Ben Jones

B.B. King

COM 290

April 2, 2003

B.B. King

B.B. King may be quite popular today at the age of 77, but he was not always the big man of blues.  King’s first big break came in 1948 when he performed on Sonny Boy Williamson's radio program on KWEM out of West Memphis, Ark.  This gig led to steady engagement on the first black-run and all-black performer radio station, WDIA in Memphis, Tenn.  The 10-minute gig was called “King's Spot.”  It became so popular, it was expanded and became the “Sepia Swing Club.”

Soon King needed a catchy radio name.  What started out as Beale Street Blues Boy was shortened to Blues Boy King, and eventually B.B. King.

The show was very popular, mainly because King used his musical ability to swoon his audience in between the blues records he would play.  It was easy for him – he had been playing all of his life.

He was born Sept. 16, 1925, on a plantation in Itta Bene, Ms., 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 to pursue his music career.

            At the time, Memphis was where every important musician of the South gravitated, and supported a large musical community where every style of African American music could be found.

King 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.

King grew into a well-known blues guitarist over the next decade.  As King became more popular, so did his guitar.

As King tells it, the story of how his guitar got her name, “Lucille,” started with a juke-joint brawl over a woman named Lucille.  The two men fighting knocked over a kerosene barrel, which burned to provide heat for the roadhouse.

Panic ensued as the fire spread uncontrollably throughout the wooden structure.  While fleeing the mayhem, King realized that he had left his guitar inside the burning structure.  As fire consumed the bar, band members were forced to flee out of the front door, since the back door was nailed shut to prevent patrons from sneaking in without paying the cover charge.

King almost lost his life in the rescue, and named his guitar after the woman to remind him never again to do something so foolish.  Ever since, each one of King’s trademark Gibson guitars has been called Lucille.

King had his first No. 1 hit, “Three O’Clock Blues,” in 1956.  He and his band toured nationally, and he has toured the world on a yearly basis since.

Over the years, King has developed one of the world’s 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 a rock guitarist’s vocabulary.  His style has been a model for thousands of players, like Eric Clapton.

He has been inducted into several music halls of fame, and has won countless awards for his ability to play and sing.

King is still very active today.  He plays concerts over 250 times a year.  Classics such as “The Thrill Is Gone” and “Why I Sing The Blues” are staples.  King’s most popular hit was 1970's “The Thrill Is Gone,” which went to No. 15 on the pop charts.

People can catch him in concert often at his restaurant in Memphis and his club in Los Angeles, both operating under his name.

 

Sources:

http://www.bbking.com/history

http://www.artsandmusicpa.com/music_pages/Bios.2.htm

http://www.bbkingclubs.com/