Would You Play Blues Guitar In Street Corners for Dimes?
Zack R.
In his youth he played on street corners for dimes! Today B.B. King (Riley B. King) averages 250 'packed to the rafters' concerts around the world each year. He was born on 16 September, 1925 on a plantation in Itta Bena, Mississippi, near Indianola. He spent his youth playing on street corners for pennies and dimes
In 1947, he hitchhiked to Memphis, Tennessee to pursue his music career and it is first love. His first major break came in 1948 when he performed on Sonny Boy Williamson's radio broadcast. As the years well by, King has developed one of the world's most identifiable guitar styles.
He borrowed from Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker and others, incorporating his distinct and complex voice-like string blends and his left-handed vibrato, both of which have become vital components of a blues guitarist's vocabulary. His economy, his every-note-counts phrasing, has been a model for thousands of players from Eric Clapton and George Harrison to Jeff Beck.
In the mid-1950s, two men got into a fight during one of King's performances. The men knocked over a kerosene stove and set fire to the venue. King raced outdoors to safety and then realised he'd left his beloved acoustic guitar behind. He rushed back in to retrieve it and almost lost his life. He found out later that the fight had been over a woman.
He named his guitar Lucille to remind him to never do a mad thing like engaging in physical fights for a woman. Ever since, each and every single one of King's guitars has been called Lucille. Does your guitar have a name?
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