B. B. King: Let the Good Times Roll

[Jack Rabbit]

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[randys1]

1. The influence on my life, amazing.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

2. I met him back stage in Paris in 1968

He was unbelievably kind. I was at his concert at the Salle Pleyel with a group of local musicians (seven of us) including two black guys from Djibouti who had an outrageously gorgeous sister. When B.B. saw their sister back stage, it looked like the eyes would pop out of his head she was so beautiful and I spent a few minutes translating his questions to her. B.B. was a nice guy, let some of us guitarists take a few strums on his red Gibson ES 335 he called "Lucille", and gave each of us an autograph and one of his guitar picks (Fender "heavy" - I still have them in an envelope at home). A year later when I returned to the States to spend a year in Oakland, California, I walked past Mr. "Blues Boy" , B.B. in a music store and he did a double take. I shook his hand again. He was a great guy, completely without ego it seems, and very down to Earth and kind.

If there is an afterlife, may he find the heaven he richly deserved.

[Half-Century Man]

3. Today was a bad day.

I dropped my breakfast on the floor.
The cat bit me.
My right front wheel bearing started to go out.
I now have to spend the rest of whatever time I have left; on a world without BB King. From the moment I was born, he was somewhere turning pain and hardship into something manageable through music. An amazing skill.
How do you honor a man who had more influence of American music by accident than Ted Nugent did with a lifetime of dedicated commitment?
Which mountain to we hack into his face?

[lovemydog]

4. I'm really enjoying seeing lots of his performances on youtube.

This is a great one. I especially like some of his performances in prisons, and some of the ones where he's sitting in with other great guitarists like Robert Cray. You get a sense that he was a very kind man who respected the music and respected other musicians. I was fortunate enough to see him once, at the Fox Theater in Detroit, MI. Such a unique sound he got from his guitar, Lucille. When you hear him play you know it's the one and only B.B. King. Rest in peace Mr. King.

[lovemydog]

5. Sing Sing, 1972