulary. His economy, his every-note-counts phrasing, has been a model for thousands of players, from Eric Clapton and George Harrison to Jeff Beck. B.B. has mixed traditional blues, jazz, swing, mainstream pop and jump into a unique sound. In B.B.\u2019s words, \u201cWhen I sing, I play in my mind; the minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1968, B.B. played at the Newport Folk Festival and at Bill Graham\u2019s Fillmore West on bills with the hottest contemporary rock artists of the day who idolized B.B. and helped to introduce him to a young white audience. In \u201c69, B.B. was chosen by the Rolling Stones to open 18 American concerts for them; Ike and Tina Turner also played on 18 shows.<\/p>\n

B.B. was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. He received NARAS\u2019 Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 1987, and has received honorary doctorates from Tougaloo(MS) College in 1973; Yale University in 1977; Berklee College of Music in 1982; Rhodes College of Memphis in 1990; Mississippi Valley State University in 2002 and Brown University in 2007. In 1992, he received the National Award of Distinction from the University of Mississippi.<\/p>\n

\"bb<\/a>In 1991, B.B. King\u2019s Blues Club opened on Beale Street in Memphis, and in 1994, a second club was launched at Universal CityWalk in Los Angeles. A third club in New York City\u2019s Times Square opened in June 2000 and most recently two clubs opened at Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut in January 2002. In 1996, the CD-Rom On The Road With B.B. King: An Interactive Autobiography was released to rave reviews. Also in 1996, B.B.\u2019s autobiography, \u201cBlues All Around Me\u201d (written with David Ritz for Avon Books) was published. In a similar vein, Doubleday published \u201cThe Arrival of B.B. King\u201d by Charles Sawyer, in 1980.<\/p>\n

B.B. continues to tour extensively, averaging over 250 concerts per year around the world. Classics such as \u201cPayin\u2019 The Cost To Be The Boss,\u201d \u201cThe Thrill Is Gone,\u201d How Blue Can You Get,\u201d \u201cEveryday I Have The Blues,\u201d and \u201cWhy I Sing The Blues\u201d are concert (and fan) staples. Over the years, the Grammy Award-winner has had two #1 R&B hits, 1951\u2019s \u201cThree O\u2019Clock Blues,\u201d and 1952\u2019s \u201cYou Don\u2019t Know Me,\u201d and four #2 R&B hits, 1953\u2019s \u201cPlease Love Me,\u201d 1954\u2019s \u201cYou Upset Me Baby,\u201d 1960\u2019s \u201cSweet Sixteen, Part I,\u201d and 1966\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Answer The Door, Part I.\u201d B.B.\u2019s most popular crossover hit, 1970\u2019s \u201cThe Thrill Is Gone,\u201d went to #15 pop.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Riley B. King (September 16, 1925\u00a0\u2013 May 14, 2015), known by his stage name B.B. King, was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. \u00a0Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No. 6 on its 2011 list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time (previously ranked No. 3 in the 2003 edition of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampsmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}