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.”

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8 comments:

  1. kristina bSeptember 16, 2008 at 8:54 AM

    Heya - I'm doing research on bloggers, and one of my participants referred me here because I'm looking for more bloggers of color. If you're willing to donate a bit of time, please check it out! Thanks!

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  2. bklyn6September 16, 2008 at 10:05 AM

    Happy Birthday, B.B. King!

    (How old is Lucille?)

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  3. FranciscoSeptember 16, 2008 at 5:06 PM

    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.

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  4. Undercover Black ManSeptember 16, 2008 at 5:16 PM

    ^ Sweet!

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  5. KellybelleSeptember 16, 2008 at 5:26 PM

    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!

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  6. AnonymousSeptember 16, 2008 at 6:35 PM

    I am catching him in concert in November!

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  7. AnonymousSeptember 17, 2008 at 11:50 AM

    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.

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  8. Ann BrockSeptember 17, 2008 at 3:13 PM

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

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