Music maestro B.B.King died last week in deep sleep at the age of 89. He didn't make it to his 90th birthday.
Well? Who is B.B.King? People born before 1990, but anyone who has watched the closing ceremony of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games in the United States, may remember the fat old man with the big body and the black Gibson electric guitar on his belly? His plate head swung flexibly with the music; his fat left hand swung rapidly with each vibrato, and the sound was loud and rough, and the lung capacity was called a large one. That's him!
Today, we will use this article to remember this Superstar.
Of course, let's first take a car-related introduction as usual -
In 1924, the first car radio appeared on the street. Chevrolet claims to be fully responsible for this incident - because of this invention, it has completely changed and even created the current pattern of auto parts and interiors, and has affected the car life of countless future generations.
Right! Remember those three sentences? First, there is reason for existence; second, any invention in the age of 15 to 35 is profitable; and third, any invention after the age of 35 is contrary to the "natural order of things."
So, can you imagine and endure a car without on-board music?
In the same way, for those who love guitar, R&B, and country rock today, can you imagine what your beloved art would have looked like without the birth of B.B.King?
In September of the year the year the car radio changed the world, a child with the surname of king was born in Itabina, Mississippi, who was B.B.King, the future ruler of the KINGDOM OF BLUES and the most important electroacoustic guitarist of the 20th century. At that time, his name was Riley B. King, and he was a sharecropper. Later, he became a part-time choir member. It was the choir experience that initially laid the foundation for King's powerful, daring tone (thankfully, he wasn't ruined during the change of voice). In addition to singing, King was fascinated by the guitar accompaniment of the local missionaries, and he learned to achieve a lifelong E, A, and B chord.
In late 1950, B.B.King's Three O'Clock Blues made it onto the Billboard R&B album charts. After New Year's Day 1951, the song topped the charts for 15 weeks. As a result, B.B.King finally became a Blues musician.
Throughout the 1950s, King had 20 titles on the list. pity...... Due to the limitations of the times, Black Blues has been isolated by mainstream (white) music circles. Before 1968, he performed no more than two performances in front of a (white) audience, each time dealing a devastating blow. Despite his bad luck, King during this period was better at his creation than ever. Take, for example, "Sweet Sixeen" from the early 1960s.
B.B.King was not discouraged, he seemed to know that he would succeed in his dreams.
Its formal acceptance by the public seems to be full of surprise and drama – stemming from someone else's plagiarism. And it was not he himself who roared angrily at the plagiarists and made a report on the gods. It's all the "honest confession" of the plagiarists, and the funny thing is that B.B.King doesn't even know that he has been plagiarized, and is still diligently studying himself, playing the piano, singing.
Here's how it happened: In 1965, a new white group called Butterfield Blues Band emerged, and as soon as they debuted, they caused a national boil, and the release of their debut album won the hearts of the American backbone, the middle class. And the latter likes it for a simple reason — guitarist Elvin Bishop (good looking, isn't it?). He was the original creator of Fooled Around and Fell in Love. Still not impressed? accept! It's the old love song from Guardians of the Galaxy) and the strange music made by Mike Bloomfield.
Everybody was asking them, "Where did you learn to play like this?" ”
The two guitarists were honest: "We copied the Colorful phrases of B.B.King. (The little artist of that year was really simple-minded, and there was one to say)
People ask again, "Who is he?" ”
Bishop and Bloomfield always said, "A real monster." ”
Finally, in the late 1960s, King was known to mainstream American music scenes. In 1969, B.B.King performed for the first time on the network's "Tonight Show" program. 2 years later, he was on the Ed Sullivan show. At that time, "on Ed Sullivan" was equivalent to "superstar was born". And he has indeed completely become a "god-level figure" in the United States and even Europe, and in the entire Western music industry.
Music critics put it this way: "He was able to squeeze all the subtle senses of speech out of any lyric poem; his distinctive little vibrato was enough to separate him from his descendants." At the same time, he is also an expressive super singer, good at singing the same lyrics using different tunes, and often changes the way he sings, vibrating, false or true and false. ”
I mentioned before that the E, A, and B triad chords made him a whole life. Because even at the time, King was not a guitarist in the usual sense. He insisted that he only knew a few chords and could only play monophonic solos, and could not sing while playing. But it still influenced countless guitarists in later generations, only because he was fully committed to making the guitar "sing" - even if there was only one note, King could use various methods to make it produce a special sound. Just listen to a few more of his songs to find this "defect", when this "defect" becomes a certain advantage, and no one can match, who care?
However, you are very wrong to think that King's playing skills are just that – one thing is for sure, he invented the push string technique, and for today's Blues and even R&B guitarists, they don't know how to play without push strings.
And his electric guitar playing really directly affected and changed the entire Blues world today, country music and even rock music (but those music genres where guitars are infested).
Yes, his birth was like BangBangBang on the car radio of that year – it seems exaggerated? Take a look at his achievements and glory: he has been in the music scene for more than half a century, released more than 50 popular classic albums, inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and received the Grammys' "Lifetime Achievement Award". Then US President George W. Bush personally presented him with the highest national honor in the United States, the "Presidential Medal of Freedom"...
I don't know if the car radio is so good.
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