BB King was my gateway to the blues, via his great album Live at the Regal. I saw him live once, at the Academy of Music in New York on a bill with the J. Geils Band in 1973 or so. An amazing show.
I just read on Wikipedia that King’s favorite singer was Frank Sinatra, who similarly died on May 14th.
Sweet Little Angel is a delightful song, full of life and generous good spirits. On a sad day, I get joy, and everything.
RIP, indeed. I was at that Academy show Peter, with J. Geils headlining and Peter Frampton 3rd on the bill. Also saw BB in Central Park with Merry Clayton opening. He put out.
A legend.
I saw him perform at an outdoor concert in Brooklyn in the summer of 1985.
Here’s some footage of a performance in New Mexico, 1970:
Charles Pierce on BBK: http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a35016/the-king-is-dead/
Pierce is sweet, and echoes my experience of Clapton to King, then back to the old blues.
I dunno. RIP Beeb and I suppose for some few people he was their intro to the blues, which makes me curious how everyone here came by their blues. Anyway, BB wasn’t an innovator he was a stylist, with a concept of blues as halfway between Big Band Jazz and Howlin Wolf/Muddy Waters. T-Bone Walker was doing essentially the same thing 10 and even 15 years before.
My first blues was Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong from my father’s records, my first modern blues the Rolling Stones and this hit single in 1966. I mean, they played this song on AM radio: