And there were other digressions, like the first stirrings of interest in the blues in Britain, which led to the reintroduction of Black American blues to white Americans. But I enjoyed writing that: Here are the characters, here are their stories. I knew going in I wanted to do a little chapter as a way of teaching myself a history of the blues. Was it difficult to know how much or how little of those to include?Ī: Thank you, and I do those digressions by gut. Q: There are a lot of parts of the book that I found valuable contextually: short historical passages about race records and charts, the way blues fell out of favor after the Depression, the history of musicians from the Mississippi Delta, the rise of the electric guitar. And yes, they would bet on some pretty bizarre things. replied, “a bassist and a drummer.”Ī: What a hilarious image. I think Bono asked if there was something he wouldn’t bet on and B.B. Like when he toured with U2 and they found him and his band betting on which elevator door would open next. Q: There is a wonderful humor threaded throughout. The addictive tendencies: sex, the road, keno … There were other ingredients, and Ritz got to some of these. He was forever trying to impress his daddy, who didn’t seem impressible, who set an example of endless toil. And to me, a lot of it was trying to replace his mother, who died, and this family that was lost. But if there’s one thing that was a Post-It on my computer all along, it was a question about what made this guy tick. It’s so hard to read something 15 times like I did this book, where you don’t have any idea if it’s any good. Q: There’s a quality to the book, these narrative swirls where something from early in the story keeps returning.Ī: I’m glad you enjoyed that. You’re better being triangulated by people who know you well. The main problem is there with anybody trying to tell their own story. But really, how can somebody capture their own essence in a memoir? You don’t come away knowing the whole man. resisted giving himself credit for a lot of what he did. But B.B.’s book, his voice is beautifully captured. Keith Richards’ came out pretty damn good. You’re the last person you want to tell your own story. But he didn’t offer a lot of insight into his life.Ī: I think most memoirs or autobiographies are like that. Q: I remember when King’s autobiography came out in the mid-1990s … it was colorful.
#B b king blues music full
It presents a career full of ambition and a life informed by longing, with triumphs and setbacks, discrimination and canonization.Īnd for those with an interest in local and regional ties, Houston appears regularly in the book thanks to King’s connections to impresario Don Robey and his essential booking agent and manager Evelyn Johnson, as well as members of King’s orchestra over the years: trumpeters Calvin Owens and James “Boogaloo” Bolden, guitarist Milton Hopkins and pianist and Crusaders member Joe Sample.ĭe Visé discussed bringing new life to a blues legend. The book adds flesh and blood to the standard cultural codification of King as icon. Nobody seemed to know for sure.”ĭe Visé sets up King’s life like a classic composition: He establishes themes and returns to them while pushing the story from its intro to its coda. I was interest in ‘Why?’ The tributes on his death hedged on that. The obituaries said he was famous and a hugely important blues practitioner. They accomplish that and put the artist high up. “There are multi-volume biographies and documentaries that explained why they’re so famous, so well known. “Take somebody like Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley,” he says. King,” recalls reading through dozens of obituaries and tributes to King upon his death, and thinking they failed to capture the essence of an American music treasure. But become diminished because of familiarity.ĭaniel de Visé, author of “King of the Blues: The Rise and Reign of B.B. Once filed, King and his career become easier to … not forget exactly. Such a dynamic persona will often be compressed into a cultural shorthand: B.B. Nearly 70 of those years were spent performing: from a spirited young voice on Memphis radio to barnstorming the chitlin’ circuit to enjoying the reverence of younger players who cited his influence to settling into a comfortable theater act. King lived large and long, tallying 89 years before his death in 2015. King, left, and an accompanist perform during the opening of the 1980 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
0 kommentar(er)
