BB King – he was alive at the time but he never showed up. Now the thrill has gone.
I believe they make guitars
Inside BB King’s where the tables are painted with Blues guys.
Stax where Otis Redding, Aretha Franklyn and Booker T & the MGs recorded.
Round the corner from Stax Records
OK – Riley B King is not the last of the great Blues Singers – we still have the great Buddy Guy, Billy Boy Arnold and Lazy Lester – but he was a giant of a Blues Singer and Guitarist. But BB was one of the best.
The great years of Chicago was when Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf were slugging it out to be cock of the roost, Elmore James was searing out those unparalleled slide guitar riffs, Sonny Boy Williamson (the 2nd) was laying down his harp wailing stories and the Little Walter, James Cotton, Otis Spann and Shaky Horton providing ample support. Then there was the incredible John Lee Hooker.
Those were the great years of Electric Blues. Albert King was laying it down with Stax in Memphis and then there was the brilliance of Magic Sam, T-Bone Walker, Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson, Albert Collins, Otis Rush, Freddy King and Slim Harpo. From the melting pot of New Orleans all through Louisiana and Mississippi up to Memphis and on to Chicago in the industrial north the Blues was flourishing.
BB King was a giant in this competitive forum. As a young kid he secured a spot on WDAI radio in Memphis and never looked back. He still busked on street corners though. His articulate voice and unique guitar style of slick, fluent runs were ideal in his brilliant story-telling blues. He excelled on numbers like ‘Everyday I have the Blues’, ‘Why I sing the Blues’, ‘The Thrill has Gone’, ‘Lucille’ and the great ‘When Love Comes to Town’.
BB King got himself the reputation of being the hardest working man on the circuit. He often played 365 concerts a year. It was testament to the love he felt for his music. He set up clubs in Memphis and Chicago and gained a huge following.
He went on performing right up to the end and has now died at the age of eighty nine. He was a real link to those early years of rural Blues in Mississippi. We’ll miss him but he has left us a brilliant legacy of music.
Thanks Riley! You made the world a better place.
The Thrill has gone! We’re the poorer for its passing.
This is the hotel we stayed at in Memphis.
This is Sun Studios with its Pink Cadillac outside. Where Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Sonny Burgess and Billy Lee Riley recorded.
This is the Gibson guitar factory
This is BB King’s Blues club in Memphis on Beale Street
Highway 61 the home of the Blues. Where Robert Johnson sold his soul at the crossroads and Son House taught him how to p;lay.
On to Nashville – home of Country
The Ryman – home of the Grand ole Opry where Elvis performed
Nashville Country Music Hall of Fame
Elvis’s Cabin in Tupelo where he grew up.
Graceland
It’s written from the stand-point of the whole Black people, not just an individual. It highlights the betrayal, deceit, slavery, poverty, injustice, violence, poor education, poor housing and victimisation that has dogged the Black experience.
Once we recognise it we can begin to put it right. There’s no room in the world for racism.
Why I Sing The Blues
Everybody wants to know
Why I sing the blues
Yes, I say everybody wanna know
Why I sing the blues
Well, I’ve been around a long time
I really have paid my dues
When I first got the blues
They brought me over on a ship
Men were standing over me
And a lot more with a whip
And everybody wanna know
Why I sing the blues
Well, I’ve been around a long time
Mm, I’ve really paid my dues
I’ve laid in a ghetto flat
Cold and numb
I heard the rats tell the bedbugs
To give the roaches some
Everybody wanna know
Why I’m singing the blues
Yes, I’ve been around a long time
People, I’ve paid my dues
I stood in line
Down at the County Hall
I heard a man say, “We’re gonna build
Some new apartments for y’all”
And everybody wanna know
Yes, they wanna know
Why I’m singing the blues
Yes, I’ve been around a long, long time
Yes, I’ve really, really paid my dues
Now I’m gonna play Lucille.
My kid’s gonna grow up
Gonna grow up to be a fool
‘Cause they ain’t got no more room
No more room for him in school
And everybody wanna know
Everybody wanna know
Why I’m singing the blues
I say I’ve been around a long time
Yes, I’ve really paid some dues
Yeah, you know the company told me
Guess you’re born to lose
Everybody around me, people
It seems like everybody got the blues
But I had ’em a long time
I’ve really, really paid my dues
You know I ain’t ashamed of it, people
I just love to sing my blues
I walk through the cities, people
On my bare feet
I had a fill of catfish and chitterlings
Up in Downbill Street
You know I’m singing the blues
Yes, I really
I just have to sing my blues
I’ve been around a long time
People, I’ve really, really paid my dues
Now Father Time is catching up with me
Gone is my youth
I look in the mirror everyday
And let it tell me the truth
I’m singing the blues
Mm, I just have to sing the blues
I’ve been around a long time
Yes, yes, I’ve really paid some dues
Yeah, they told me everything
Would be better out in the country
Everything was fine
I caught me a bus uptown, baby
And every people, all the people
Got the same trouble as mine
I got the blues, huh huh
I say I’ve been around a long time
I’ve really paid some dues
One more time, fellows!
Blind man on the corner
Begging for a dime
The rollers come and caught him
And throw him in the jail for a crime
I got the blues
Mm, I’m singing my blues
I’ve been around a long time
Mm, I’ve really paid some dues
Can we do just one more?
Oh I thought I’d go down to the welfare
To get myself some grits and stuff
But a lady stand up and she said
“You haven’t been around long enough”
That’s why I got the blues
Mm, the blues
I say, I’ve been around a long time
I’ve really, really paid my dues
Fellows, tell them one more time.
Ha, ha, ha. That’s all right, fellows.
Yeah!
