No, I'm not talking about Galloway and Hitchens....
Just arrived on my desk: a preview copy of Pure Genius: The Complete Atlantic Recordings (1952-59). Ray Charles at his very best.
And today is B.B. King's 80th birthday. There's a brief profile here, and you can learn all about King's faithful guitar, Lucille, over at the Gibson website. The Wall St Journal also ran an interview (subscriber-only) with the great man a couple of days ago:
He still hasn't lost his appetite for the road: Why -- when most musicians of such renown and longevity are at least semi-retired -- is he still doing strings of one-nighters? "For one thing, I like what I do. I'd do it for nothing if people would pay my rent. Don't tell the promoter, though! Another thing, I've got a band, a good band, a band that I love. You can't keep a good band together unless they're paid well." He says that "everybody else has been with me at least 10 years, under no contract. Just a handshake. I've tried to treat people the way I want to be treated."
Want to know how much he loves touring? Here's an eye-popping paragraph from Charles Sawyer's biography, published when King was a mere fiftysomething:
The statistics of B.B. King's durability are staggering. He has survived sixteen auto accidents; in the year 1956 he played 342 consecutive one-night engagements; he has played an average of 300 performances in recent years; in thirty years he has taken a total of only two months' vacation.
The best B.B. album? Live At The Regal tops most fans' list. I have a soft spot, too, for Midnight Believer, a jazzy set which paired him with Joe Sample and Will Jennings. Some purists weren't too crazy about it, but that's their problem.
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