Reviews
B.B. King
Live At Cook County Jail (retro)
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Add to del.ico.us.Review Date: 2005-03-15
"I gave you a brand new ford." "But you said (in whiney female impersonation voice) I want a cadillac" "I bought you a ten dollar dinner" "And you said, (female impersonation voice again) Thanks for the snack." "I let you live in my penthouse, and you said it was just a shack." "I gave you seven children! And now you want to give them back!" "Yes i've been downhearted baby, ever since the day we met. " "I said love baby is nothing but the blues." "Baby how blue can you get?"
That my friends is the blues, and this is B.B. King live at Cook County Jail. A legendary blues concert recording from 1971. Those lyrics are from a song called "How Blue Can You Get" which is one of the gems on this 38 minute recording of the show. This was truly a monumental performance.
In 1968 Cook County Jail was a mess. Gang wars were constantly going on, people were getting stabbed, murdered, drugs were being dealt, rape was common, and everyone from the warden to the guards and the journalists in the city were a part of it. Eventually the insanity and corruption became so well known, and such a problem that popularity demand caused the warden to lose his job. In March of 1968 a black psychologist by the name of Winston Moore was given the job. And a fine job he did. On Winston's very first day he went to the gang leader's cells and had their refridgerators removed. Over the next few years Winston Moore risked his own life and safety in an attempt to repair the damage that had been done to Cook Country Jail. Only three short years later, Winston celebrated his reformed jail and paid his respects to the prisoners by bringing in the musician they most wanted to see. Mr. B.B. King and his legendary guitar Lucille. The rest is history.
I have only recently had the pleasure of hearing "The King Of Blues" B.B. King on a regular basis, and am thankful that I finally followed my instinct and started to explore jazz and blues something I have been putting off for years. B.B. King now 76 years old has been relentlessly touring, releasing music, and living the Blues lifestyle for over 50 years. I have two B.B. King albums. The one I am reviewing today and an album he released in 1994, and I can honestly say he gives just as much energy, and plays that guitar of his just as well as he ever has. I am however somewhat partial to the jailhouse recording just because of how authentic it is.
B.B. King's style is more or less blues, but that is a bit misleading as he certainly isn't singing a typical blues song like the lyric up top on every song. More often than not he doesn't even mention the word blue or blues in his songs. One thing I have learnt from listening to his music however is that his vocals are drastically underrated. All anyone ever talks about with B.B. King is his legendary guitar skills, leaving the sheer power and enthusiasm in his singing voice left out of the conversation. Still, even I have to admit that the highlight of almost every B.B. King song is the guitar. He has a way of playing the guitar so beautifully, and so mesmorizingly that after you listen to the album you'll be sitting around with the guitar stuck in your head rather than lyrics or the chorus. That has almost never happened to me before.
The best part about this concert is that B.B. King treats them like he would any other crowd. Talking with them, explaining why he wants to play every song. Making jokes, telling stories about being good to your wife (and cracking jokes about drugs, and beating your women). The last part certainly dates the recording, but don't be shocked. He says that it is a bad idea to beat your woman, but the whole conversation and all the laughs that it draws certainly is a testament to the crowd and the time of the recording. 2117 inmates, and their wives or girlfriends were in attendance for this show, and contrary to what you might think they are very polite and courteous audience. The only time you know it is in jail is the showering of boos at the beginning when the Sheriff and some of the other law enforcement officials are announced.
Back to the song I opened with "How Blue Can You Get". This is one of my favourites performed at this concert. The song opens with an extended guitar exhibition with some low key bass, drums, and piano in the background. You can feel B.B. King tease the audience as they expect the band to join, and they just keep faking it and instead B.B. keeps going at it himself. And Lucille doesn't let down. Just over two minutes in the trumpets are added into the sequence and the fans are going nuts already. And the dude hasn't even sung a word yet. Bring on the saxophones, and another round of wild applause. 3 minutes in everything but the sax is cut out and B.B. finally starts to sing. And then much like he did with the guitar, the song gets really minimalistic except for B.B.'s inspired blues vocals. The track ends with the lyrics from up top and the crowd shows Mr. King much love.
The next song played is to me obvously the best performance of the night. The song is called "Worry, Worry" and the performance extends almost 10 minutes of pure blues, and guitar brilliance. B.B. and Lucille more or less handle the first couple minutes of this track too and the fans love is just as much as they did the song before. Perhaps more. This song is about relationships, or more so about the end of relationships. More or less it is a jazz/blues song about the pain of relationships. And B.B's vocals are ridiculous on this song, he sings "Someday baby" and different variations of that lyric in one of the highest keys you'll ever hear a male pull off and has some funk gestures in his vocals and style that almost remind you of James Brown. Around 5 minutes in B.B. starts playing with the crowd, asking questions to the men, and the ladies. Making jokes. And almost preaching some of his lyrics. The songs ends with another someday, and a big guitar riff and trumpet combination and then more raucous applause.
The most famous song B.B. plays on this night is "Sweet Sixteen". They had been clamouring for it from the audience all night, and he hits them with it towards the end. This whole song is kinda a disturbing subject matter about meeting a girl who was sweet sixteen and too young to want to have sex with well you can only assume B.B. King. The lyrics aren't subtle either. "Running away before I could call your name" has all too many sexual connotations if you ask me. But if you can get past that, this is a really neat song. Lucille is still present but isn't so much at the forefront here. The trumpets, parlour style piano, bass, and drums instead combine to form a more big band type sound which likely would have crowds dancing. Although not here since the men weren't actually with their wives or girlfriends.
I paid 2.99 for this album used and it might be the best bargain of music I have ever found. I can't get enough of this style of music. You can't help but feel good listening to it. The energy is infectious, and the guitar reaches right into your soul. Everytime he plucks Lucille you can't help but groove to the sweet sweet sound that comes out. I don't know the odds of you finding this, but it doesn't matter. Do yourself a favour and listen to B.B. King, and if you can, get a live recording because then you can hear for yourself how amazing the man is. Fuck, you could even do like me and try to see him while he's still touring at 76. Every year, all year. Let's close with the man himself.
"Thank you so much. I want to thank all the people from the board and all the people that helped to make this possible. That is allowing us to be able to perform for you, and I wanna thank you for requesting us. And I would like to do it again sometime if you would like to have us back. I'd like to say one other thing to you. Lucille, that's my gitar here you know we feel very good today. Very very good, very good. So we have a little tune, one last little tune we'd like to do for you. And it's called Please Accept My Love."
Such humility, such style, such grace.
- Dan