B. B. King made a visit last night, so I decided to pedal over and visit a legend. His name is really Riley B. King who came from Indianola in the delta. He grew up picking cotton, up to 400lbs a day for 35 cents a hundred pounds. He claimed no one could pick more cotton a day than him.He drove tractors and sang spirituals before coming to Memphis in 1947, where he worked up and down Beale Street playing in different clubs. He was good and authentic and earned the nickname, Beale Street Blues Boy, which was eventually shortened to B. B. About the same time Sam Phillips came to Memphis to be the first white man to record black music and recorded B. B. and his friend Ike Turner, which paved the way for the recording of white guys singing black music as he discovered Elvis, Cash, Perkins, Orbison, and Jerry Lee Lewis.
B. B. King 80 years young
The first time he recorded for Sam he revealed that he could not play the guitar and sing at the same time. "Can't you sing and play at the same time?" Phillips asked him. "Mr. Phillips that's the only way I ever played," he answered. "What ever you do," Phillips told him, "don't change it. Just keep it natural."
Now nearly 60 years later B. B. King is still playing over 200 nights a year and alternating between singing and playing his guitar. A true living legend in the transformation of American music to where we are today.
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