We Remember B.B. King. ‘Long Lived The King’

This day (May 14, 2015), in Las Vegas, died Riley B. King a.k.a. B.B. King (B.B. short for Blues Boy), an American blues guitarist and singer.

VIDEO DIGEST

We Remember B.B. King. ‘Long Lived The King’

Tracklist :

1 . In Sing Sing Prison (1973)

2 . w/ John Mayer, Tedeschi Trucks – Finale, Hollywood Bowl (2012) (1/2)

3 . w/ John Mayer, Tedeschi Trucks – Finale, Hollywood Bowl (2012) (2/2)

4 . When The Saints Go Marching In

5 . All Over Again (1989)

6 . w/ Eric Clapton – The Thrill Is Gone

7 . Into The Night (1985)

8 . Guitar Lesson – Phrasing Over G Progression

9 . w/ Buddy Guy – On Meeting Jimi Hendrix

10 . w/ Buddy Guy – I CanT Quit You Baby

11 . w/ James Brown – Sweet Little Angel

12 . Ain’t Nobody Home (1974 )

13 . How Blue Can You Get / Just a Little Love (1970 )

DOCUMENTARIES

We Remember B.B. King. ‘Long Lived The King’

SELECTED ALBUMS

Released on August 26, 2008, One Kind Favor is the twenty fourth studio album by B.B. King. >>

Riding with the King by Eric Clapton & B.B. King is their first collaborative album released on June 13, 2000. >>

Recorded on November 21, 1964, Live at the Regal is a live album by B.B. King. >>

Recorded on September 10, 1970 in Cook County Jail, Chicago, Illinois, Live in Cook County Jail is a live album by B.B. King. >>

Lee Ritenours 6 String Theory is an album recorded for his 50th birthday with John Scofield, Taj Mahal, Pat Martino, Joe Bonamassa, Robert Cray, Slash, George Benson, B.B. King, Steve Lukather, Mike Stern and more and released on June 29, 2010. >>

Joe Bonamassa‘s ‘Live at the Greek Theatre’ is his fourteenth live album (a tribute to theThree Kings : Albert King, B.B. King and Freddie King) released on September 23, 2016. >>

MORE VIDEOS

[2007] B.B. King brings the blues at Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, RI >> 8 MINUTES on RVM >>

[2010] Eric Clapton‘s Crossroads Guitar Festival takes place in Chicago. B.B. King, Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, John Mayer, Warren Hayes, Citizen Cope and many others will be there >> 33 MINUTES on RVM >>

[2011] Larry Graham is at B.B. King Blues Club in New-York City >> 60 MINUTES on RVM >>

[1968] you do not want to miss B.B. King (g), Mose Thomas (tp), Lee Gatling (ts), James Toney (org) and Sonny Freeman (drums) at Jazz Casual hosted by Ralph J. Gleason on NET. >> 29 MINUTES on RVM >>

[1990] B.B. King is at New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival >> 17 MINUTES on RVM >>

[1989] Stray Cats, Levon Helm, B.B. King, Al Kooper, Don Was, k.d. lang, Bonnie Raitt, Emmylou Harris, The Byrds with Roger McGuinn, David Crosby & Chris Hillman, Bob Dylan plus Cindy Bullens (g), Wendy Melvoin (g), Lisa Coleman (kb), Tina Weymouth (b), Debbie Peterson (voc)and Carla Azar (d). They all pay tribute to Roy Orbison at Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, California >> 82 MINUTES on RVM >>

[2012] B.B. King performs in Asheville,NC >> 66 MINUTES on RVM >>

[1989] the U2 Lovetown Tour is finally (after two postponements) in Sydney, Australia and B.B. King will sit in with the Irish boys >> 10 MINUTES on RVM >>

[1999] Eric Clapton, Lenny Kravitz, Sheryl Crow, B.B. King, Melissa Etheridge, Garth Brooks, Gloria Estefan, John Fogerty, All Green and John Mellencamp gather for The Concert Of The Century at the White House in Washington, DC >> 64 MINUTES on RVM >>

[1985] you can catch B.B. King and his Blues Band at Molde International Jazz Festival in Norway >> 38 MINUTES on RVM >>

[2013] B.B. King and Peter Frampton will share the bill (and eventually play together) at Wolf Traps Performing Arts Center in Vienna Virginia >> 7 MINUTES on RVM >>

[1990] B.B. King and his band are at Estival Jazz Lugano, Switzerland >> 78 MINUTES on RVM >>

[2010] Larry Graham is at B.B. Kings in New-York City. And who knows? His old friend Prince might show up. >> 46 MINUTES on RVM >>

[2014] B.B. King makes a stop at Lifestyle Communities Pavilion in Columbus, Ohio >> 17 MINUTES on RVM >>

[2012] B.B. King is at New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival >> 33 MINUTES on RVM >>

[1987] Stevie Ray Vaughan, Albert Collins and B.B. King will share the stage aboard S.S. Presidente during the Jazz & Heritage Festival in New Orleans, LA >> 42 MINUTES on RVM >>

[2011] B.B. King, Trombone Shorty, Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, Mick Jagger, Shemekia Copeland, Gary Clark Jr and Booker T. Jones, they are all at the White House for the Month Of Blues >> 56 MINUTES on RVM >>

[2002] fifty artists are gathered for a concert at Radio City Music Hall in New-York City to kick off the Year Of The Blues national celebration. It will feature B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, Buddy Guy, Solomon Burke, etc. >> 110 MINUTES on RVM >>

[2003] B.B. King is in New York at Live By Request where the set list is determined by viewer phone calls. Jeff Beck is due to join him on three songs. >> 83 MINUTES on RVM >>

[1985] B.B. King participates next to Willie Nelson, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel and many others in the first Farm Aid at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois >> 12 MINUTES on RVM >>

[2013] B.B. King performs at the Peabody Opera House in St. Louis, Missouri >> 29 MINUTES on RVM >>

[2011] British band Incognito featuring lead vocalists Kelli Sae, Vanessa Haynes, Natalie Williams and Maysa, performs at B.B. King Blues Club in New York City >> 35 MINUTES on RVM >>

[1985] Huey Lewis & The News, a-ha, Sting, Phil Collins plus an All-Star Jam Session gathering B.B. King, Tony Williams, Stanley Clarke, Ron Carter, Michel Petrucciani, Herbie Hancock, Kenny Burrell, Stanley Jordan, Bobby Hutcherson), Gary Burton, Jon Faddis, Dizzy Gillespie , Gerry Mulligan, David Sanborn and Buddy Rich plus Sarah Vaughan, Diana Schuur, Joe Williams, Bobby McFerrin, The Manhattan Transfer. They all take part in the 28th Annual Grammy Awards at Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles >> 25 MINUTES on RVM >>

[1967] B.B. King shares the stage with Melvin Moore (tp), Illinois Jacquet (ts), Duke Jethro (org), Lloyd Glenn (p), Sonny Freeman (d) and, on a couple of songs, special guest T-Bone Walker at Monterey Jazz Festival in Monterey, California >> 7 MINUTES on RVM >>

[1971] you do not miss B.B. King on Rollin’ On The River, a Canadian TV Show hosted by Kenny Rogers >> 5 MINUTES on RVM >>

[1993] B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Albert Collins & Jeff Beck celebrate the blues during the Apollo Hall of Fame Concert held at Apollo Theater in New-York City >> 20 MINUTES on RVM >>

[2012] the rumour says that Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi who are the opening act plus John Mayer who is in town may join B.B. King for his finale at Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles >> 21 MINUTES on RVM >>

[2013] Popa Chubby, Frank Latorre, Mike Zito & Debbie Davies celebrate with Johnny Winter his 70th birthday at B.B. King Blues Club in New York City >> 55 MINUTES on RVM >>

[1997] you do not want to miss Tracy Chapman and B.B. King duetting at Late Show with David Letterman on CBS >> 4 MINUTES on RVM >>

[2011] Julian Lage opens for Jon Anderson at B.B. King Blues Club in New-York City >> 17 MINUTES on RVM >>

[1984] you do not want to miss B.B. King, tomorrow night at Carnegie Hall, at the Late Night with David Letterman on NBC >> 6 MINUTES on RVM >>

[2011] living legend B.B. King will be on stage with his musicians at Tivoli Theatre in Chattanooga, Tennessee >> 32 MINUTES on RVM >>

[1978] B.B. King Blues Band performs at one of the oldest jazz festivals in Europe, Molde International Jazz Festival in Molde, Norway >> 38 MINUTES on RVM >>

SING

We Remember B.B. King. ‘Long Lived The King’

PLAY

We Remember B.B. King. ‘Long Lived The King’

Thanks to the following musicians : Active Melody . alfpacino1 . Barney Willis . Bene Prado . Best Songs Backing Tracks . bluesguitarunleashed . Brandon Reeves . Cifra Club . Constantine Isslamow . David Black . design0flaw . electricsongs . EricBlackmonGuitar . finbarbass . gabe cordova . gtrjoeles . GuitarInstructor . GuitarLickz Ethan Lee . Jellynote Guitar Tabs . jessetwohands . Jim Arkus . Jody1985beta . john tanner . JOHNNYG99X . JustinGuitar Songs . Lindsay Ell . Manuel Guitar Báez . mike gross . Naoki Sakamoto Music CH. . Old School Blues Guitar . PatPB . RiffNinjaSongLessons . Sam Rhodes . SecretGuitarTeacher . Sobayo Sowemimo-Coker . tagtom55 . Theloniousfunkk . Tom Bornemann . torrins.com . TrueFire . xlis vangelis

PROLOGUE

Early years — learning to speak without words. For Riley B. King, the difficulty does not begin with music, but with speech. Words exist, he understands them, thinks them, but they stall on the way out. Childhood is marked by this constant gap between what forms internally and what emerges, a daily struggle with language, breath, and rhythm of phrasing. Stuttering is not a biographical detail; it structures his way of being. Speaking exposes. Singing releases. The distinction appears early, without being formulated.

His birth, in September 1925, on a cotton plantation near Itta Bena, provides no stable framework. Sharecropping dictates everything: schedules, fatigue, movement, economic dependence. Albert and Nora Ella King are not a romanticized couple but a temporary survival unit, quickly dissolved. Separation comes while Riley is still a child. The mother leaves for another man. The father drifts away. Nothing is dramatized at the time. The effects persist.

In this setting, speech is doubly risky. It is hindered by stuttering and monitored by social order. At school, classmates mock. Teachers rarely correct. Riley withdraws. He listens. Observes. Works. Speaks as little as possible. The idea that a child could “explain himself” does not exist here.

Male figures who matter do not resolve the issue. Uncle Major, who stutters more severely, offers no method but provides a mirror: seeing a respected adult struggle with the same words without being reduced to it. Further back, great-grandfather Pop Davidson, a former slave, also stutters, yet no one mocks him. He commands respect. This separation between impairment and indignity settles deeply. Riley understands one can be hindered and remain upright.

The mother, Nora Ella, transmits something else. Little stability, but persistent faith, a sense of kindness, the idea of seeing good in others even when life does not encourage it. Her health declines quickly. Poverty, exhausting labor, untreated diabetes. She dies young, around 1935, blind and worn out. Riley is still a child. The loss produces no elaborate discourse. It creates an immediate logistical void.

After her death, grandmother Elnora becomes guardian, work partner, last support. Sharecropping records show them tied to the same plot, sharing debts and harvests. When Elnora dies in 1940, Riley is fourteen. The landowner offers him the cabin and an acre to farm alone, like an adult. He accepts. He works. At season’s end, the accounts show a small deficit. The system operates this way. The child understands without explanation that there is no lasting outcome here.

The father reappears later. Albert King, also a sharecropper, returns after learning his son lives alone. He takes him to Lexington, where he has rebuilt his life. The cohabitation is difficult. Riley leaves again, traveling by bicycle. Yet over time, he refuses to blame his father. He describes him as responsible, hardworking, reliable from a distance. He even calls him one of his heroes. Respect exists without proximity.

Music circulates meanwhile without presenting itself as a solution. It is everywhere: in the fields, in unaccompanied work songs, in an uncle’s voice, in records of Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lonnie Johnson at an aunt’s house. In church, it becomes structuring. At Elkhorn Baptist Church, Riley sings in the choir. His voice is clear. The stutter disappears when he sings. The effect is immediate, observable, without interpretation. Words pass when carried by melody.

The attraction shifts toward the Church of God in Christ, more intense, more sonorous. Reverend Archie Fair preaches while playing guitar. He shows Riley three chords on a Silvertone. The gesture is simple. It links voice and instrument. For the first time, speaking and playing can coexist without contradiction. Riley does not articulate it. He absorbs it.

The first guitar arrives through a typical mechanism. Flake Cartledge, a local employer, advances fifteen dollars for an acoustic guitar, then recovers the sum by withholding wages. No gift. No abstract debt. A clear arrangement. The instrument is used first in church, then on the street, on Saturdays. Riley starts with gospel, shifts toward blues when the audience allows. He chooses locations where both Black and white passersby circulate. The guitar becomes both economic tool and means of expression.

Radio plays a discreet but decisive role. King Biscuit Time, broadcast from Helena, Arkansas, reaches plantations. Riley listens during breaks. He hears that blues can exist beyond the fields. He imagines, without precise plan, that one can be a radio musician. The idea is not romantic. It is practical.

The guitar is stolen after about a year. The episode is not emphasized. It joins a long series of losses. Riley saves. He starts again. Repetition governs.

The name Bukka White belongs to the maternal lineage, through grandmother Elnora. Riley saw him as a child during family visits, heard that he played in Memphis, recorded, moved between cities. The connection is not abstract; it is genealogical. The fact that a relative lives from guitar exists as concrete data, alongside land, crops, and debts.

At 21, after years of agricultural work and local music, he hitchhikes to Memphis and reaches Beale Street to find this known cousin. Bukka hosts him for several months. No formal agreement, no declaration. Riley observes: guitar position, attack of notes, economy of singing, ability to sustain a full evening, organization of movement. Music detaches from agricultural seasons and enters another rhythm.

What forms in these years is not a spectacular vocation. It is a simple equation: words fail, music holds; labor exhausts, guitar breathes; dignity does not depend on eloquence or visible success. Riley does not see himself as attractive or prodigious. He sees himself as poor, tired, shy, but determined to remain clean, polite, upright.

Music becomes his language not because it saves, but because it works.

The career begins afterward. Riley becomes B.B. King.