BB King is not dead. He sits on my windowsill, safe from the rain outside, with his adopted wife and daughter. They arecuddling for warmth and comfort and will soon fall asleep in a purring, cozyball of fur. Because this BB King is agrey tabby cat my wife and I brought home from an animal shelter five yearsago. There was something in his solidity and swagger that made us name himafter that big tom cat of a blues man, BB King.
The original BB King is no more. He was putunder home hospice care a while back and the passing of this octogenarian bluesman comes as no surprise. It’s not even a tragedy because Riley B. King lived afull and glorious life, playing an ebullient, larger-than-life kind of electricblues that made your feet tap even as it played out visions of the downbeatside of life.
King’s early years and rise to fame will bechronicled in any number of eulogies offered elsewhere. So will personalremembrances by all the musicians who have played with this outgoing, generousman over the years. Buddy Guy, Tracy Chapman, Eric Clapton, U2 – they’ve allbeen a part of the King’s court on occasion. There’s a whole album of Kingdoing duets with everyone from another blues legend who is no longer with us,John Lee Hooker, to Robert Cray.
BB King’s Shimmering, Spiky Solos
I’ll content myself with my own personalreference points. Finding that album of duets on cassette in the old HMV Houseon Bangalore’s St. Mark’s road, where a Hard Rock Café now stands. Going to afriend’s house after beers at Bangalore’s tatty classic rock-obsessed Pecos Puband watching a BB King concert on VHS. Lots of horns, lots of energy and BBKing in a red blazer that was almost as loud as his voice and his shimmering,spiky solos on his black Gibson axe, who may have been replaced with newermodels over the years, but was always the Guinevere of his blues Camelot –Lucille.
Who is There to Keep the Flame Burning?
His passing has left the blues poorer. The great ones, the ones we still had left, aredying. It is a simple result of time and biology. But who is there to keep theflame burning? I see a lot of flashy guitar boys and girls, a lot of blues rockingswaggerers, some slavish revivalists and, yes, some genuinely interesting Afro blues.Perhaps the only bluesman to come along since Taj Mahal who plays absolutelyauthentic yet completely original blues is the wonderful but under-recognised Otis Taylor. Has the blueshad its heyday, dwindling now into a parade of rehashed licks and hand-me-downriffs? It’s possible.
But still, as I surf youtube for footage ofthe man, as I riffle through my record collection for my BB King albums, feelingthe warm pulse of his music, hearing the bull roar of his voice and thrillingto those fluid, plangent solos, one thing is clear.
BB King is still alive. And I don’t justmean the cat.
(Jayaprakash Satyamurthy is a Bangalore-based writer and musician.)
(On his 94th birth anniversary, The Quint pays tribute to legendary blues singer, BB King. This homage is being reposted from our archives, originally published on 15 May 2015, shortly after his demise.)
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