Episode 15 B. B. King Early Years

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 EPISODE 15 B. B. KING  Early Years

Episode 15 is about the life and musical career of the legendary and iconic Blues Master B. B. King. 

The titles of releases on my label Big Guitar Music the songs are taken from in this episode include Big Leg Beat,  I Told You So, and Courts of Lu Lu.

A music track playlist for this podcast is available on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple, and YouTube for your listening pleasure.

The musicians featured in the tracks on this episode are Barry “Frosty” Smith, Bill Averbach, Bruce Jones, Gene Brandon, Gerry “Phareaux” Felton, Hugh Garraway, Omar Dykes, Reese Wynans, Richie Price, Spencer Starres, Wes Starr

Omar's picks for the early years of B.B. King's career are the record My Kind of Blues released on Crown Records. I really like the songs on it, especially "Walking Dr. Bill," the album Live at The Regal on ABC Records, a classic release where everything went right and includes another impeccable song list, and finally, The Jungle on Kent Records. 

Visit my website for more info  www.omarandthehowlers.com

Thank you to Matthew Garza (Upwork.com) for his work mastering this podcast.

Transcript

EPISODE 15 B. B. KING Early Years   

Omar Dykes: Welcome to Brown Shoes Blues. The Blues Master featured today is B.B. King, one of the most beloved blues artists of all times. B.B. King's early years, and the rise to fame has always been a mystery to me. I was aware of this title, King of the Blues, from quite an early age, but in no way did I identify him as a Delta musician. I didn't really understand what incorporated the sound of a true Delta musician, but I did know that B.B. King's styles sounded like modern blues to me. I will talk more about this later in the episode.

B.B. King was born Riley Ben King on September the 16th, 1925, on a plantation near the small town of Itta Bena located in Leflore County Mississippi. B.B. King had often hinted that he was born in Indianola, Mississippi, but I think Indianola was his adopted hometown of choice. B.B. did work at a cotton gin in Indianola, but it is actually quite a few miles west of Itta Bena and in Sunflower County, not LeFlore County. The B.B. King Museum later founded in the building that housed the gin in which he worked was indeed in Indianola. This controversy about where King was born has been an ongoing argument for many years. I have seen both Itta Bena and Indianola cited as his birthplace many times in different publications. Once again, you choose.

B.B. King's parents were sharecroppers and separated when he was four years old. He and his mother moved to a farm 60 miles east of Itta Bena, and she worked on the farm until she died when B.B. was nine years old. B.B. stayed on the farm located in Kilmichael, Mississippi, and worked there as a farm hand for the family who owned the farm.

When King was 14, his father moved him back to live with him in the Indianola area. His new family introduced him to guitars, and he was soon allowed to practice playing the guitar on Sunday afternoons. The young B.B. King stayed busy by listening to the radio and phonograph records to add to his influences. He soon fell under the spell of T-Bone Walker, Elmore James, Dr. Clayton, and Louis Jordan. These are great people to fall under the spell of. B.B. has said that he would have been perfectly happy to play just like T-Bone Walker or Lonnie Johnson if he could have. No, B.B. could not play exactly like Django Reinhardt or Charlie Christian, but you can definitely hear traces of these artists in his playing. King has also stated that he loved the guitar skills of both Kenny Burrell and Barney Kessel but said he would never come close to having the technical expertise to execute the guitar passages they played. B.B. had a young aunt who let him listen to her Victrola, and she turned him on to Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lonnie Johnson, both of whom became huge influences on the boy. He was able to acquire his own guitar and formed a gospel quartet to perform in the local churches. B.B. had caught the music bug and now there was no stopping him.

Not long after diving headfirst into his new musical journey, King joined the Army in 1943. During his brief stint in the Armed Forces, B.B., who was now 18, was exposed to the music of the French gypsy guitarist, Django Reinhardt and the jazzy guitar playing of Charlie Christian with the Benny Goodman Band. B.B. was smitten and began to play blues guitar while he was stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia. He was in and out of the Army in less than a year and returned to Indianola to drive a tractor on the plantation in the area.

After the war ended, King left the Delta and moved to Memphis, Tennessee, following in the footsteps of his older cousin, Delta musician, Bukka White. Before settling in Memphis, White had spent a couple of years in Parchman Farm Penitentiary and served his time for whatever wrong he had done. He was living in the big music city in Tennessee and making a pretty good name for himself. B.B. has said many times that he derived his intense left-hand vibrato on the fretboard of the guitar because he was trying to imitate the slide guitar sound of his cousin playing a National resonator guitar. This created an indelible mark on the guitar style from then on. King never struck me as a Blues intern or apprentice learning the craft by studying under others. Bukka White may have been the only musician from the Delta area who had any influence on B.B. whatsoever, which was probably due to their kinship of being cousins.

After staying with Bukka for 10 months, King returned to Mississippi to become more prepared for his next trip to Memphis. Two years later, he went to the West Memphis Arkansas area, right across the river from Memphis proper. He was able to perform on Sonny Boy Williamson's KWEM Radio Show, which helped him to develop an audience. He did ads for Pepticon, the patent medicine cure all and began to be called the Pepticon Boy. His appearances on this radio show help him to get a job playing at the 16th Avenue Grill in West Memphis that led to King securing a 10-minute program on Memphis, Tennessee Radio Station, WDIA. This radio spot proved to be so popular that the time was extended to become the Sepia Swing Club Program. After he started broadcasting as a DJ, people started calling him the Beale Street Blues Boy. This was soon shortened to B.B. King. Riley King enjoyed becoming B.B. King, and his reputation on WDIA was making him a celebrity up and down Beale Street and in the entire Memphis area. B.B. King had arrived and was on his way.

That was "Caledonia" written by Louis Jordan and recorded by B.B. King and also me from my first release in 1980 called Big Leg Beat.

B.B. King was married twice in his lifetime. His first wife was Martha Denton, and they were married from 1946 until 1952. With the help of radio station, WDIA, King was able to make his first recording. WDIA pulled some strings with the Bullet label in Nashville, and B.B. recorded "Miss Martha King," an original song about his wife. His second wife was Sue Carroll Hall. They were married in Detroit by Aretha Franklin's father, Reverend CL Franklin. They were married from 1958 until 1966. Both marriages were said to have failed because of B.B.'s tremendous workload and nonstop touring. King was just too busy to be married, so he never got married again. Bullet Records did not follow up on their option to record a second selection by King, which began a lengthy recording career with the Bihara brothers who were introduced to King by his friend Ike Turner, talent scout for Bihara's Modern Records.

In 1949, B.B. started recording with the brothers on their RPM Record Company based in Los Angeles, California. King was with the label for many years. Even though King's contract with the Bihara brothers was terminated around 1961, they continued to release albums into the late sixties. B.B. recorded on the brothers' labels, RPM, Modern, United, Kent, and Crown imprints with a record coming out on Kent in 1968 called In the Beginning. I have always loved B.B.'s work, but I have a special love for his recordings by the Bihara Brothers. A few of the single records include "You Upset Me, Baby," "Every Day I Have the Blues," "Woke Up This Morning," "Three O'Clock Blues," "Sweet Little Angel," "Crying Won't Help You," "When My Heart Beats Like a Hammer," "You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now," "Walking Dr. Bill," and many others. This material is absolutely stunning and should be listened to by every B.B. King fan.

In an earlier episode of my podcast about Elmore James, I discussed the practice of the Bihara brothers adding their names to the songwriting credits of their artists and establishing them to collect songwriter royalties on the works. B.B. King was definitely a victim of this practice and was defrauded out of a lot of his royalty money. This was a common occurrence at the time and by no means makes it right. B.B. King was bewildered later in his career when he discovered what these actions meant. He has often said that he wondered what these unknown names were on his songwriting credits. By the time he figured it out, he had been robbed of a fortune of royalties.

About this time, B.B. King is ready to put a band together to hit the road. B.B. called the ensemble The B.B. King Review. With the help of pianist and band leader Millard Lee, King assembled a group consisting of Kenneth Sands and Calvin Owens on trumpets, Lawrence Burdin on alto sax, George Coleman on tenor sax, George Joyner on bass, Ted Curry and Earl Forrest both on drums, and Millard Lee on the piano. B.B. also hired Onzi Horn as an arranger to help him with the compositions and writing skills. King then bought a bus so this great band could hit the road. The band was soon performing in major theaters in Chicago, Detroit, Washington DC, St. Louis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and back home to Memphis and all points in between. Besides these prestigious venues all across America, B.B. King and the band also enjoyed juke joints and clubs along the Chittlin' Circuit.

Once King started touring, he played 300 plus dates per year and kept up this pace for the rest of his life. In 1956, B.B. and his band played 342 dates and did three major recording sessions, breaking all previous records before and after. As a touring musician, for a great part of my life, I can tell you that B.B. King's schedule would have killed most regular humans who are not tough as nails. I kept a pretty intense pace myself, but B.B. King's pace put me and everybody else to shame. His willingness to work that hard is one of the reasons he became the King of the Blues, able to wear that crown until the end of his life.

B.B. had started out his career playing for entirely black audiences and didn't cross over to performing for all audiences until after his hit "The Thrill is Gone" in 1970. He had made some inroads to increase his audience from the mid to late sixties, but "The Thrill is Gone" sealed the deal, and he became a worldwide icon from then on. There is a story that has circulated for years about B.B. King showing up to play at the famous Fillmore Ballroom in San Francisco in 1967. The story goes, from the bus window, King saw a long line of long-haired white boys with their girlfriends waiting to get in the ballroom. B.B.'s first reaction was that something was wrong and maybe they had arrived to play on the wrong date or something similar.

B.B. sent his road manager in to troubleshoot the situation and find out the problem. Within minutes, the promoter, Bill Graham, who was also the manager of the venue, was coming aboard the bus to talk to King. Graham assured B.B. that all was well. He had booked the B.B. King Review to perform with Steve Miller and Moby Grape at the request of Michael Bloomfield from the Paul Butterfield Band. B.B. had played the Fillmore before, but the blues was taking off, and the younger white kids were beginning to dig this music. Graham told B.B. that Albert King had been playing the ballroom recently and had gone over great guns. He told King not to worry and everything would be all right. B.B. King said that he needed a drink, and Graham sent someone to get liquor from the liquor store pronto. B.B. King played the show that night, and it was a tremendous success. He played there many more times during his career.

At the risk of wearing out my privilege to insert myself into the narrative of stories I am telling, I would like to talk about a situation similar to B.B.'s dilemma. Around 1979 or so, Omar and the Howlers were to perform in Birmingham, Alabama at a large venue called Brothers Music Hall. We had played there many times prior to that show. We loved the venue and were fond of its owner, Dan Nolan. We were to open up the show in support of the great reggae band, the Peter Tosh Band. This group had recently completed a world tour supporting the Rolling Stones, and their career had erupted into megastar status.

We were used to playing anywhere, anytime, with anybody, but I was concerned about the prospect of opening up for such a successful band flying at the top of their game. I knew Dan Nolan was a great promoter, and I knew he had a complete understanding of his market. I knew the Peter Tosh Band was a premier reggae band, but they were also huge in the rock music world. I took some comfort that they played rock music, but the truth be told, the little old blues band from Texas was a little spooked. I went to find Dan and said, "Dan, they are a reggae band." He told me it didn't matter, and we would go over great. Part of my fear was I didn't know much about reggae at the time. Dan assured me everything would be all right and not to worry. After hearing the Peter Tosh Band do their sound check, I said to myself, "Ah, so that's what real reggae music is supposed to sound like." I had only been exposed to a couple of reggae bands in towns we had played. Even though I was still a little nervous, I decided to suck it up and give it my best shot. Dan was right, and Omar and the Howlers went over better than I expected. Peter Tosh's show was incredible and hearing authentic musicians from Jamaica playing their native music was a very good treat. Thank you, Dan, for the opportunity. It was a wonderful memory, and I have an idea how B.B. King felt the night of his show at the Fillmore Ballroom. Live and learn.

Here is an original slow blues song, "East Side Blues" from my second release I Told You So that features me playing B.B. King style lead guitar.

In 1962, King signed a contract with ABC Records and started an entirely new career. In 1963, ABC released B.B.'s debut album, Mr. Blues, which has been said to be one of the least bluesy collections of his career. Live at The Regal, came out in 1965, which King critics and I deem to be one of the greatest live recordings ever released. This record is a classic in every sense and is said to be a great component in King crossing over into the mainstream. After Live at the Regal, ABC continued to put out an array of insignificant records of mismatched singles and turning them into collections, although in 1967, ABC released Blues is King, a great live set reflecting his sorrows and disappointments caused by the ending of his second marriage. Also in 1967, Kent Records put out The Jungle, a record put together from leftover bits and pieces from the Modern Records vault. It works and was released at an opportune time to cash in on B.B. King's new fame.

After this Kent release, ABC stepped up to the plate and released a series of albums that were important each in their own way. They put together The Electric B.B. King, a collection of songs from previous albums. To me, this is still a really good recording of his ABC staples. Next came Live and Well. Thanks to a new producer, it sounded very contemporary and included the soon to become a huge B.B. King standard, "Why I Sing the Blues." Great record! In 1969, B.B. King was the opening act for the Rolling Stones on their American leg of their world tour. This boosted B.B.'s career tremendously, and he said he played to more people in that year than he had in all the other years combined.

ABC released Completely Well in 1970 and included the blockbuster hit, "The Thrill is Gone" that charted on both the R & B and pop charts. It became a game changer, and it was full steam ahead for the rest of B.B. King's career. King became a household name, and he continued to score hit singles and albums for the remainder of his life. I will say that this song was almost completely abandoned by the producer because he felt something was missing from it. B.B. King and his band came into the studio that evening and cut "The Thrill is Gone" along with two other songs. Having recorded the three songs, the producer said, "Let's call it a night," and they could return and resume tomorrow. B.B. went home and couldn't rest because he was wound up from the recording session.

B.B. said about 5:00 a.m. he received a call from Bill, the producer, who's over the top excited. He told B.B. that he had listened to the three songs they had recorded. Bill said, "How could I have missed it?" He asked B.B. for permission to add a string section to the track "The Thrill is Gone." B.B. told him he could if he thought it would work. Bill who was a skilled string section arranger, said he would make the song a smash hit. Boy, was he right! He booked a string section in the next few days, and the rest is history. A mega hit 10 times over. The success of this song was so big it even allowed B.B.'s manager, Sid Seidenberg, to break King into the Las Vegas area with a little help from Frank Sinatra. B.B. played in Las Vegas for the rest of his career and moved there later in life, residing there at the time of his death in 2015. 

The next release was Indianola Mississippi Seeds which came out late in 1970. According to King, this is one of his personal favorites. The players on the release included Leon Russell, Carole King, Joe Walsh, along with other all-star musicians. The album cover depicts a guitar made out of a watermelon. It certainly grabbed your attention and won a Grammy Award for Best Cover Art. Three singles were released from this album including "Ask Me No Questions," "Chains and Things," and Leon Russell's "Hummingbird." All three songs were hits. This is by no means B.B. King's greatest album, but you might want to add this to your collection for its various strong points, including B.B. King playing a short snippet called "Nobody Loves Me but My Mother." B.B. King is playing the piano and singing, "Nobody loves me but my mother, and she could be jiving, too." King played this ditty when the band was on break, and the producer was smart enough to turn on the tape machine. B.B. was reluctant to include this short clip, but he gave in at the insistence of the producer and players on the album. It was a good call, and I love this clip. It offered a brief intimacy that couldn't be beat. 

Here is a snippet of "Nobody Loves Me But My Mother" that was recorded by B. B. King on Indianola Mississippi Seeds.

Nobody loves me but my mother, and she could be jivin' too. No, nobody loves me but my mother, and she could be jivin' too. Now, you know why I act so funny, baby, when you do the things you do. Nobody.

Next on ABC Records is the wonderful Live in Cook County Jail. This recording features King performing in the Cook County Jail Prison in Chicago that includes a lady introducing the warden to the loud boo's of the inmates. In my opinion, the record is quite potent as one of B.B.'s greatest performances. It is a recording that should be in every blues fan's collection.

In June of 1971, King traveled to England for 10 days to record B.B. King in London with some of Great Britain's best and most well-known musicians. The cast of players include Stevie Winwood, Peter Green, Ringo Starr, and many other prominent British musicians, along with Leon Russell and Carole King on board. King even played acoustic guitar on a session with British Blues Man, Alexis Korner. This record has been panned and called a failure by many critics over the years, but I feel it has been harshly judged. It is by no means, one of B.B. King's finest moments, but some of the songs are enjoyable. The recording has a very significant value and should be considered as such. But who died and made me in charge of the Blues?

Besides the guitar players he was influenced by, he also loved the songs and delivery of Blues singer and songwriter Dr. Clayton. In 1946, B.B. recorded the Clayton originals "I Need My Baby" and "Hold That Train, Conductor". Also, in 1968, King recorded "The Woman I Love" by Clayton that became a hit in that same year. King's version was a remake of the Clayton song called "Moonshine Woman Blues." A personal favorite of mine by Dr. Clayton, "Cheating and Lying Blues," was recorded by Robert Nighthawk and was a stapled by many other blues artists.

Another musical icon to influence B.B. King was alto sax player Louis Jordan. King said he used to study Jordan's horn lines and said he learned a lot of his phrasing from following Jordan's alto sax. B.B. recorded an entire record of Jordan's songs in 1999 called Let the Good Times Roll. Jordan is probably best known for his song, "Caledonia" which is included on this record with "Ain’t That Just Like a Woman" and "Saturday Night Fish Fry," all of which are my personal favorites, and I have recorded myself. Another band who recorded a lot of Jordan songs is the great Asleep at the Wheel. They did "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie," "Ain't Nobody Here, But Us Chickens," "Let the Good Times Roll," and many others.

B.B. also studied the work of tenor sax player Ben Webster and said he loved the huge tone of Webster's horn. B.B. had a great ear for music and seemed to learn from a variety of instruments and players. He was always on the lookout for a new path to follow. Although B.B. seemed to have an ear out for modern blues, he also had a foot in the older traditional blues. One of the artists King admired and was influenced by was Chicago icon Tampa Red, aka Hudson Whitaker. Tampa Red was a cornerstone of the development of the early Chicago Blues and wrote numerous songs that became Chicago standards.  Some of those songs include "It Hurts Me, Too," "Don't You Lie to Me," "Crying Won't Help You," "She's Dynamite," and "Sweet Little Angel," and King called it "Sweet Black Angel." This is one of my most treasured B.B. King performances because his vocal delivery and his guitar playing are unbeatable.

In my last podcast, I discussed the bizarre and controversial Blues Master Screaming Jay Hawkins, whose music is probably an acquired taste for some musical fans. I am a huge fan and can't get enough of talking about him and his legacy, although many of my listeners are likely new to him. My point here is that B.B. is an iconic legend and household name known and loved by everyone. He recorded and performed his music for over six decades and had a monumental influence on the blues world. Although he was born in the Mississippi Delta, his music was far more urban. It was more modern and resembled the earthy folk roots music of the Delta very little. King was responsible for launching a totally new uptown approach to the blues that was jazzier, and the use of horns was an obvious ingredient to his sound. King became the blueprint for an entirely new generation of guitarists as well, that included Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, Magic Sam, and many others.

His influence was so profound that he started a whole new movement of blues on Chicago's west side, played by artists I just mentioned, and a host of others. It was not uncommon on the west side for the band to be a guitar driven trio backed by only bass and drums. Many other groups, sometimes supplemented with a rhythm guitarist, a piano, and maybe a saxophone or two. The premise of this music known as West Side Blues or Soul, was to make this great guitar-oriented music with a small group of musicians that was danceable and powerful. The vocals were usually strong and declamatory. This sound became the benchmark of the modern Chicago blues. The sound was so powerful that it began to seep into the music of the south side of Chicago and eventually was a staple of all Chicago blues music. As time went on, Magic Slim, JB Hutto, Junior Wells, and many other musicians started to play a mixture of this West side sound and the music of the Mississippi Delta electrified to the max. Make no mistake, this music was created by the influence and delivery set in motion by the great B.B. King. This approach and sound of the blues spread across the entire United States and was accepted over the entire world. His influence and his style still loom large over anything to do with blues music until this very day. Yes, he still is the undisputed King of the Blues. Long live his music!

B.B. King cut his To Know You is to Love You album in 1973 on ABC Records, which had two hit singles. One hit was "I Like to Live the Love" by the album's producer, Dave Crawford, and the second hit "To Know You is to Love You" being penned by the great Stevie Wonder, who pitched the song to B.B. himself. Stevie played on the session, and it is no surprise the album was a total success. ABC Records bought the Duke and Peacock labels in 1973 and allowed B.B. to record with his old friend and singer Bobby Blue Bland from his Memphis days. The record B.B. King and Bobby Bland: Together for the First Time, was said to be short on high points by the critics, although it is agreed that they did catch fire on the old Louis Jordan chestnut, "Let the Good Times Roll."

That was an original song called "Special Love" from my release, Courts of Lu Lu that is an up-tempo shuffle with a B.B. King feel.

This seems like a good place in this episode to discuss some of the guitars and amplifiers that have been used by the King of the Blues. The earliest photographs I have seen depict B.B. King playing in an acoustic guitar with a pickup that fit in the sound hole of the instrument. Then I have seen King playing a Fender Esquire in early photos. This Esquire is said to have been the guitar that he played on most of the modern RPM recordings and to my ear sounded really great. There is also a relatively famous picture of B.B. wearing shorts with a coat and a tie, and two-tone shoes playing a Gibson ES 5 guitar being played through a Fender tweed amplifier. I have seen pictures of him backstage at the Fillmore Ballroom playing what appears to be a Gibson ES 330, which was a thin body hollow guitar. Other early photographs show B.B. performing with various Gibson ES 335 model guitars. This particular guitar was a semi hollow body instrument and had a solid wood block down the center to help eliminate feedback. Later photos show the King of the Blues playing different models of the Gibson ES 355, which he stuck with for the rest of his career. The ES 355 was a stereo wired guitar with a veritone selector to accent different stereo settings built into the instrument. In 1980, the Gibson Guitar Corporation introduced the B.B. King Lucille model. This featured stereo wiring, fine tuners mounted on the bridge, and no F holes that helped to reduce feedback. This personal model was the guitar that B.B. used the rest of his life. He had found his ultimate guitar.

I was also intrigued with the stereo model of guitar. I played an ES 345 for 15 years early in my career. My 345 was a cherry red finish instrument that was absolutely a beautiful guitar my dad bought me when I was 16 years old.

Back to B.B. King. He was always seen in various photos playing through a Fender twin reverb amp. That changed in the seventies when Norland Industries manufactured the lab series SL 2 x 12 combo amplifier for Gibson. B.B. King used his signature model strings made by Gibson. The gauges were 10, 13, 17 plain, and 32, 45, 54 wound. Pretty good for a old boy who grew up in poverty in the Mississippi Delta who conquered the whole world with his wonderful music.

Discussing B.B.'s equipment brings to mind a story that has circulated around for years. Young Riley B King was performing at a juke joint in Twist, Arkansas, when two men started fighting and knocked over a kerosene lamp engulfing the entire club in flames. The frightened audience poured into the street outside. After exiting the club, B.B. realized he didn't have his guitar. He knew without that $30 guitar he would be out of the music business. He rushed back into the inferno to retrieve the cheap instrument that he couldn't afford to replace. As soon as he exited the club once again with the guitar in hand, the entire building collapsed. When King discovered that two fighting men were involved in an altercation over a woman named Lucille, he named his guitar Lucille to remind him to never be that foolhardy again.

Omar's picks for the early years of B.B. King's career are the record My Kind of Blues released on Crown Records. I really like the songs on it, especially "Walking Dr. Bill," the album Live at The Regal on ABC Records, a classic release where everything went right and includes another impeccable song list, and finally, The Jungle on Kent Records. 

Thank you to Steve and Linda in Texas for their kind support of this podcast and for joining me for this episode of Brown Shoes Blues. Be sure to tune in for episode 17, which is part two about the later years of B. B. King's career.

One more thing. A very happy September birthday to the King of the Blues, that's featured in this episode, Riley B. King, B. B., whose birthday is September the 16th. Happy birthday B. B. King!