Don't 'get' BB King

Its all in the fingers, or is it?

Moderators: Slowy, Capt. Black

User avatar
Slowy
Vintage Post Junkie
Vintage Post Junkie
Posts: 22638
meble-kuchenne.warszawa.pl
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2009 4:13 pm
Location: Orcland
Has liked: 1011 times
Been liked: 2465 times

Re: Don't 'get' BB King

Post by Slowy »

Went to BB's last gig in Auckland. Not a regular listening fan but the concert was memorable. It had what I can only describe as Gentlemanly Class. There was an elegance and dignity to the show that really stood out from anything else I'd ever seen. A stage packed with masterful musicians and BB would cue a solo by turning and bowing to the relevant person who would then produce a remarkable performance before bowing back into the ensemble.
It really was a quite magnificent show.
Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. This is as true of humans as it is of gas molecules in a sealed flask. The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who so survive.

User avatar
rickenbackerkid
Vintage Post Junkie
Vintage Post Junkie
Posts: 6700
Joined: Thu Apr 28, 2005 1:52 pm
Has liked: 206 times
Been liked: 651 times

Re: Don't 'get' BB King

Post by rickenbackerkid »

That does sound epic. There's a famous interview with The Edge of U2 where he tells of showing BB the sheet music for 'When Love Comes to Town' and BB says 'Gentlemen, I don't play chords' and indeed he doesn't seem to.

User avatar
Rog
The Self-Proclaimed Voice of Reason
Posts: 9258
Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2003 12:30 pm
Location: Under de mountain
Has liked: 7 times
Been liked: 57 times

Re: Don't 'get' BB King

Post by Rog »

I think BG's point of taking any artist's work in time-related and social context is totally valid. Take any band or artist you are unfamiliar with from say, the '60s and trying to compare them to today's musical mores would produce a very unfavourable response. Yet, at the time it was released, it was great stuff. Before rock and roll (the real rock and roll, not what way too many bands now think is rock and roll) all there was was crooners etc. Imagine all you'd ever heard was Kenny G and then suddenly Led Zep was released....

So it was with black blues music. The hoi polloi had never heard of it on the AM radio (pretty much the only way music was experienced) and then some white artists, such as the Animals and the Rolling Stones started to show that influence in their songs and it infiltrated through to r'n'r as played on the radio. This opened the door (gradually) to black music. People started to wonder where it came from. BBK was lucky enough to be one of the black musicians people started to listen to. Of course there were many others, but to many, he played a major role and became a sort of mainstream face for the blues. Was he the best? Of course not, but like Clapton, the public singled him out and social media overtook his talent and posted him as great. He stayed there by dint of public perception, 'nice' persona and longevity within a very fickle industry that is popular music. Hell they even named a guitar pent scale after him: the BBK box. I think overall that its more to do with idol worship than musical ability.

Should you revere or even like the man or his music? That's entirely your subjective choice. No-one can be nor should be universally fêted. We all have music we enjoy and music we don't. Enjoy yours and let others enjoy theirs. Similarly I don't believe that we should revere any artist holos bolos, every artist produces crap music as well as great stuff.
He hit a chord that rocked the spinet and disappeared into the infinite ...

User avatar
jeremyb
Chorus of Organs
Posts: 40878
Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2008 9:03 am
Has liked: 7685 times
Been liked: 4157 times

Re: Don't 'get' BB King

Post by jeremyb »

I dunno, great music stands the test of time, and of course taste is subjective and plenty of people like these guys, but popularity has never been a good indicator of quality :lol:
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

User avatar
sizzlingbadger
Vintage Post Junkie
Vintage Post Junkie
Posts: 8241
Joined: Sat Jan 15, 2011 7:12 am
Location: Wire Wrapper
Has liked: 1200 times
Been liked: 1398 times

Re: Don't 'get' BB King

Post by sizzlingbadger »

Well this is a good thread :)

There are many guitarists that a lauded over that I don't like. Its not maybe their skills I don't like but their music. I'm not keen on the shredding wild-widdle stuff but I can see it takes skill to play that way. I love BB's playing, its very delicate and he seems to be able to bring out so much feeling in his playing, that or course and he can sing which helps a lot as as the overall "package" Listen to the tone he has on "Miss Martha King" back in 1949, its sublime.

King of the Blues (1949-1991) is a great compilation album.
Last edited by sizzlingbadger on Sat Nov 07, 2015 7:58 am, edited 2 times in total.
Tube amp and guitar tones straight from 1958… amazing how believable the sounds were back then, even without the modellers...

User avatar
bender
Darth Fader
Posts: 11838
Joined: Fri Feb 02, 2007 12:46 pm
Location: Dorkland
Has liked: 415 times
Been liked: 1010 times

Re: Don't 'get' BB King

Post by bender »

jeremyb wrote:I dunno, great music stands the test of time, and of course taste is subjective and plenty of people like these guys, but popularity has never been a good indicator of quality :lol:
How much of the music produced in the last 10 years will stand the test of time? Impossible to predict, but a lot of it feels pretty disposable.

The other thing to consider when it comes to BBK, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and the ilk is that it's entirely possible to appreciate a player without really liking much of their musical output. Music is multidimensional like that- there are hidden gems everywhere if you look past the bigger picture of an artist, band or even genre as a whole.

There are genuine nuggets of greatness in their extensive back catalogues along with the generic, derivative stuff. I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a Clapton fan, despite the fact that I only like about two or three songs (and nothing at all since Cream) and fragments of a handful of others. I don't really like any of the BBK songs that I've heard, but I can recognise what an expressive player he is. Can't listen to SRV for more than about 15 seconds, but I love bits and pieces of his playing and tone. I have a total of four songs in my music library from those guys and I usually skip them if they come up in a random playlist, but they're there for a reason.
Last edited by bender on Sat Nov 07, 2015 7:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Slowy
Vintage Post Junkie
Vintage Post Junkie
Posts: 22638
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2009 4:13 pm
Location: Orcland
Has liked: 1011 times
Been liked: 2465 times

Re: Don't 'get' BB King

Post by Slowy »

Rog wrote:I think BG's point of taking any artist's work in time-related and social context is totally valid. ...
This.
In 1967, the biggest band in the USA was The Monkees. Paul McCartney recommended the organisers of the Monterey Pop festival, which would feature The Mamas & the Papas, Otis Redding, Ravi Shankar and Jefferson Airplane should book an ex pat called Jimi Hendrix.

Take a moment and try to imagine the effect that would have had on people used to pop music.
One commentator at the time described him as sounding, " Like a hand grenade bouncing around a pinball machine."

I think 'Eruption' was a more recent similar moment; it was a new direction.

Back to BBK; my all time favourite quote if his:
"Seems to me, the folks who play all those notes just don't know which notes to play."

:lol:
Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. This is as true of humans as it is of gas molecules in a sealed flask. The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who so survive.

User avatar
Bg
Site Admin
Posts: 43187
Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2003 12:13 am
Location: Auckland
Has liked: 2254 times
Been liked: 3873 times

Re: Don't 'get' BB King

Post by Bg »

jeremyb wrote:I dunno, great music stands the test of time, and of course taste is subjective and plenty of people like these guys, but popularity has never been a good indicator of quality :lol:
Indeed, and BBk certainly has.

Apart from the context thing, he was a great singer, player and a pro. He gigged something like 350 nights a year. For decades.
No he didn't play chords, he didn't even sing and play at the same time, but he always played with feeling.
So, is that low alcohol or no alcohol at all? mmmm, no alcohol, do you want to try it? Noooooooooo.

User avatar
Lawrence
Vintage Post Junkie
Vintage Post Junkie
Posts: 1485
Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:00 pm
Location: Beta Canum Venaticorum
Has liked: 37 times
Been liked: 605 times

Re: Don't 'get' BB King

Post by Lawrence »

Bg wrote:
jeremyb wrote:To be honest, most solo performance guitarists are terrible, theres little bits of genius from time to time, but most of it is recycled boredom to me...
yep, my idea of torture is a solo guitar instrumental album. Blasphemer!
reflecting on this...
are you saying that you dislike instrumental music per se? So any jazz, or similar albums without vocalists and various other non vocal forms...piano concertos, violin soloists etc?

Or is it only "rock" instrumental music you don't like?
GrantB wrote:
“You might be cool, but you’ll never be playing a white Steinberger through a JC120, wearing a white jumpsuit with white shoes and sporting a mullet cool”.

User avatar
Bg
Site Admin
Posts: 43187
Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2003 12:13 am
Location: Auckland
Has liked: 2254 times
Been liked: 3873 times

Re: Don't 'get' BB King

Post by Bg »

yeah its rock instrumental I can't stand....
I love classical and don't purely listen to Opera ;)
So, is that low alcohol or no alcohol at all? mmmm, no alcohol, do you want to try it? Noooooooooo.

User avatar
Vince
Vintage Post Junkie
Vintage Post Junkie
Posts: 7449
Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:31 pm
Location: Upper Hutt The Brave
Has liked: 383 times
Been liked: 186 times
Contact:

Re: Don't 'get' BB King

Post by Vince »

Bg wrote:yep, my idea of torture is a solo guitar instrumental album. Blasphemer!
Ah, there you go... the albums that have had the biggest influence on me have been largely instrumental ones (Kottke's "6 & 12 String Guitar", Ry Cooder's "Paris, Texas", Hedges' "Aerial Boundaries"). I love classical guitar as well.

I actually don't listen to lyrics, not unless it's like a proper story ballad or something like that where there's not a lot else to listen to. I often have no idea what songs say.

And I've been thinking lately that lyrics are such odd things... you have a perfectly feasible piece of music but, no... it has to have lyrics and the listener is no longer free to imagine the story for themselves, you have to club them across the eyes with lyrics so that the piece becomes a song "about" something.

And yet, most cultures do it.
"Vince, have you ever tried playing an expensive bass?" - Polarbear.
"And isn't that the finest acoustic bass guitar feedback solo you've ever heard?" - Billy Moose.

My Bandcamp Page
Facebook

User avatar
Bg
Site Admin
Posts: 43187
Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2003 12:13 am
Location: Auckland
Has liked: 2254 times
Been liked: 3873 times

Re: Don't 'get' BB King

Post by Bg »

Bg wrote:yeah its rock instrumental I can't stand....
Quite like Ry Cooder's instrumental work, its just endless widdling for widdling sake that really just annoys me, sheer hell.
So, is that low alcohol or no alcohol at all? mmmm, no alcohol, do you want to try it? Noooooooooo.

User avatar
Dharmajester
Vintage Post Junkie
Vintage Post Junkie
Posts: 1587
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2015 8:44 am
Location: Dunedin
Has liked: 273 times
Been liked: 376 times

Re: Don't 'get' BB King

Post by Dharmajester »

Bg wrote:
Bg wrote:yeah its rock instrumental I can't stand....
Quite like Ry Cooder's instrumental work, its just endless widdling for widdling sake that really just annoys me, sheer hell.
Or as Seasick Steve so aptly put it "Sports Guitar " nail, head etc etc..
“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench - a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."
Hunter S. Thompson

User avatar
KentNZ
Vintage Post Junkie
Vintage Post Junkie
Posts: 1769
Joined: Thu Apr 29, 2010 3:24 pm
Has liked: 13 times
Been liked: 50 times
Contact:

Re: Don't 'get' BB King

Post by KentNZ »

Great thread.

There's nothing like being in the room with someone making music. Even just a lounge or bedroom. The act of creating music and hearing someone do it has a whole different vibe to it. There's life there, somehow. Recordings don't often translate.
Last edited by KentNZ on Sun Nov 08, 2015 6:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Larrivee 00 Acoustic. FAV Strat for electric. Ibanez SDGR5 for bass. Push for Ableton. When not doing that, 3D CAD for tunnels...

null_pointer
Vintage Post Junkie
Vintage Post Junkie
Posts: 3674
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2015 9:37 pm
Location: The Tron
Has liked: 162 times
Been liked: 410 times

Re: Don't 'get' BB King

Post by null_pointer »

KentNZ wrote:Great thread.

There's nothing like being in he room with someone making music. Even just a lounge or bedroom. The act of creating music and hearing someone do it has a whole different vibe to it. There's life there, somehow. Recordings don't often translate.
I blame Mutt Lange.

Post Reply