Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Happy birthday, B.B. King.

B.B. King is 83 years old today. And still getting it done. His latest album, “One Kind Favor,” came out a few weeks ago.

Wanna hear a taste? I’m streaming “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” on my Vox blog. Click here to listen. (That’s Dr. John rattling the ivories.)

Now, below is a very cool video artifact. It’s B.B. King performing at Sing Sing prison on Thanksgiving Day, 1972. His performance was captured in a 1974 documentary film called “Sing Sing Thanksgiving.”

8 comments:

kristina b said...

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bklyn6 said...

Happy Birthday, B.B. King!

(How old is Lucille?)

Francisco said...

All hail the King!! There is NOTHING better than to listed to B.B. King in his own joint in Memphis! (the B.B. King club) although he rarely plays there, while I was in college, I got one glorious night with BB King playing.

Undercover Black Man said...

^ Sweet!

Kellybelle said...

know how lucille got her name? two guys a jukejoint concert got into a fight over a woman named lucille. b.b. decided it was stupid to fight over a woman and named his guitar thusly.
got a b.b. king card coming out. Merry B.B. King!

Anonymous said...

I am catching him in concert in November!

Anonymous said...

Actually Kellybelle,
In the mid-1950s, while B.B. was performing at a dance in Twist, Arkansas, a few fans became unruly. Two men got into a fight and knocked over a kerosene stove, setting fire to the hall. B.B. raced outdoors to safety with everyone else, then realized that he left his beloved $30 acoustic guitar inside, so he rushed back inside the burning building to retrieve it, narrowly escaping death. When he later found out that the fight had been over a woman named Lucille, he decided to give the name to his guitar to remind him never to do a crazy thing like fight over a woman. Ever since, each one of B.B.'s trademark Gibson guitars has been called Lucille.

Ann Brock said...

Happy Birthday B.B. King. One of my favorite is The Thrill Is Gone.