Traxx:
1. Every Day I Have the Blues 2. Sweet Little Angel 3. It's My Own Fault 4. How Blue Can You Get 5. Please Love Me 6. You Upset Me Baby. 7. Worry, Worry 8. Woke Up This Morning (My Baby's Gone) 9. You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now 10. Help the Poor
Review:
Right. I've got to go into town to return a library book and get my phone fixed, so let's keep this quick. I think the last blues album we had here, Muddy Water Live at Newport, was something that I found initially off-putting but quickly grew to love. B.B. King, on the other hand, is a fellow I found myself liking immediately. He has a great conversational style, taking-on a sort of "Wise old man" approach cross-bred with the Lonely Lady, and doling out a whole lot of (usually sound) relationship advice. He's also a pretty funny guy, in that understated way I always associate with Johnny Cash. And he has lines like "If your woman doesn't do exactly what you ask, don't you go hitting her upside the head - because all that'll do is make her a little smarter; she won't let you catch her next time". Which I found funny. Haha.
Anyway, B.B. King is not just a funny and likable guy, he is (or was -no, is. Holy shit, how is this guy still alive and performing? Forget Robert Johnson, it's obvious that B.B. King's the one who sold his soul) a great musician. He has a remarkably versatile voice, wandering from deep rumbling to smooth crooning and that sort of high, whining style I associate with the Delta. And he is an absolutely amazing guitar player. Unfortunately, he doesn't really let rip on most of these songs, preferring to leave things to his more-than-capable backing band, but wow! When that guy plays a guitar, it stays played. Maybe this is what happens when you rescue a guitar from a fire and then name it Lucille. Is that the secret to great blues playing? I do not know.
Anyway, not only are King and his band firing on all cylinders, the material is damned solid, too. There's everything from straight-up blues to a weird sort of Latin dance number in "Help the Poor". And "How Blue Can You Get", in while King points-out the foibles of a perpetually dissatisfied lover, is just hilarious. It's a spectrum, really.
So, this is a very good album but I'm not going to elaborate upon it because damn it I have to get to the shop.
A
And now, in wonderful static monochrome!
