Riley B. King, otherwise known as B.B. King to the blues world was one of the strongest influences that helped keep the roots of the Mississippi Delta Blue alive. B.B. King was born in 1925 in Indianola Mississippi. Riley grew up a hard life. His parent’s, tenant farmers, separated when riley was very young. His mom did the best she could to bring Riley up. They attended church where Riley got his first taste of the gospel choir. This was the root beginnings of Riley’s love for the blues music and guitar. After his mothers early demise, Riley at the age of 9 pretty much raised himself. His aunt played a partial role when she could in trying to keep Riley on the straight and narrow. Her love of blues and jazz kept Riley coming back to her throughout his young years to listen to the collection of records she had. At the age of 12, Riley began to play the guitar and started performing on street corners as an early teen to make some money to survive.
Some of Riley’s inspiration he received to play the blues was from artist such as Lonnie Johnson, Sonny Boy Williamson, T-Bone Walker, and Bukka White. Bukka White was Riley’s cousin and played a huge role in Riley’s decision to try to take his act on the road. After training under his cousin White, at the age of 21, Riley hitchhiked to Memphis Tennessee and within three years, developed a nice gig playing in clubs and even having some records made. It was also in Memphis that Riley began DJ’ing on the radio. His DJ’ing is where he earned his nickname, B.B. King. He began announcing himself on the radio station as Beale Street Blues Boy, which was later shortened to Blues Boy then to B.B.
B.B. King continued to make a huge name for himself in the Blue’s Industry as well as the music world as a whole. He and “Lucille”, a name he began giving all of his guitars early on in his music career, literally came from what most would consider dirt poor, and rose to the cream of the crop. (Lucille was a woman in BB Kings early career where an incident ensued over a fight for Lucille resulting in a fire where BB almost lost his guitar to the fire over this woman.)
By 1952, B.B. made it to the top of the Billboard Charts for rhythm and blues with his song “Three O’clock Blues”. From then on it was just one hit after another, for six decades and 50 albums later. B.B. is known for his strong guitar tone and his smoky deep vocals in his smooth mix of the traditional blues with a dash of country guitar tone. On the more risky side of B.B. Riley King, it has been reported that he was quite the ladies man in his career singing the blues. B.B. was married twice, both times ending in divorce due to his demanding career, however it has also been said that B.B. fathered 15 children by different women as well as in just one single year, had 341 one-night-stands! I can see where that could make for quite a bit of material for some blues music.
I remember listening to B.B. Kings music growing up in central Illinois. He was one of my favorite blues artists. I didn't know he lost both parents so young, that was a tragedy but he seems to have thrived in spite of it. 15 kids? Where did he find the time for that? That might give double meaning to his one night stands.
ReplyDelete