B.B. King Essay, Research Paper

Song Daniel Mullican 3rd

The song I Don t Know didn t have that big of an impact on society and I chose it knowing that, I have chosen the song because of the impact of the music on society. The culture that was associated to 1952 was one that had close families and honest simple people. The music of the time that preluded the 50’s was nice mellow and good quality music nothing that had big loud noises or anything out of the ordinary. Then the fifties came along and brought all kinds of music like blues, rock n roll, and R&B. The black musicians did not have any kind of big roll in the music industries until the fifties. The blacks always had sort of their own kind of music is what some of the people would say. When B.B. King began playing the blues and don t get me wrong because he was not the first at any means but he was the one that sticks out in all of our heads, he laid the path for many other wonderful musicians to follow.

Riley B. King was born on September 16, 1925, on a cotton plantation in Itta Bene, Mississippi, just outside the Mississippi delta town of Indianola. He used to play on the corner of Church and Second Street for dimes and would sometimes play in as many as four towns on a Saturday night. With his guitar and $2.50, he hitchhiked north to Memphis, Tennessee, in 1947 to pursue his musical career. Memphis was the city where every important musician of the South went and which supported a large, competitive musical community where virtually every black musical style was heard. B.B. stayed with his cousin Bukka White, one of the most renowned rural blues performers of his time, who schooled B.B. further in the art of the blues.

B.B.’s first big break came in 1948 when he performed on Sonny Boy Williamson’s radio program on KWEM out of West Memphis. This led to steady performance engagements at the Sixteenth Avenue Grill in West Memphis and later to a ten minute spot on black staffed and managed radio station WDIA. “King’s Spot” and became so popular that it was increased in length and became the “Sepia Swing Club”. Soon, B.B. needed a catchy radio name. What started out as Beale Street Blues Boy was shortened to Blues Boy King, and eventually B.B. King. Incidentally, King’s middle initial “B” is just that, it is not an abbreviation.

In the mid-1950’s while B.B. was performing at a dance in Twist, Arkansas, a few fans became unruly. Two men got into a fight and knocked over a kerosene stove, setting fire to the hall. B.B. raced outdoors to safety with everyone else, but then realized that he left his $30 guitar inside, so he rushed back inside to retrieve it, narrowly escaping death. When he later found out that the fight had been over a woman named Lucille, he decided to give the name to his guitar. Each one of B.B.’s guitars since that time have been called Lucille.

Soon after his number one hit, “I Don t Know”, B.B. began touring nationally, and he has never stopped. In 1956 B.B. and his band played an astonishing 342 one night stands. From the chitlin circuit with its small town cafes, ghetto theaters, country dance halls, and roadside joints to jazz clubs, rock palaces, symphony concert halls, college concerts, resort hotels and prestigious concert halls nationally and internationally, B.B. has become the most renowned blues musician of the past 40 years.

Over the years, B.B. has developed one of the world’s most readily identified guitar styles. His economy, his every note counts phrasing, has been a model for thousands of players including Eric Clapton, George Harrison and Jeff Beck. This list of famous guitar artist just goes to show what one person can do when he puts all of his efforts in it. B.B. King was one of the greatest artist of all times and his music is still being produced now, and still has a big impact on the blues community and the music industry as a whole.