The way I have been crying about things on here lately. Whether it is betrayals or petty squabbles or even the economy you might think I am the kin of the blues, or the king of being blue or the king of crybabies. I know less QQ more pew pew, only my WoW peeps will get that. Well last Friday I saw the real king of the blues BB King. It was a cool show the tickets were a little pricey and by a little I mean a lot. He didn't sing much or ply guitar a lot nor did he sing my favorite songs, but overall it was entertaining. BB King comes off as a sweet humble person and his eye movement and facial expressions were so animated it is easy to see why he still packs shows at 83 years of age.
You see the concert felt like BB was your grandfather and you came over to spend the night with him. Each song had a story and he loved to tell them. At one point he was explaining how he got blues started. I will paraphrase of course the legend himself
BB drove a tractor in the World War II era and that was the position that everyone wanted, because if you weren’t on the tractor you were hoeing the fields by hand. If you ever got off the tractor you would quickly see someone else take your place and you would find yourself working the fields by hand. One day while he was driving the tractor he saw someone enter his two room shack where he and his wife lived. Someone that looked like a man, Furious he drove up the row and stormed into his house to ask what man was there. His wife told him it was your dad he came to get some snuff. If you saw him come in you should’ve seen him come out. BB then started to sing "I don’t want nobody in my house when I'm not around” He breaks back into the story for a bit and sings about how he thinks she is cheating on him. The wife storms into the bedroom and starts packing furious. BB wrapped his arms around her legs and could only get one eye to cry. He sang some more songs about being in love and sorry. He said that he worked at it and finally got both eyes to cry and he finished the story with another love song and said that is how he started in blues.
BB went on to tell more stories of growing up. Even gave a play by play of a classy way to win a woman's heart on the first date. He said all women are beautiful and that they could out think and out drink us men.
Even when the theatres sound crew kept messing up hi microphones he would just laugh and say something like well I guess they want me to do less talking. He played a great deal of extra time and treated his audience with the upmost respect. I felt that in two hours I got to know the man behind the legend and he is someone that would be great day to spend the day with drinking some iced tea and strumming some guitars and shooting stories with. The world could learn a lot from him. Be kind, respectful, he is still working hard touring 250 dates a year at age 83. If you ever have the opportunity do to see him and you aren’t a blues fan go see him, it is well worth the time and cultural lesson
God Bless you BB King
Take care of each other
As always who knows when the next post is, I just randomly feel inspired to write them. Often at work.
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