The Real King :: essays research papers

Riley B. "B.B." King(guitarist/singer, born September 16, 1925, Itta Bena, MS) The well-nigh touching bluesman of our time, and the most influential electric guitarist ever, the "King of theBlues" sums up his means with some simple advice. "I would say to all people, but mayhap to youngpeople especially--black and white or whatever color--follow your consume feelings and arrogance them, find outwhat you want to do and do it, and then utilize it every day of your life and keep becoming what you are,despite each hardships and obstacles you meet." So hard to follow yet so good to depart by, those words also describe the course of the musiciansextraordinary career. The obstacles in his caterpillar track were many He was born during the Great Depression in thepoorest of American states, the son of black farm laborers. Only talent, hard exit, and an unstoppable artistic vision can account for Kings journey out of the Mississippi Delta, through and through the roadhouse joints ofthe "Chitlin Circuit" in the South to the legendary Apollo Theater in fresh York, into the recording studio, tothe hearts of millions. Praising his "apparently inexhaustible reserve of creativity," as he presented B.B. Kingwith the National Medal of Arts in 1990, electric chair George Bush hailed the blues musician as a "trailblazer,an authentic start who literally helped shape his art form."Riley B. King (the extra "B" came after and doesnt stand for anything) spent his childhood all over thestate of Mississippi. When his parents obscure in 1929, the boy went to live with his maternalgrand give in Kilmichael his mother died when he was nine and, in 1940, B.B. joined his fathers newfamily in Lexington for twain years before returning to Kilmichael. He took on farm work in Indianola in1946 but, after wrecking a tractor, decided his future lay in Memphis, Tennessee. A fan of the bluesmanBukka White, young B.B. looked him up f or advice and open himself working as a street corner bluesmanin Memphis. In 1948 he worked up the nerve to audition for WDIA, a hillbilly tuner station that was aboutto change its format to cater to the black community. He got the job.He cut his first record in 1949, "Miss Martha King," followed by "Three OClock Blues" and "ShesDynamite" in 1951. Both reached Number champion in Memphis. By 1955, King decided to put together hisown band, and a steady string of hits followed that included "Recession Blues," "Rock Me, Baby," "How