Do you know who the king of the blues is? Or do you know what blues is? Blues is a type of music that originated amongst African-American’s in the south of the U.S. around the 1860’s. Riley B. King, known as B.B King was called the king of blues and won a lot of awards for his music. Riley was born on September 16, 1925, by Itta Bena, Mississippi, U.S. In his young life, gospel and Delta music was a influence on his singing. Then King got his influence on the guitar by T-Bone Walker, Django Reinhardt, and Charlie Christian. King hit a record of “Three O’clock Blues” in 1951, after that he continued to make music and touring around the country and other parts of the world. Some of his long successful hits include- “Woke Up This Morning”, “Everyday Day I Have the Blues”, “Why I Sing The Blues”, “My Lucille” and my personal favorite “The Thrill Is Gone”, and a bunch of other songs that are still one of his greatest hits till this day. His song ‘”The Thrill Is Gone” won him is first 15 Grammy Awards.
By the Late 1960’s rock guitarist were noticing more of his influence and started to introduced him to a larger white public community. King toured many places and eventually claimed the title “King of Blues”. he was a regular on billboards through the 1980’s. Now that you know a little about his music career and where he started to get and influence, let’s start from the beginning before the fame. As a child King sang with his church choirs and he learned the basic guitar chords from his preacher and uncle. King only performed religious music in his household. King would play the blues on the corner of his church. He enlisted in the army during World War 2. The “B.B” in B.B king stands Blues Boy, which came from a Memphis disc jokey, the Beale Street Blues Boy.
Blues was very important to the African American’s because that is how they healed after everything they went through and found freedom in the retheme of blues. This music allowed them to express their humanity in a society of discrimination and inequality. The Blues let them express that they matter to, that there they were human to and no different from anyone else.
The blues meant more than just music to Riley B. King, the blues was apart of who he was as a person. In some quotes you can see it was more than just music. “The blues are a simple music, and I’m a simple man. But the blues aren’t a science; the blues can’t be broken down like mathematics. The blues are a mystery, and mysteries are never as simple as they look.” – B.B King. “The blues was bleeding the same blood as me.” – B.B King. “As a little kid, blues meant hope, excitement, pure emotion. Blues were about feelings. They seem to bring out the feelings of the artist and they brought out my feelings as a kid. They made me wanna move, or sing, or pick up Reverend’s guitar and figure out how to make those wonderful sounds.” – B.B King. “I could see the blues was about survival.” – B.B King.
They made a museum for B.B King on January 2004 in his home town of Indianola, Mississippi and it opened on September 13, 2008. According to the website of the museum “The B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center tells the story of King’s life, his career, and stories of the Delta—its history and music, social mores and race relations, literature and legends, adversities and successes. You’ll find it in B.B.’s hometown of Indianola, which sits squarely in the middle of the Mississippi Delta, the land that gave birth to American music.” On the website it also tells you, “He started life as Riley B. King in one of America’s most impoverished places, the Mississippi Delta. He had little but the dream in his heart and a destiny that would take him around the world. Because of his international fame, music lovers from every part of the globe beg for more about the man who became B.B. King.”
When The King Of Blues Has Died
Riley B. King, the King Of Blues died on May 14, 2015 in Las Vegas Nevada by a life long battle with his diabetes. A man who helped make electric blues more popular, who brought large audience’s from all over the world to experience the Blues dies at the age of 89. Even though King has passed away He is and will always be the legend who inspired lots of people with the rhythm of the blues. If you want to know more, go to the sources provided.
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/B-B-King
https://www.cnn.com/2015/05/15/entertainment/bb-king-dead/index.html
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/b-b-king-blues-legend-dead-at-89-68126
