Today marks what would be B.B. King's 94th birthday. His early style of refined playing built a bridge to the blues for the rest of the music world. Read liledit's appreciation of King from 2015:
King, who died in Las Vegas on Thursday, is the one most people know: that he played the blues on a guitar he’d named Lucille. But that ax and her tone, while melodic and often transcendent, are the least of King’s contributions. In fact, Lucille’s presence has nearly eclipsed her owner’s striking influence on American music.
As he did so, King recorded a string of sublime blues, R&B and blues-soul gems including “The Three O’Clock Blues,” “Sweet Little Angel,” “Woke Up This Morning” and his 1969 crossover hit, “The Thrill Is Gone.” Through the decades the musician became the genre’s most visible figure, the so-called King of the Blues. A tireless monarch, King toured hundreds of dates a year.
In his 1996 autobiography, “Blues All Around Me,” King recalled being awed at first by the scene around Beale, where intermingling sounds of guitar, harmonica, brass, woodwind and string players awakened him. “I stood spellbound. I wasn’t about to play; all I could do was listen and learn,” he wrote. “Before Beale Street, I thought I was pretty hot stuff. After Beale Street, I knew I stunk. The cats could play rings around me.
While the white boys went one direction, blues and R&B were experiencing their own revolution through King and kindred spirits Ike Turner, Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, who were amplifying and expanding the music. “B.B. Blues” from 1950 opens with a honking sax worthy of a burlesque act before erupting with back-beat rhythm and King’s crisp, single-note melody runs. It, too, didn’t make much of a dent amid hits by Johnny Otis, Ivory Joe Hunter and Ruth Brown.King’s breakout song, “Three O’Clock Blues,” helped define his style. The lushly recorded lament opens with a tight guitar line; he bends his notes with finesse. The song crawls along like the endless night King describes.
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