“The King of Blues”…”The Chairman Of The Board”…”The Beale Street Blues Boy”… Riley B.B. King.
B.B. is the most famous of the “Three Kings” and now in his 80s the only one of the three still alive and like the other two it was one track, as is normally the case, I heard that got me buying B.B. discs. Probably again his most famous track “The Thrill Is Gone”.
It was on a TV programme and it still ranks as one of my favourite songs of all time, it might even be my number one. Got it all great feel, great lyrics and great music.
So it was off to the record shops again, this time it was a little easier, B.B. being a bit more known than Albert or Freddie in dumps like Virgin and HMV. It didn’t have that track but I’d read that “Live At The Regal” was the B.B. album you had to get and they were right, 35 minutes of jumping, swinging blues with one of the great voices and great guitar players.
More followed, bits from the 50s, from the 60s and some from the 70s, my favourites are still the Regal show and “Live At Cook County Jail”, seems B.B. is at his best when feeding of a crowd, reacting with them, telling stories and getting a laugh and a cheer. Even when the crowd is a bunch of convicts, who save their booing for our “own beloved Sheriff Woods and Judge Joseph Power”. The only problem is at under 40 mins each there just ain’t enough of them.
Most of the B.B. videos I tried out on YouTube didn’t seem to want to load, oh well.