RIP B B. King

[Stan]

Blues legend B.B. King, who took his music from rural juke joints to the mainstream and inspired a generation of guitarists from Eric Clapton to Stevie Ray Vaughan, has died in Las Vegas. He was 89.

News of King's death, confirmed late Thursday on a Facebook page linked to the website of his daughter Claudette, triggered shockwaves across social media, with blues, rock and country music stars lining up to pay tribute.

King was hospitalized in April for a few days after suffering from dehydration related to Type 2 diabetes. In May he said in a Facebook post that he was in hospice care at his home.

Born on a plantation to sharecropper parents, he outlived his post-Second World War blues peers - Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Jimmy Reed, Lightnin' Hopkins and John Lee Hooker - to see the rough music born in the cotton fields of the segregated South reach a new audience.

"Being a blues singer is like being black twice," King wrote in his autobiography, "Blues All Around Me," of the lack of respect the music got compared with rock and jazz.

"While the civil rights movement was fighting for the respect of black people, I felt I was fighting for the respect of the blues."

 

GREATEST EVER?

In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time ranked King at No. 3, behind only Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman.

Chicago blues veteran Buddy Guy described King as "the greatest guy I ever met".

"The tone he got out of that guitar, the way he shook his left wrist, the way he squeezed the strings... it was all new to the whole guitar playin' world...," Guy wrote in a posting on Instagram. "I promise I will keep these damn blues alive."

Rocker Bryan Adams said on Twitter that King was "one of the best blues guitarists ever, maybe the best. He could do more on one note than anyone"

Rapper Snoop Dogg, rocker Lenny Kravitz, Kiss frontman Gene Simmons, former Beatle Ringo Starr and U.S. country singer Brad Paisley were among others who posted tributes.

Born Riley B. King on Sept. 16, 1925 in Itta Bena, Miss., he began learning guitar as a boy and sang in church choirs.

After Second World War Army service, King sang on street corners to pick up money. In 1947 he hitchhiked to Memphis, Tenn., where he learned from and played with his cousin, revered blues guitarist Bukka White.

[Gail]

The Thrill is Gone...

i just watched a tribute by Eric Clapton.

King and the blues- when I thought of him I was reminded of the 50s era when so many performers had tragic lives. Many were strung-out heroin users (Billie Halliday, Lenny Bruce, Hank Williams, Etta James) The blues just ooze pain. :(