Here’s a thread for the insomniacs.
BB King has died. I’d embed a video, but I’m on my stupid iPad, and it won’t let me. So here’s a link instead, and a photo:
Open thread.
This post is in: Music, Open Threads, RIP
Here’s a thread for the insomniacs.
BB King has died. I’d embed a video, but I’m on my stupid iPad, and it won’t let me. So here’s a link instead, and a photo:
Open thread.
Comments are closed.
Mary G
Poor Lucille. He was a good man.
Betty Cracker
@Mary G: He called his guitars Lucille, right? That’s the story I heard, anyway.
Major Major Major Major
Sad. Not unexpected, but sad.
Previously-announced shameless plug: part 10 of that novel I’m serializing is up, about when all the fish disappear.
Otherwise I dunno, just catching up on the JEB fiasco. (Can I ask why people put a bang after his name btw? Always wondered.)
Mary G
@Betty Cracker: I saw him give an interview about it once. Are you having insomnia again? You are up awfully late for the East Coast.
Mustang Bobby
@Major Major Major Major:
When he was running for governor of Florida, his bumper sticker was JEB!. That’s all it said.
My mom introduced me to B.B. King fifty years ago via an 8-track tape and I loved his music. Peace.
Mary G
@Major Major Major Major: I think it is because when he ran for governor of Florida, he issued Spanish language ads with the upside down bang in front and the regular one in back. The upside down one is probably possible on the internet, but I don’t know how to do it either.
ETA: I guess I am wrong, that’s what I get for guessing.
Major Major Major Major
I didn’t realize his name was John Ellis Bush until George Oscar Bluth came on the scene, and I was like, why’s his name Gob Bluth? So I asked somebody and they were like, well, it’s a joke about Jeb.
Major Major Major Major
@Mary G: The upside down one is most certainly possible on the internet: ¡
Hell, so’s the interrobang, my favorite thing in all of Unicode: ‽
David Koch
Fascinating article on Ivy Ziedrich
Betty Cracker
@Mary G: Yeah. It’s a chronic issue. Oh well. Gives me a chance to catch up on Mad Men.
Gene108
My psychiatrist I have been seeing for the past twelve years told me has stomach cancer. I had not seen him for several months and I had an appointment today.
He looked like he got really old and frail (I think he is in his late-60’s, early 70’s, but looked much younger) all of a sudden.
He’s keeping a part-time work load, which is all he can manage.
Feel really sorry for him.
Major Major Major Major
@Gene108: I’m sorry to hear that. A good psychiatrist is really hard to find and keep. Hugs for the both of you.
Major Major Major Major
@Betty Cracker: My ex had pretty bad insomnia. I presume you’ve tried Benadryl; it certainly worked for him with a glass of wine.
I know that isn’t healthy but then again, what is?
Looking at screens isn’t super great either, your brain treats it as daylight (or so they say); books are supposed to be much better. My insomnia went away a while ago so I’ve not cared to look into all of this in much depth, but just in case any of those would help point you down the right path :)
Fred
Saw BB King open for the Stones in ’69? (Let It Bleed, tour). He was great. And funny. The Spectrum had lousy acoustics but it was still a great show. I remember his singing that “You gotta get DOWN on your knees for your woman.”
And then there was Jagger struttin’ Little Red Rooster like a ball of fire.
Rode to that show from Rehoboth Beach Delaware to Philly in the back of a pick up bed sheltered by a home made ply wood cap. It was cold but friends, cheap wine and weed kept us warm. Worth it 100%.
Gawd, that was nearly half a century ago. Good long run for BB. Me too.
fuckwit
Are you wavy, gravy?
That’s OK, I can work around you.
Aleta
http://youtu.be/XNfMhEa2Jsg
3 o’clock in the morning, b b king
BillinGlendaleCA
@David Koch: LOD interviewed her on ‘The Last Word’ last night. Bright kid.
Donut
I had myself a nice little run playing in bands and making a living as musician, in part thanks to BB. At age 15, after years of playing brass instruments, I started to teach myself to play guitar, and around that time and not-so-coincidentally, I also stumbled upon a nice little cache of BB King records at my local rekkid store. I took that stack of vinyl home and practically wore out the turntable while BB helped teach me how to play. I remember trying so hard to emulate that singing vibrato that seemed to be so effortless to him, as well as those beautiful glissando high notes that were the real signature of his sound. Few people really know how to make a guitar sing, but BB could do it. He never overplayed and he never played over the heads of his audience, but he was so far from dumbed down. Always so tasty and tasteful. Kinda choked up about this. RIP
David Koch
BWHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAH
Toothless Ben is the new Non
RomneyJeb!BillinGlendaleCA
@David Koch: The toothless part might also apply to the Mittster after his event tonight.
ETA: Not sure it’s overly normal for 2 of a person’s teeth to pop out in a short period of time. Did Dr. Ben have a bridge or has he been tweaking.
J R in WV
I graduated from HS in 1968, and enrolled in summer school at college just to get away from the little mining town I grew up in. Of course I was one of the only freshmen in the dorm, so I hung with upper class men, mostly people who needed a class to graduate on schedule that wasn’t going to be easy to squeeze in.
So one day a guy asked me if I would be interested in going to a folk festival, chip in on gas, buy tickets, sleep on a class mate’s floor at his folks. Sure I was up for anything exciting over a long weekend!
Turned out to be The Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island, and the specialty that summer was the blues, which I had never heard any of but the scant bit that was on Top 40. What an eye opener!!
Janis Joplin, Muddy Waters, BB King, Buddy Guy, elderly acoustic guys, guys you would have thought were from deep in the jungle in Africa! Well, I was sold.
Saturday afternoon there were tents with little stages, and we got to see elderly guys playing hand carved whistles and drums, with hand made leather heads, just amazing, haunting sounds.
I saw BB King in the Convention Center in Philly, along with Janis, Joe Cocker and Santana, that was one hell of a night. And we saw so many great acts of the BB King House of Blues in NYC.
What a sad night for blues fans all over the world. He was such a nice guy, too. So glad the rock stars pulled him up with them, he gave so much to the world. It was great that he wound up wealthy, for a Southern Blues Man.
I’m glad I knew it was coming, less of a shock. When you have known someone’s music for nearly 50 years, you feel like you know them a little. I’ve heard so many interviews with him – he was always willing to talk to someone, even on the phone, about the music, Lucille, any thing.
So long, BB, we will miss you!
Betty, thanks for passing this news on, it was the best way for me to hear this, from a friend…
OzarkHillbilly
The thrill is gone.
SFAW
@David Koch:
Excellent line, but wouldn’t it be more like “blaming the passenger what was trying to get the drunk driver to hand him/her the keys”?
Plus also too, “drunk driver” would be especially apt for that evil fucking moron.
raven
B.B., Stevie Ray, Paul Butterfield, and Albert King
The Sky is Crying
SixStringFanatic
@Betty Cracker: Yes, Betty, he called his guitars Lucille. The oft-repeated story is that, early in his career, BB was playing in a club when two men got into a fight over a woman.They fought so vigorously that they knocked over the club’s kerosene furnace, starting a fire and forcing everyone to flee the building. Once he got outside, BB realized that he had left his guitar and ran back inside the flaming building to successfully rescue it. The name of the woman the two men were fighting over was Lucille and BB King gave his guitars that name to remind himself to never again do such a stupid thing.
Sherparick
@David Koch: That is such a good turn of phrase. She’s brilliant.
Sherparick
@SixStringFanatic: The “Thrill is Gone”
https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=bb+king+the+thrill+is+gone&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-004
Going to clubs in the late seventies in Chicago, B.B. King was a regular.
Another Holocene Human
@David Koch: It’s always nice when somebody sees the light.
I think our choices are driven more by psychology. The more uncertain and afraid we are, the shittier we become as political actors. So the GOP smashing the economy, deregulating, and basically fucking people actually enhances their chances of winning an election over the long term. These rich people flipping are outliers. They’ve never been in peril of more month than food and the lights getting shut off and the landlord didn’t pay the oil company so there’s no heat this winter, etc. That shit is how our brains get trained to vote Republican. And yes, the poorest people, when they do vote, vote D. Because they are the ones getting pissed on and they know whose urethra it was. But it’s the ones a little bit above the bottom, great in numbers, who get under pressure and vote R. “The GOP didn’t mean me.” My own grandmother thought Reagan didn’t mean her right until the day her benefits were cut and then she thought it was some sort of mistake at first.
Another Holocene Human
I was always both admiring and horrified that BB King kept performing even when he was old and sick and disabled. (He is not the only musician to do this, btw.) Of course, music can be an end in itself. I know he had family to support. I hope he got paid well for those ads he did, especially the diabetes ones, instead of taking part of it in goodwill because those companies will do this pitch that you’re doing a great thing for other people with diabetes, yadda yadda. I hope he took their money dammit.
Another Holocene Human
@J R in WV: That sounds awesome. I’m sorry I missed it. I tried to go to a Blues concert on the Esplanade in Boston in college but it was really terrible. I think I’d even convinced a classical music friend to come. That was a long walk back to the subway.
satby
@Sherparick: Golden times for a kid like me growing up in Chicago. We took for granted all the greats we saw all the time, up close in little clubs.
MomSense
His music is such a regular part of our daily life and brings us such joy. What an incredible life he has led.
Steeplejack
I will miss B.B. King. One of the best shows I saw back in the day was him with Bonnie Raitt as the opening act. They did a few songs together. Awesome.
B.B. King and Bonnie Raitt, “Baby, I Love You.”
A little upbeat King in his prime: “Caldonia.”
Parfigliano
Saw him at University of South Dakota in early 1984….then in Cincinnatti around 2000 with Buddy Guy….then last year at Casino outside Albuquerque
JustRuss
@Mustang Bobby: RE Jeb(!), I always figured it was because Republican money loves the Bushes but nobody else has any enthusiasm for them, and he’s a messiah figure, the smart one waiting in the wings; and Jeb is such a gosh darn cool nick name. The bang in parentheses neatly encapsulates all of that. I don’t care if I’m wrong, it’s my theory and I like it.