What does /mu/ think of B.B. King?

he's cool

He never made a bad album per se, though after the early 70s his stuff became strictly paint-by-numbers. Live At The Regal and Live At Crook County Jail are pretty much his musical zenith, so listen to those if nothing else.

Glad I got to see him play. He was great even as eighty-one years old. He couldn't get up from his chair and walk on his own, but he sounded damn amazing, even his voice was still great.

Live at the Regal, Cooks County Jail, those are albums I recommend. It's just such excellent music. It exudes an appreciation for life.

Xgau on the three Kings of blues:

>BB King
"He's seldom been terrible, and when in 1978 he stopped trying for AM ballads and disco crossovers and moved on up to nightclub funk, he started making good albums again. There Must Be a Better World Somewhere (1981), anchored by Pretty Purdie with plenty of fine Hank Crawford sax and Dr. John piano, featured fine new songs from Dr. John and Doc Pomus. The voice was no longer exquisite and the licks might as well have been copyrighted, but for King, standard means classic. Then again, it also means predictable, and the only one of his well-made later albums I got into was Fantasy's 16 Original Big Hits, a reissue of Galaxie's 1968 best-of. Now that's classic."

>Albert King
"I've somehow never been moved by his wide-beamed take on BB's blues, although I suspect that's not entirely Albert's fault. It is generally understood that the man's best work came during his 60s tenure at Stax. Afterwards, he spent most of the 70s making pop music with predictable results. For an eloquent defense, see Robert Palmer's liner notes on Albert King: Live."

>Freddie King
"Forget what Anglophiles tell you (and he slavishly acknowledges them in Palace of the King), the man's been slacking for years. His R&B cuts from the 60s are acute, but the more recent efforts are nothing but Leon Russell/Donald Dunn/Don Nix numbers with the vocals all blurred and fake-and-roll guitar."

More like B.B. Cing

>>61595391
Never listened to much of his stuff..What should I check out?

>>61596196
>He couldn't get up from his chair and walk on his own

I saw a video of him performing in Germany in '13 and he managed to get to his chair without any help. Guess at that age, you have on days and off days.

>>61596287

>>61596093
>>61596196
Also any of his 60s-era studio work like Blues Is King when he was at the peak of his powers.

They did a completely unnecessary autopsy on him because somebody spread the rumor that a caretaker poisoned him.

When an 89 year old diabetic dies, it's probably a good idea to fall back on Occam's Razor.

he's a nice lady

>>61595391
He's a king bb

>>61596254
>Afterwards, he spent most of the 70s making pop music with predictable results

My dad bought Truckload of Lovin' back then. God, what an embarrassing album.

>>61596318
I'm listening to his 1960 album "The Great BB King" and working my way up..So stop when I get to his 70's stuff?

>>61596385
Albert King later tried to fall back on straight 12-bar blues but he was getting old and had tapped out all his good musical ideas, so his career ended in a whimper rather than a bang.

Oftentimes when you're older, you need outside help to make a good album, say Muddy Waters's last albums which were masterfully produced by Johnny Winter or American IV or Ray Charles's final record, Genius Loves Company. Albert, alas, didn't have a Johnny Winter to save him.

>>61596398
Anything up to the mid-70s. BB King never got bad, but his later albums are all samey once he ran out of new licks. His vocals also lost some of their dynamism as well.

>>61596196
>even his voice was still great

Yeh he had his voice right to the end which is more than you can say for Chuck Berry.

"Gwwahhh Johwwnny gwaaahhh..."

>>61596442
The thing is, Muddy does nothing really new on those last records, just good ol' Chicago blues, but Winter's production was excellent and included mic-ing the backing band for a more resonant sound. Also the final album (King Bee) has a similar melancholy feel to American IV in that you know he's a dying man.

File: 14425568821186.jpg (32KB, 548x548px) Image search: [Google]

32KB, 548x548px

>>61595391
>muh blues scale
>muh oppressed black man feelings

>>61596747
You must be at least 18 to use this website.

>>61596254
I never knew he was capable of this much insight.