Blues guitar legend BB King dies aged 89
Print Edition
BB King believed anyone could play the blues, and that “as long as people have problems, the blues can never die.”
But no one could play like BB King, who died Thursday night at age 89 in Las Vegas, where he was in hospice care.
Although he kept performing well into his 80s, he suffered from diabetes and other problems. He collapsed during a concert in Chicago last October, later blaming dehydration and exhaustion.
For generations of blues musicians and rock’n’rollers, King’s plaintive vocals and soaring guitar playing style set the standard for an art form born in the American South and honored and performed worldwide. After the deaths of Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters decades ago, King was the greatest upholder of a tradition that inspired everyone from Jimi Hendrix and Robert Cray to the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton.
King played a Gibson guitar he called Lucille, with a style that included beautifully crafted single-string runs punctuated by loud chords, subtle vibratos and bent notes, building on the standard 12-bar blues and improvising like a jazz master.
The result could hypnotize an audience, no more so than when King used it to full effect on his signature song, “The Thrill is Gone.” After seemingly make his guitar cry in anguish as he told the tale of forsaken love, he ended the lyrics with a guttural shouting of the song’s final two lines: “Now that it’s all over, all I can do is wish you well.”
King was named the third greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. He won 15 Grammys and sold more than 40 million records worldwide.
Riley B King was born September 16, 1925, on a tenant farm near Itta Bena in the Mississippi Delta and worked picking cotton as a child. A preacher uncle taught him the guitar, and King didn’t play and sing blues in earnest until he was with the army during World War II.
Initial success came with his third recording, of “Three O’Clock Blues” in 1950. He made his first European tour in 1968, played in 14 cities with the Rolling Stones in 1969.
In a June 2006 interview, King said there are plenty of great musicians now performing who will keep the blues alive.
“I could name so many that I think that you won’t miss me at all when I’m not around. You’ll maybe miss seeing my face, but the music will go on,” he said.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 娌狪CP璇侊細娌狪CP澶05050403鍙-1
- |
- 浜掕仈缃戞柊闂讳俊鎭湇鍔¤鍙瘉锛31120180004
- |
- 缃戠粶瑙嗗惉璁稿彲璇侊細0909346
- |
- 骞挎挱鐢佃鑺傜洰鍒朵綔璁稿彲璇侊細娌瓧绗354鍙
- |
- 澧炲肩數淇′笟鍔＄粡钀ヨ鍙瘉锛氭勃B2-20120012
Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
