THE THRILL IS STILL HERE FOR THE KING OF BLUES IT ALL BEGAN WITH $12.50-A-NIGHT GIG IN TENNESSEE.Byline: Sandra Barrera Staff Writer B.B. King is about to kick off his 60th Anniversary Tour on Saturday with a show at the Kodak Theatre The Kodak Theatre is a live theatre in the Hollywood and Highland retail, dining, and entertainment complex on Hollywood Boulevard and North Highland Avenue in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. , and the bluesman can't help but wax sentimental. He still remembers the first time he took the stage at the Sixteenth Avenue Grill in West Memphis West Memphis (mĕm`fĭs), city (1990 pop. 28,259), Crittenden co., NE Ark., next to the Mississippi River (there bridged to Memphis, Tenn.); founded c.1910 as Bragg's Spur, inc. as a city under its present name 1927. . Sonny Boy Williamson Sonny Boy Williamson may refer to either of two 20th-century American blues harmonica players:
``I must have done a good job because the lady that owned the place said, `If you work for me, I'll pay you 12 dollars and a half a night and give you room and board,'' King says, adding that his last job driving tractors only paid $22.50 a week. ``To make 12 dollars and half a night playing guitar was unbelievable.'' What's even more unbelievable is how King, who is now 81 and suffering from bad knees and diabetes, has kept up his rigorous schedule of playing hundreds of shows a year since 1948. And much of that time was spent toiling on the fringes until the '70s rolled around and the mainstream came to regard the man who popularized ``The Thrill Is Gone'' as the most influential and beloved blues artist in the world. ``He's an American icon,'' says Scott Barretta, a former editor of Living Blues Living Blues, the journal of the African-American blues tradition, is America's oldest and most authoritative blues periodical. Founded in Chicago in 1970, Living Blues has set the standard for blues history, culture, and journalism worldwide. magazine and a content consultant for the forthcoming B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in Mississippi. ``You hear three seconds of his music, and right away you know exactly who he is.'' A guitarist's guitarist King's pungent lyrical style -- a string bending, left-hand vibrato vi·bra·to n. pl. vi·bra·tos A tremulous or pulsating effect produced in an instrumental or vocal tone by minute and rapid variations in pitch. that mimics a human voice -- has influenced virtually every blues-based guitarist in the post-war era, from Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck to Stevie Ray Stevie Ray may refer to:
With his ES-345 Gibson that he lovingly calls Lucille and his velvety vel·vet·y adj. vel·vet·i·er, vel·vet·i·est 1. Suggestive of the texture of velvet; soft and smooth: velvety skin. 2. singing voice, he has changed the vocabulary of the blues. ``To say he's the most famous blues guitarist in the world isn't saying very much because there's nobody in second place,'' Barretta says. But King is too modest to accept such praise despite a growing collection of accolades, including an honorary doctorate of music from Yale University Yale University, at New Haven, Conn.; coeducational. Chartered as a collegiate school for men in 1701 largely as a result of the efforts of James Pierpont, it opened at Killingworth (now Clinton) in 1702, moved (1707) to Saybrook (now Old Saybrook), and in 1716 was , an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, dedicated to recording the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, and other people who have in some major way influenced the music industry, particularly in and his 14th Grammy just last year for the all-star collaboration ``80.'' Presidential recognition In December he was invited to the White House so President Bush could present him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom Medal of Freedom highest award given a U.S. citizen; established 1963. [Am. Hist.: Misc.] See : Prize , the nation's highest civilian honor. ``How often does a boy from Mississippi born out in the country on a plantation get to have the president of the United States The head of the Executive Branch, one of the three branches of the federal government. The U.S. Constitution sets relatively strict requirements about who may serve as president and for how long. put a medal around his neck? I don't want to say it too much because then you lose the sense of time,'' he says, ``but I was out of this world for a few minutes.'' Riley B. King was born to sharecroppers in the town of Itta Bena, Miss., near Indianola where the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center is set to open in spring 2008. With his blessing, the museum is where artifacts artifacts see specimen artifacts. from his life and his 60-year career will be on permanent display, serving as a historical bridge from his impoverished childhood in the segregated Jim Crow Jim Crow Negro stereotype popularized by 19th-century minstrel shows. [Am. Hist.: Van Doren, 138] See : Bigotry South to his reign as the modern-day King of the Blues. The museum is being built on the last brick cotton gin in Mississippi where King says he once worked. If ``cotton gin'' sounds like something from another world, King will be the first to say it was. ``During the time I was growing up, you couldn't just go up to a water fountain and drink,'' he says. ``You had to look at it first and see what it said. If it said colored, you'd drink. If it said whites, you didn't. People wouldn't think about that today, but back then we had to be careful.'' It's no wonder that he regards Feb. 15, 2005, when he stood in the Mississippi Senate at the State Capitol in Jackson as ``the greatest thing that's happened to me in my career.'' The legislature had met to honor its favorite son. ``The governor, the lieutenant governor, the legislators of the state -- they stopped for one whole hour just to chat with me,'' King says. ``I swayed and swayed until I cried. I couldn't believe this could happen to B.B. King, but it did. ``I feel like the Prodigal Son when I go back to my home state of Mississippi,'' he says. ``I feel like a real citizen, a real American boy.'' Sandra Barrera, (818) 713-3728, sandra.barrera@dailynews.com B.B. KING Where: Kodak Theatre, 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. When: 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets: $35.50 to $116. (213) 480-3232 www.ticketmaster.com. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Blues legend B.B. King brings his 60th Anniversary Tourto Hollywood on Sunday. The 81-year-old singer-guitarist, who has a total of 14 Grammys to his name, launched his professional career in 1947 in Memphis. Robyn Beck/Getty Images |
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