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rmason

I'm reminded of a picture that tells his significance to music far better than words.

https://wavemakermagazine.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/s_a060...

Then there's this one as well:

http://www.pastblues.com/images/files/April/Jimi%20Hendrix%2...

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Here's another: http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/66006216/Slash++y+BB+K... You know you're the boss when slash lets you wear his hat.

FYI that second pic is a Photoshoped composition for a live bootleg where Jimi and King jammed together in 1968.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnA8cOahBlQ

Here is the original B.B. King photo.

http://bootlegpedia.com/imagesCache.php?site=bootlegpedia&im...

HA! That is one of the poorer hack job photoshops I have seen. The faux shadow behind Jimi's hair is a dead giveaway

This is a genuine question: I know nothing of B. B. King, and how does the first picture tell anything about his significance to music?

Eric Clapton considered him his mentor. So did Jimmy Hendrix. James Brown considered him his equal. For fifty plus years he was a major influence on other artists.

That picture of Clapton chauffering him was done for an album the two did together called Riding with the King. Clapton initiated the project. It went 2X multi platinum in the U.S. (rare for a blues album) and won a Grammy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riding_with_the_King_(B.B._King...

My dad got that album for his birthday when I was ~9 years old. For some reason I got really hooked on the music, it made me start taking guitar lessons and has shaped much of my music taste.

I came here to specifically mention this album. It is truly stellar. It's available as DVD audio too, mixed as 5.1 surround sound. It's one of the better 5.1 album mixes I've heard.

I heard B.B. was in the hospital not too long ago and hoped all would be OK. He was/is truly an enormous influence on the blues genre and will be missed.

I just bought Riding with the King last month. Didn't know there was a DVD-Audio version.

I was sad to hear that some of his recent performances were poorly received:

http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/music/reviews/b-b-king...

http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainment/music/headlines/2013...

http://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/music/2014/09/2...

When it comes to aging music icons who still perform, I think of Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones. They're in their early seventies, kids compared to B.B. King, touring in his late eighties. If you ever catch me booing a man like B.B. King for an erratic performance, punch me in the nose. Hard.

I opened the liner notes for Riding with the King, which has a great picture of B.B. King and Eric Clapton playing side by side, sitting on Fender amps (not sure if this link will work):

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/blues-guitarist...

Googling a bit, I found out (or maybe I knew at one time) that B.B. King was the cousin of Bukka White, who first sparked my interest in the blues. There's something about that gravely voice and slide guitar.

It shows Eric Clapton, widely considered one of the most skilled and successful blues guitarists, chauffeuring B.B. King, implying that Clapton honours and reveres him.

When you learn to play guitar you learn about the main staple of blues music, the Pentatonic Scale, a simple palette of just 5 notes that you can follow all the way up the guitar neck (or piano, voice, or bass for that matter)

B.B. King has a portion of the Pentatonic box patterns for guitar named after him, it's a place on the guitar neck known to guitarists as the "the B.B. King" box.

Then you learn how to play a lot of popular rock and pop songs, then you realize the overwhelming majority of guitar rock music over the past 50 years is very derivative of blues riffs, in fact it's all just blues music played really loud, distorted, and to a straight rhythm.

It's staggering to think how many great rock musicians have come and gone, and B.B. predated all of them by decades and outlived them for decades more, performing the whole time.

The smile on his face is telling. It reminded me of another old legend of music, and unsurprisingly, they were jamming together not long ago:

http://imgur.com/6UnkEd5 (from http://www.jambands.com/news/2012/12/04/bernard-purdie-joins...)

Hoping people will listen to his style and be inspired to make their instrument sing as well.

Good to see Purdie, his Purdie shuffle is great. You will hear it in Led Zeppelin's "Fool in the Rain" and Toto's Rosanna.

Watching Purdie talk about it on YouTube is informative.

Purdie is still extremely funky even at 75, which is rare.

The Time featured him in 2009 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRIWH4HCoz8

The laughs.

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