B.B. King - B.B. King In London (Great Blues US 1971)

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B.B. King in London is a studio album by B.B. King recorded in London in 1971. He is accompanied by US session musicians and various British R&B musicians, including Alexis Korner, and members of Spooky Tooth, Humble Pie and with Rick Wright - not of Pink Floyd fame as some have stated. Rick and his female companion Fritz started a short-lived blues-based band Sunrise which came to an end after Rick's death in a car accident.

As was the case with many early rock and blues legends (Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters) in the early '70s, B.B. King went to London to cut an album with an assortment of rock royalty of the day. 1971's B.B. KING IN LONDON found the King Of The Blues using members of Fleetwood Mac, Spooky Tooth and Humble Pie as sidemen on an assortment of blues classics and numbers written especially for this project. On Fleecie Moore's jump blues classic "Caledonia," King rubs shoulders with Peter Green and plays some nimble-fingered guitar on the Gary Wright-penned instrumental "Wet Hayshark," powered by the dual drumming of Jim Gordon and Ringo Starr (who plays on three songs in total). 

British blues godfather Alexis Korner contributed the instrumental "Alexis' Boogie" in which King duets with Korner on acoustic guitar while Steve Marriott wails away on harmonica. Other highlights include Louis Jordan's "We Can't Agree," here turned into a mid-tempo stroll and Dr. John trading in his piano for a guitar on "Ghetto Woman," a rare song with string arrangements that doesn't come off sounding mawkish. King's brightest playing comes on the joyous "Power Of The Blues" and the Stax-soaked fullness of "Ain't Nobody Home."  

Recorded at Olympic Studios and Command Studios, London, England. Released 11 October 1971 (US) and 19 November 1971 (UK)

Personnel:
* B.B. King - lead guitar, vocals 
* Ringo Starr - drums 
* Peter Green - guitar 
* Alexis Korner - guitar 
* Duster Bennett - harmonica 
* Steve Marriott - harmonica
* Steve Winwood - organ player
  and many more... 

01."Caldonia" (Fleecie Moore) -- 4:01 
02."Blue Shadows" (Lloyd Glenn) -- 5:11 
03."Alexis Boogie" (Alexis Korner) -- 3:30 
04."We Can't Agree" (Wilhelmina Gray, Louis Jordan) -- 4:48 
05."Ghetto Woman" (Dave Clark, B.B. King) -- 5:15 
06."Wet Hayshark" (Gary Wright) -- 2:29 
07."Part-Time Love" (Clay Hammond) -- 3:17 
08."The Power of the Blues" (Pete Wingfield) -- 2:23 
09."Ain't Nobody Home" (Jerry Ragovoy) -- 3:09

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B.B. King - Live in Japan (Great Blues Japan/US 1971)

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When BB King landed in Tokyo in March 1971, the Blues legend was riding high on a well-deserved surge in popular acclaim and commercial success. The Thrill Is Gone had become King’s highest-ever charting single the previous year, and as he hit the Sankei Hall stage with his touring band, Live In Cook County Jail was starting a lucrative climb into the US album charts. To avoid harming sales of the latter disc perhaps, his record company decided to release the Tokyo dates only in Japan, leaving America to wait another 28 years. By then of course the LP had become a highly sought-after collectible, and for good reason – the recording captures King and his band in phenomenal form. 

In contrast to …Cook County Jail’s brevity, Live In Japan offers more than seventy minutes of diverse yet consistently outstanding material. Classics such as Sweet Sixteen, The Thrill Is Gone and How Blue Can You Get? are delivered with tremendous passion and clout, while a rare live version of Hummingbird simply takes off on a barrage of ringing notes from Lucille and a fanfare of horns. King’s vocals are magnificent throughout, particularly on Eyesight To The Blind, where he ranges from a bawled holler to a tremulous, breathless gasp with astonishing ease. Several long instrumentals, such as Japanese Boogie and Jamming At Sankei Hall, offer an invaluable snapshot of King’s live improvisational skills, as well as some magical solos from trumpet player John Browning, pianist Ron Levy and King’s long-time drummer Sonny Freeman. While not as widely celebrated as some of his other concert albums, Live In Japan is both an artful and thorough testament to the multi-faceted genius of one of music’s true living legends.

Live in Japan was originally released as a two-LP set in Japan 1971. At the time, King's superb Live in Cook County Jail was a respectable seller for ABC, and the label also planned to release In London -- so ABC felt that because a fair amount of live King albums were coming out in the U.S., it was best to release the Sankei Hall recording only in Japan. But many of King's American fans wanted it anyway, and collectors went out of their way to find imported copies of the double LP. 

Parts of Live in Japan did come out on various U.S. releases, but it was not released in its entirety in the U.S until this 1999 reissue. Backed by many of the same players heard on Live in Cook County Jail, King is in excellent form on spirited, gutsy performances of "The Thrill Is Gone" and "Sweet Sixteen" as well as Sonny Boy Williamson's "Eyesight to the Blind," Leon Russell's "Hummingbird," and Peter Chatman's "Every Day I Have the Blues." The instrumentals "Japanese Boogie" and "Jamming at Sankei Hall" give the band a chance to let loose and improvise, and "Lucille" (King's name for his guitar) gets in some passionate, inspired solos. Although Live at the Regal and Live in Cook County Jail are King's most essential live albums, Live in Japan is a fine CD that his fans will definitely want.

Recorded live at Sankei Hall, Tokyo, Japan on March 4 & 7, 1971. Originally released on ABC-Japan (841). Includes liner notes by Andy McKaie. Personnel: B.B. King (vocals, guitar); Earl Turbinton (alto saxophone); Louis Hubert (tenor saxophone); John Browning (trumpet); Joseph Burton (trombone); Ron Levy (piano); Wilton Freeman (bass); Sonny Freeman (drums). 

01."Every Day I Have the Blues" - 2:10 
02."How Blue Can You Get?" - 5:17 
03."Eyesight to the Blind" - 4:03 
04."Niji Baby" - 6:27 
05."You're Still My Woman" - 5:56 
06."Chains and Things" - 5:41 
07."Sweet Sixteen" - 6:00 
08."Hummingbird" - 4:08 
09."Darlin' You Know I Love You" - 4:26 
10."Japanese Boogie" - 9:17 
11."Jamming at Sankei Hall" - 9:35 
12."The Thrill Is Gone" - 5:36 
13."Hikari #88" - 7:57 

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B.B. King - Live at The Regal (Great Live US 1965)

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Live at the Regal is a 1965 live album by blues guitarist and singer B.B. King. It was recorded on November 21, 1964 at the Regal Theater in Chicago. The album is widely heralded as one of the greatest blues albums ever recorded and is #141 on Rolling Stone Magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Despite its critical appreciation, B. B. King does not consider it among his best recordings. In 2005, Live at the Regal was selected for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress in the United States.

Some musicians, including Eric Clapton, John Mayer, and Mark Knopfler, have acknowledged using this album as a primer before performances. [Wikipedia]

B.B. King is not only a timeless singer and guitarist, he's also a natural-born entertainer, and on Live at the Regal the listener is treated to an exhibition of all three of his talents. Over percolating horn hits and rolling shuffles, King treats an enthusiastic audience (at some points, they shriek after he delivers each line) to a collection of some of his greatest hits. The backing band is razor-sharp, picking up the leader's cues with almost telepathic accuracy. King's voice is rarely in this fine of form, shifting effortlessly between his falsetto and his regular range, hitting the microphone hard for gritty emphasis and backing off in moments of almost intimate tenderness. 

Nowhere is this more evident than at the climax of "How Blue Can You Get," where the Chicago venue threatens to explode at King's prompting. Of course, the master's guitar is all over this record, and his playing here is among the best in his long career. Displaying a jazz sensibility, King's lines are sophisticated without losing their grit. More than anything else, Live at the Regal is a textbook example of how to set up a live performance. Talking to the crowd, setting up the tunes with a vignette, King is the consummate entertainer. Live at the Regal is an absolutely necessary acquisition for fans of B.B. King or blues music in general. A high point, perhaps even the high point, for uptown blues. [AMG]

01. "Every Day I Have the Blues"   Memphis Slim 2:38 
02. "Sweet Little Angel"   Riley King, Jules Taub 4:12 
03. "It's My Own Fault"   King, Taub 3:29 
04. "How Blue Can You Get?"   Leonard Feather 3:44 
05. "Please Love Me"   King, Taub 3:01 
06. "You Upset Me Baby"   King, Taub 2:22 
07. "Worry, Worry"   Maxwell Davis, Taub 6:24 
08. "Woke Up This Morning (My Baby's Gone)"   King, Taub 1:45 
09. "You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now"   Joe Josea, King 4:16 
10. "Help the Poor"   Charlie Singleton 2:58 

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B.B. King - Live in Cook County Jail (Classic Blues Album US 1971)

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Live in Cook County Jail is a 1971 live album by B.B. King recorded in Cook County Jail, Chicago, Illinois. It was ranked as number 499 in the book version of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It spent three weeks at #1 on the Soul Albums chart.

B.B. King has cut a lot of albums since the success of Live at the Regal. And, like the live shows they document, none of them are any less than solid and professional, hallmarks of King's work aesthetic. But every so often B.B. truly catches fire; his playing and singing comes up an extra notch or two, and the result is a live album with some real sparks to it. Live in Cook County Jail is one of those great concerts that the record company was smart enough to be there to capture, documenting B.B. firing on all cylinders in front of an audience that's just damn happy for him to be there. Possibly the best live version of "The Thrill Is Gone" of all its many incarnations, and rock solid renditions of classics like "Everyday I Have the Blues," "How Blue Can You Get?," "Sweet Sixteen" and a great medley of "3 O'Clock Blues" and "Darlin' You Know I Love You." Live at the Regal is still the champ of King's live output, but many say this runs a close second, and they just may be right. 

BB is firing on all cylinders for this one. Live in Cook County Jail may not be King's greatest live performance to find it's way onto an LP release (that honor would go to Live at the Regal), but it is a damn fine performance in its own regard and in some ways superior to his other live sets of his. Live at the Regal had it all; a great track selection, wonderful vocals and guitar compliments of BB, and a crowd that was just dying to hear the next word from his mouth, the next chord from his guitar. Most of these qualities are still present for this live show in Chicago. His vocals and guitar work are every bit as good, perhaps even better and the track selection is just as fine. What this album lacks is the energy that Live at the Regal carries. There is a ton of energy here do not get me wrong, but the audience is far more tame at Cook County Jail than at the Regal. BB and company do not execute on the same level as a result. However, Live in Cook County Jail still delivers on almost all fronts and offers the listener a wonderful glimpse at a legendary sho

Virtually every attempt to update the style of recordings of the great blues artists has been horribly misconceived. Chuck Berry playing with the Steve Miller Band, Wolf and Muddy being forced to record with idiot hard rock bands, Otis Rush and Freddie King having to bear the weight of arrangements and production imposed on their music instead of coming out of it–none of these sessions has been worth the time, effort and money that went into them.

Only B.B. King has stood above this aesthetic debauchery. He has refused to make the choice between either a wholesale update of his style or a museum hall display of his past achievements. With the assistance of his young producer, Bill Szymczyk, he has found an attractive middle ground in which he has continued to grow artistically without giving up any of the body and soul that made his music so great in the first place. The positive results of this collaboration have been documented on his last three albums.

Live and Well and Completely Well were both adventurous albums, with the latter being the better of the two. But it was on Indianola Mississippi Seeds that the producer and the artist found their rightful groove. The sound was modern, the back-up, by the L.A. musicians who did Sweet Baby James, were equal to King in every respect, and the material, while still essentially blues, was a different sort of blues: B.B. King's blues, 1971.

"Ain't Gonna Worry My Life Anymore" summed up all the virtues of the King-Szymczyk collaboration. By my ears it contained the following: great B.B. King guitar, as smooth and as fluid as anything he has ever done; great rhythm by drummer Russ Kunkel, and as an extra bonus, a great drum break; one great piano solo by Carole King, one great string arrangement by Jimmie Haskell, great sound and mix all the way through, and a fabulous vocal. By all odds the best cut on one of last year's finest albums.

Of course, when an artist who was outstanding during one period continues to grow into other musical styles and tastes, he is inevitably subjected to criticism from people who want to keep him on some sort of historical pedestal, as if he could only maintain his integrity by playing his early masterpieces over and over, for as long as he performs. Peter Bogdanovich was recently moved to say about Orson Welles that everyone is so busy worshiping his past successes, they have forgotten the man is still alive and still creating. And so it is that we get people writing that "B.B. King is in deep trouble," that he has become sharp and slick, that he uses strings on his records, as if this was somehow in and of itself a criticism of his music. And no matter how intelligently such criticism is put, it amounts to trying to keep King in his historical place.

As B.B. himself recently put it in an interview in the LA Free Press: "There are people who think that if you're a blues singer you should always be in torn clothes, and in a little club that's smokey, and high off something before you reach the stage, and not be able to know your ABCs, and be sure you don't use anything other than a guitar and a harmonica and you play the joints the roaches and the rats are running through."

Ironically, at the same time King says this he has just released Live In Cook County Jail as if to protect himself from exactly this type of thinking. You can't get much more down than the Cook County jail. And as down as he tries to get, all this album proves is that the approach King has been following in his last three studio albums–new material in a new setting–is the right one. Because Cook County is little more than a rehash of the familiar B.B. King which, despite its great moments, has already been given definitive statement elsewhere, most memorably on Live At the Regal.

Particularly striking is the audience's failure to respond to King's efforts at recreating past successes. The raucous, good-timey atmosphere of Johnny Cash's prison albums is replaced by a deathlike detachment on the part of this crowd. King has to cajole, argue, and beg them into responding at some points.

Particularly disappointing musically is a long, long "Someday Baby." This tune was given a superb treatment on Live at the Regal. Here the dialogue portion of the song seems to drag on forever and instead of finally coming out of the talk sequence into a musical crescendo–as on the earlier version–when King finishes his rap, the song simply ends. Thud. A typical example of B.B.'s tendency to talk too much on stage. In the nine minutes this number took, he could have done three complete tunes.

The obsequious undertone to "Please Accept My Love" is even worse. I was moved the first time I heard King do this song in person and since then have found it to be a bit much. This audience didn't sound like it enjoyed being asked to accept it, at all.

Still, no King album is ever really bad. The one weakness of the three recent studio albums has been an occasional stiffness in the guitar playing. The guitar playing on Cook County is as good as the man ever plays: he is in top form from beginning to end. Another treat is the drumming by King's bandleader of 12 years, Sonny Freeman. When it comes to standard King fare, Freeman has no equal and its good to hear him on record again. Finally, the version of "The Thrill Is Gone" is so good that it makes up for any number of the album's slower moments.

Next time around I hope King gets back into the studio and picks up where Indianola Mississippi Seeds left off. In the meantime I saw him on Sesame Street this morning and he has certainly learned his ABCs. He played the best damn version of "The Alphabet Song" I've ever heard.

Recorded Cook County Jail 
Chicago Illinois
U.S.A. September 10, 1970 

* B.B. King - Guitar, vocals 
* Wilbert Freeman - Bass 
* Sonny Freeman - Drums 
* John Browning - Trumpet 
* Louis Hubert - Tenor Saxophone 
* Booker Walker - Alto Saxophone 
* Ron Levy - Piano 

01."Introductions" – 1:50 
02."Every Day I Have the Blues" (Memphis Slim) – 1:43 
03."How Blue Can You Get?" (Feather) – 5:09 
04."Worry, Worry" (Davis, Jules Taub) – 9:57 
05.Medley: "3 O'Clock Blues", "Darlin' You Know I Love You" – 6:15 
06."Sweet Sixteen" (Joe Josea, King) – 4:20 
07."The Thrill Is Gone" (Darnell, Roy Hawkins) – 5:31 
08."Please Accept My Love" (King, Sam Ling) – 4:02 

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B.B. King - Blues on Top of Blues (Great Album US 1968)

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This isn't his most well-known stuff, but it's a very solid late '60s set. Featuring brassy arrangements by Johnny Pate (who also worked with many prominent Chicago soul acts during the '60s), it presents King's sound at its fullest without sacrificing any of his grit or sophisticated swing. No famous classics here, but the material is very strong throughout.

First off some technicals. This is a really well recorded blues session(s) for its day. The horn arrangements and sound by Johnny Pate are big, bold, & brash, but generally complements the tunes. Sometimes it veers into big-band overkill, but usually it works. And I think these arrangements were the whole point of this LP, to showcase BB in a uptown, bigband spotlight. 

His singing is impassioned and spot on throughout. The tunes are uniformly good, but I wouldn't call them great. Many are lyrically threadbare ideas that aren't that memorable, but BB puts them across so well it doesn't really detract too much. This LP contains "Paying the Cost to Be the Boss" which is almost worth the price of admission. 

My only other criticism is that everything here is really short. 2:30 second songs is somewhat the norm. It's like they programmed the whole darn thing for AM radio/jukebox play, when the likelihood of most of it being pulled as singles was slight. It would've been nice to have these tunes stretched out a little more. 

Because of the brevity of the songs soloing is kept to a minimum and what is here (on almost every tune) is all BB wailing on Lucille. Unfortunately, Johnny Pate only lets him take one chorus on each song, so it's short and sweet, and leaves you crying for more 'cause you'd like to hear him resolve/stretch his ideas with another chorus of lead playing. None of the backing players get to blow at all and it would've helped the spirit of thing if they'd at least allowed a piano/Hammond break or sax solo somewhere on here. 

But most of these are minor quibbles. In general this is a powerhouse LP by a major player who didn't usually specialize in making really well rounded LPs. This one is different though, its a great listen from stem to stern. [http://rateyourmusic.com] 

01. Heartbreaker 2:33
02. Losing Faith In You 2:55
03. Dance With Me 3:05 
04. That's Wrong Little Mama 2:45
05. Having My Say 2:35 
06. I'm Not Wanted Anymore 2:23
07. Worried Dream 2:47 [Also recorded by Fleetwood Mac 1968]
08. Paying The Cost To Be The Boss 2:35
09. Until I Found You 2:25 
10. I'm Gonna Do What They Do To Me 3:00
11. Raining In My Heart 2:26 
12. Now That You've Lost Me 2:25

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B.B. King - Live & Well (Great Album US 1969)

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Live & Well is a 1969 album by B. B. King, consisting of five tracks recorded "Live" at the Village Gate in New York City, and five additional studio tracks.

Explaining the album's title, producer Bill Szymczyk wrote in the liner notes, "We got together, what I consider to be, some of the best young blues musicians in the country and locked ourselves in 'The Hit Factory' for two nights. The results of those two nights are the "well" side of this album."

Although Live & Well wasn't a landmark album in the sense of Live at the Regal, it was a significant commercial breakthrough for King, as it was the first of his LPs to enter the Top 100. That may have been because recognition from rock stars such as Eric Clapton had finally boosted his exposure to the White pop audience, but it was a worthy recording on its own merits, divided evenly between live and studio material. King's always recorded well as a live act, and it's the concert tracks that shine brightest, although the studio ones (cut with assistance from studio musicians like Al Kooper and Hugh McCracken) aren't bad. 

01."Don't Answer the Door" (Jimmy Johnson) - 6:14 
02."Just a Little Love" - 5:18 
03."My Mood" - 2:39 
04."Sweet Little Angel" (King, Jules Taub) - 5:03 
05."Please Accept My Love" (King, Sam Ling) - 3:14 
06."I Want You So Bad" - 4:15 
07."Friends" (King, Bill Szymczyk) - 5:37 
08."Get Off My Back, Woman" (King, Ferdinand Washington) - 3:16 
09."Let's Get Down to Business" - 3:36 
10"Why I Sing the Blues" (Dave Clark, King) - 8:36 

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B.B. King - Indianola Mississippi Seeds (Great Blues US 1970)

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Indianola Mississippi Seeds is a 1970 album in which B. B. King mixed elements of blues and pop/rock. Producer Bill Szymczyk decided to follow up on the success of the hit "The Thrill Is Gone" by matching King with a musical all-star cast. The result was one of King's most critically acclaimed albums and one of the most highly regarded blues crossover albums of all time.

The album appeared on several of Billboard's album charts in 1970, reaching number 26 on the Pop album chart, number seven on the Jazz album chart and eight on Billboard's listing for "Black Albums." The album also generated several hit singles, "Chains and Things", King's own "Ask Me No Questions" and Leon Russell's "Hummingbird".

King himself, also, views the album as one of his greatest achievements. When asked about his best work, King has said, "I know the critics always mention Live & Well or Live at the Regal, but I think that Indianola Mississippi Seeds was the best album that I've done artistically."

B.B. King Advertise Picture 1970

The album title is a tribute to King's upbringing near Indianola, Mississippi. Although King was born on a plantation between two smaller towns, Itta Bena and Berclair, which are actually closer to Greenwood, King has always considered Indianola his hometown.

The album package — which was itself recognized with a Grammy — includes what appears to be a copy of B. B. King's birth certificate with official registration in Indianola. The liner notes also contain a note that reads, "Congratulations Albert and Nora on your son Riley, September 16, 1925."

Over time, King's hometown has paid respects back to him. In 2008, the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center opened in Indianola, with the mission to "preserve and share the legacy and values of B. B. King, to celebrate the rich cultural heritage of the Mississippi Delta, and to promote pride, hope, and understanding through exhibitions and educated programs."

B.B. King hasn't made many better pop-flavored albums than this. Besides making Leon Russell's "Hummingbird" sound like his own composition, King showed that you can put the blues into any situation and make it work. Carole King was one of several pop luminaries who did more than just hang on for the ride. 

01. "Nobody Loves Me But My Mother" (B. B. King) — 1:26 
B.B. King — piano & vocal 
02. "You're Still My Woman" (B. B. King/Dave Clark) — 6:04 
B.B. King — guitar & vocal 
Carole King — piano 
Bryan Garofalo — bass 
Russ Kunkel — drums 
03. "Ask Me No Questions" (B. B. King) — 3:08 
B.B. King — guitar & vocal 
Leon Russell – piano 
Joe Walsh – rhythm guitar 
Bryan Garofalo — bass 
Russ Kunkel — drums 
04. "Until I'm Dead and Cold" (B. B. King) — 4:45 
B.B. King — guitar & vocal 
Carole King — piano 
Bryan Garofalo — bass 
Russ Kunkel — drums 
05."King's Special" (B. B. King) — 5:13 
B.B. King — lead guitar 
Leon Russell – piano 
Joe Walsh – rhythm guitar 
Bryan Garofalo — bass 
Russ Kunkel — drums 
06."Ain't Gonna Worry My Life Anymore" (B. B. King) — 5:18 
B.B. King — guitar & vocal 
Carole King — piano & electric piano 
Bryan Garofalo — bass 
Russ Kunkel — drums 
07."Chains and Things" (B. B. King & Dave Clark) — 4:53 
B.B. King — guitar & vocal 
Carole King — electric piano 
Bryan Garofalo — bass 
Russ Kunkel — drums 
08."Go Underground" (B. B. King & Dave Clark) — 4:00 
B.B. King — lead guitar & vocal 
Paul Harris — piano 
Hugh McCracken — rhythm guitar 
Gerald Jemmott — bass 
Herb Lovelle — drums 
Joe Zagarino — Engineer 
The Hit Factory, New York City 
09. "Hummingbird" (Leon Russell) — 4:36 
B.B. King — guitar & vocal 
Leon Russell — piano & conductor 
Joe Walsh — rhythm guitar 
Bryan Garofalo — bass 
Russ Kunkel — drums 
Sherlie Matthews, Merry Clayton, Clydie King, Venetta Fields — "Angelic chorus" 

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B.B. King - Boston Tea Party 1970

B.B. King - Completely Well (Great Blues Album US 1969)

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Completely Well is a 1969 studio album by blues guitarist B. B. King. It is notable for the inclusion of "The Thrill Is Gone," which became a hit on both the pop and the R&B charts.

This album was released in the US as an LP record in 1969 and as a CD in 1987; in the UK only as an LP. It was recorded at a time when B.B. was enjoying his first couple of years as a crossover star popular with the young white audience, which no doubt caused the decision to record him with what was basically a studio rock and R&B band. (The string and horn arrangements, generally bland but more soulful, predominate on some cuts, like "The Thrill Is Gone.")

For example, the 10-minute "You're Mean" is a loose jam with some initial vocals, a false ending, a ragged ending, and B.B. and Hugh McCracken, meanwhile, both stretching out on guitar. There are lots of blues lines—either in separate solos, alternating call and response, counterpoint, or just over each other. There is a wide gulf between B.B.'s and McCracken's appropriateness, though, the latter being fairly heavy-handed in both single-note lines and chording—no Clapton or, say, Bloomfield in his ability to find common ground with B.B.

San Francisco critic Ralph J. Gleason's lengthy liner notes are mostly a profile of B.B., who is quoted on his influences (just ticking off names) and praised for the influence he was having on contemporary musicians. Otherwise, Gleason gives what has been the standard take on B.B. for the past 40 years: Great, for-real artist with surprising personal humility. Only 1 of the 17 paragraphs discusses a title from the LP, "Confessin' the Blues," but only to mention its historical importance (then almost 30 years old)--nothing about this recording.

Fillmore Poster 1969

Completely Well was B.B. King's breakthrough album in 1969, which finally got him the long-deserved acclaim that was no less than his due. It contained his signature number, "The Thrill Is Gone," and eight other tunes, six of them emanating from King's pen, usually in a co-writing situation. Hardliners point to the horn charts and the overdubbed strings as the beginning of the end of King's old style that so identifiably earmarked his early sides for the Bihari Brothers and his later tracks for ABC, but this is truly the album that made the world sit up and take notice of B.B. King. 

The plus points include loose arrangements and a small combo behind him that never dwarfs the proceedings or gets in the way. King, for his part, sounds like he's having a ball, playing and singing at peak power. This is certainly not the place to start your B.B. King collection, but it's a nice stop along the way before you finish it. [Wikipedia + AMG]

01."So Excited" (B.B. King, Gerald Jemmott) -- 5:34 
02."No Good" (Ferdinand Washington, B.B. King) -- 4:35 
03."You're Losin' Me" (Ferdinand Washington, B.B. King) -- 4:54 
04."What Happened" (B.B. King) -- 4:41 
05."Confessin' the Blues" (Jay McShann, Walter Brown) -- 4:56 
06."Key to My Kingdom" (Maxwell Davis, Joe Josea, Claude Baum) -- 3:18 
07."Cryin' Won't Help You Now" (Sam Ling, Jules Taub; LP has only B.B.) -- 6:30 
08."You're Mean" (B.B. King, Gerald Jemmott, Hugh McCracken, Paul Harris, Herbie Lovelle) -- 9:39 
09."The Thrill Is Gone" (Rick Darnell, Roy Hawkins; LP has Arthur H [Art] Benson, Dale Pettite) -- 5:30

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Selland Arena 1969

B.B. King - Blues is King, Live in Chicago (US 1967)

Size: 105 MB
Bitrate: 256
mp3
Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock
Artwork Included
Source: Japan SHM-CD Remaster

By 1967, King had refined his singing and guitar style (which were always intertwined) to a fine point. Blues Is King music CDs What was just beginning to emerge during this period was King the showman, the singer with a story to tell his audience; sometimes a sad story, sometimes an angry one, occasionally even a downright mean one. Blues Is King songs Nowhere was this more apparent than in live performance. Blues Is King album Here he's captured in concert in Chicago, home of the blues and the ideal place to testify to the congregation. Blues Is King CD music From "Tired of Your Jive" to "I Know What You're Puttin' Down" to the unequivocal "Baby Get Lost," B.B. lets his audience in on the ups and downs of romance in no uncertain terms, both through his impassioned vocals and characteristically stinging guitar. Blues Is King music CDs The effect is both cathartic and awe-inspiring. Recorded live in Chicago on November 5, 1966. Originally released on Bluesway (6001) in September 1967. Includes original release liner notes by Stanley Dance. Personnel: B.B. King (vocals, guitar); Kenneth Sands (trumpet); Bobby Forte (tenor saxophone); Duke Jethro (organ); Louis Satterfield (bass); Sonny Freeman (drums). 

01. Introduction (Live (International Club)   
02. Waitin' On You 2:29   
03. Introduction (Live (International Club)   
04. Gambler's Blues 5:12    
05. Tired Of Your Jive 3:32    
06. Night Life 4:48   
07. Buzz Me 4:14    
08. Don't Answer The Door 4:10    
09. Blind Love 3:33    
10. I Know What You're Puttin' Down 3:36    
11. Baby, Get Lost 3:59    
12. Gonna Keep On Loving You 3:46
+ 2 Bonus Tracks 

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