Biography Of BB King Essay, Research Paper

B.B. King was a blues singer and guitarist. His full name is

Riley B. King. He was born September 16, 1925, near Indianola,

Mississippi. An important aspect in King’s life was, of course, when

he was first exposed to the blues. ‘I guess the earliest sound of the

blues that I can rremember was in the fields while people would be

pickin’ cotton or choppin’ or somethin,’ ” he told Living Blues . ”

When I sing and play now I can hear those same sounds that I used to

hear then as a kid.”

B.B. King’s first musical influence came through religion. He was

a member of the Church of God In Christ. He was forbidden to play

blues at home. He sang in spiritual groups like the Elkhorn Singers

and the Saint John’s Gospel Singers. A relative who was a guitarist

and a preacher showed King his first chords on the instrument. As a

teenager he began playing streetcorners for coins, combining gospel

songs with the blues. When he started making more money playing in one

night then he would in a week on the farm, he decided to head to

Memphis. After a few years, King went back to Indianola to work and

repay some debts, eventually returning to Memphis to stay. King’s

trademark is the trilling vibrato he developed in an attempt to

duplicate the stinging sound of the steel slide. With the help of the

late Sonny Boy William- son he began singing radio commercials and

became a disc jockey. Later he played in small clubs, and then in

larger venues in the mid-1960’s. He has toured extensively through-

out the United States and around the world, appearing in concerts, at

blues festivals, on television, and in films. How did Riley B. King

receive the nickname B.B. King? Well, he was known as ” the blues boy

from Beale Street,” later shortened to B.B. “Riley B. King is the

world’s preeminent blues guitarist. There is hardly a rock, pop, or

blues player anywhere who doesn’t owe him something.” Frank Sinatra

and Nat Cole are two who use the “B.B. King style of blues.” Finally,

I leave you with a quote. In a Rolling Stone interview King stated; ”

I was always afraid to say that I was a blues singer. Because it

looked like people kind of looked down on you a lot of times when you

mention the word blues. But I thank God today I can stick out my chest

and say, yeah, I’m a blues singer!”