The MG Album Club #20 - BB King - King Of The Blues

[Old Uncle Toe]

Great moons of Mergatroid! 1960 was a hard year to pick from. Jazz was really popular, and even a non-jazz aficionado like me could recognize some standouts. There were three remarkable comedy albums that year. Blues was still big, folk music too. Some wonderful pop singers released albums. I found a classical album that I really, really wanted to feature. I could list nine picks that I eventually chose against, and those are only the ones I wrote down.

On my last go-around I found something that I could "introduce" some of you to. This time around the choices were overwhelming, so I just went with something comfortable, that those who like the genre and those who don't, can probably all enjoy.

BB King - King of the Blues

This guy needs no introduction. But you know me. I can't write a short post.

BB grew up in Mississippi, then moved to Memphis in his early years. You'd think he'd be emulating guys like Mississippi John Hurt - acoustic guitar licks, foot-stomping for percussion, grumbling out low-register phrases in between hard strums.

I don't know the influence, but his vocals are more like Sam Cooke than the old Delta Blues guys. And I think that's part of his magic. He has a wonderfully pure voice, travels up and down the octaves without sounding acrobatic and in it all, seems very good at emoting the lyrics. Again, not overdoing it, but putting feeling into it. You believe him when he sings.

As to his guitar playing, it always felt to me that he took Jazz very seriously, mixed it with Delta blues and came up with a knock-out formula. AMG says Django Reinhardt was an influence. I don't know a lot of Reinhardt, but I think you can hear him in King's style. And King has a wonderfully light touch on the strings, which I think is where he diverges from both Delta and Chicago blues and which makes him listenable even to those who aren't blues fans. (At least I hope so.)

I like King's early stuff. This is a compilation/re-release of some of his singles from the 50's. He's young in his career but you can hear his confidence and that he had, by that time, settled onto a style that would be his signature.

I hope you enjoy this softball.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

This was enjoyable, but kind of on the mild side. I prefer my blues to be grittier than this, or to at least rock more. Whereas this almost seems like pop blues music. There is a long history of blues musicians chasing mainstream success and this is another venerable example of it.

I give it: .

 

[Ojai Sam]

Spotify link:

 

[Old Uncle Toe]

Not a lot of excitement for old BB?

Spoiler: ...we could listen to something a little more interesting...

Harry Belafonte - Swing Dat Hammer

 

[Nickyboy]

Not a lot of excitement for old BB?

Spoiler: ...we could listen to something a little more interesting...

Harry Belafonte - Swing Dat Hammer

Now, now! You can't change fish midstream, just because there are bigger horses around the corner.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Not a lot of excitement for old BB?

Spoiler: ...we could listen to something a little more interesting...

Harry Belafonte - Swing Dat Hammer

No no
There’s plenty of folks who’ll enjoy it
I just haven’t gotten to it yet. It’s a good choice though

 

[axolotl]

Now, now! You can't change fish midstream, just because there are bigger horses around the corner.

Did you put all your metaphorical eggs in one basket and then throw them out with the bathwater?

 

[Nickyboy]

Did you put all your metaphorical eggs in one basket and then throw them out with the bathwater?

The eggs were gathering moss, so there was no way the water was going to boil. It had to be done.

 

[Nickyboy]

I am with RickB on this one. It strikes me as Blues 101 for White People. It's not bad. It's just kinda....there. No real excitement, no raw edges. I give it a 2.5/5.

Now I am going to check out some Belafonte!

 

[Ojai Sam]

I'm going to stand up for B.B. King here.

Blues music is a river with many tributaries. Thanks to folks like the Stones, Savoy Brown and other British blues revival bands, we tend to emphasize the gritty, rural sound of artists like Robert Johnson. But there has always been a smoother, urban strain going all the way back to Charles Brown right after WWII.

B.B. King, like Bobby "Blue" Bland, and a host of others developed a "crying" style backed by jazzy horn-driven arrangements that brought them huge popularity over the years. He melded that with unmatched instrumental virtuosity. It is no accident that King was able to cross over to mainstream success on a major label with string-drenched but still deeply emotional songs like "The Thrill Is Gone".

This album contains two Top Ten R&B hits ("Got A Right To Love My Baby" and "Partin' Time") but there isn't a weak track in the bunch. If he wound up selling out in his later years, hey, so did Elvis.

on the Sam-O-Meter. He IS King.

 

[axolotl]

I'm going to stand up for B.B. King here.

Blues music is a river with many tributaries. Thanks to folks like the Stones, Savoy Brown and other British blues revival bands, we tend to emphasize the gritty, rural sound of artists like Robert Johnson. But there has always been a smoother, urban strain going all the way back to Charles Brown right after WWII.

B.B. King, like Bobby "Blue" Bland, and a host of others developed a "crying" style backed by jazzy horn-driven arrangements that brought them huge popularity over the years. He melded that with unmatched instrumental virtuosity. It is no accident that King was able to cross over to mainstream success on a major label with string-drenched but still deeply emotional songs like "The Thrill Is Gone".

This album contains two Top Ten R&B hits ("Got A Right To Love My Baby" and "Partin' Time") but there isn't a weak track in the bunch. If he wound up selling out in his later years, hey, so did Elvis.

on the Sam-O-Meter. He IS King.

Play it once, Sam, for old times' sake ....Play it, Sam.

 

[Nickyboy]

Sam schools us yunguns because we ain't got the history. Fair enough. BUT....is it really right to call your second album "King" of the Blues? Brass balls.

 

[axolotl]

Sam schools us yunguns because we ain't got the history. Fair enough. BUT....is it really right to call your second album "King" of the Blues? Brass balls.

I might as well throw in, here. I doubt that B. B. had a ton of clout with what he called his second album.

His last name is "King," and the marketing agents of 1960 might have been having a bit of play on names.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Sam schools us yunguns because we ain't got the history. Fair enough. BUT....is it really right to call your second album "King" of the Blues? Brass balls.

@Nickyboy, remember that R&B, like early rock & roll, was primarily about singles, not albums. By the time this album came out, ol' B.B. had already enjoyed 21 hit singles over a span of nine years, including four #1's. I'd say he earned his Crown.

 

[Nickyboy]

Schooled. Yet again.

 

[axolotl]

Schooled. Yet again.

I - for one - am truly humbled by Sam's masterful ethnomusicological background. We have knowledge and wisdom bound up in our site's benevolent savior master owner Jefe.

 

[axolotl]

I - for one - am truly humbled by Sam's masterful ethnomusicological background. We have knowledge and wisdom bound up in our site's benevolent savior master owner Jefe.

I neglected to add: The thrill is not gone; it's still here.

 

[lpfreak1170]

I'm going to stand up for B.B. King here.

Blues music is a river with many tributaries. Thanks to folks like the Stones, Savoy Brown and other British blues revival bands, we tend to emphasize the gritty, rural sound of artists like Robert Johnson. But there has always been a smoother, urban strain going all the way back to Charles Brown right after WWII.

B.B. King, like Bobby "Blue" Bland, and a host of others developed a "crying" style backed by jazzy horn-driven arrangements that brought them huge popularity over the years. He melded that with unmatched instrumental virtuosity. It is no accident that King was able to cross over to mainstream success on a major label with string-drenched but still deeply emotional songs like "The Thrill Is Gone".

This album contains two Top Ten R&B hits ("Got A Right To Love My Baby" and "Partin' Time") but there isn't a weak track in the bunch. If he wound up selling out in his later years, hey, so did Elvis.

on the Sam-O-Meter. He IS King.

This post right here!! for me, too.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Realized that I had not yet reviewed this - considering how much I enjoy blues rock (and rock in general considering it's relationship to the blues), it often amazes me how little I pull out blues albums. I enjoy it when I do, but it's certainly not a genre to which I gravitate. I would say (and this is a generalization) that it could be the lyrical simplicity, but (really) how complex lyrically are early Beatles or Elvis songs. Whatever the reasons, I don't break it out as much as say rock, funk/soul, or jazz. Still, appreciate it, and always enjoy spending some time with live blues at the Blues Tent at New Orleans Jazz Fest. Never got to see B.B. King, but he is such a towering presence that I have heard a lot of his music. Sam's description of the different styles of blues is a great-one, and I for one enjoy blues with a "smoother, urban strain" (including Charles Brown and Bobby "Blue" Bland. It's a style that just as easily morphs into soul (and such artists can be heard in, say, the Stax artists of Memphis) as rock.
Great, classic album - (probably should even be 4-1/2 if I was more of a fan of blues in general). Thanks, OUT!

 

[axolotl]

I have known for awhile that I needed to give this the fair shake it deserves. While I tend (also) to lean more toward the grittier blues of Robert Johnson, Son House, and Muddy Waters, there has been an ever-evolving melding of the styles, such that the mighty Mississippi with all its tributaries flow into the Delta.

In any event, and despite whatever my brain-meets-word-salad is currently conjuring, I give it and say with aplomb (a plum?), I quite like this album by Mr. B. B. King.

Need I say more? No, you implore; you've said already said enough and yet nothing, already.