The Thrill is Gone
In the year 2015, it's almost impossible to imagine a time when the only place a white man and a black man could be together without ending up in a fistfight was a blues bar. And in those days, nothing could bridge the gap between the races better than blues and early rock 'n' roll. This music had many things that charmed white audiences. And it had few sons greater than Riley B. "B.B." King.
B.B. King, born in 1925, was the son of a plantation worker. As a child, he would listen to other plantation workers singing about their woes as they picked cotton. These songs of sorrows were the primitive forms of the blues. And as B.B. grew older and electric guitars started to develop, he became one of the ambassadors of the electric blues, the forefather of modern American music. As a young generation of white Americans started to shun the prejudices of their elders, radio stations across America started to play blues music more and more in place of the happy major key American pop that everyone started to dislike. And one of the many tunes that marked the first wave of classic R'n'R was B.B. King's "3 O'Clock Blues". Thematically the age old tale of a lost love, B.B.'s raspy voice and unique restrained guitar playing painted a new image of the blues to people across the world.
B.B. King was not a showman. He didn't have the stage presence of Chuck Berry, nor was he as charming and marketable as Buddy Holly. He was a man who was completely about the music. His guitar playing was contained, never wild on notes. In fact, the solitary note played after a solo to add emphasis is now known as the "B.B. Note" among guitar players.
While many of rock's early stars faded away or died young, B.B. King carved himself a steady, productive career. His biggest hit "The Thrill is Gone", was released in 1970, a time when psychedelic rock had become a global phenomenon. He was touring the UK for the first time in the summer of 1970 when he learnt, much to his surprise, that everybody ranging from Jimmy Page to Eric Clapton thought of him as a master.
B.B. King's influence on guitar players is hard to explain. And that's because it's everywhere. Jimi Hendrix's vibrato note at the start of "Foxy Lady" was throwback to his hero's solitary notes. Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page based a large part of their playing on his. In fact, almost every 60's rocker was playing a charged up, faster version of B.B's famous blues box, now affectionately referred to as the "B.B. Box". He brought the raw sounds of the Mississippi Delta's acoustic blues, the works of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters and packaged it into something all audiences could appreciate. It's hard to find a guitar player who wouldn't stop obsessing over the little intricacies of a B.B. King song, whether that's a modern day bluesman like Joe Bonamassa or metal icon Adrian Smith.
B.B. King passed away on May 14, 2015 and had been touring until 4 months prior to his death. Among the last remnants of the birth of rock, there'll probably never be another like him again.