photograph courtesy michael bush / dreamstime
Anniversaries are in the air. September 16th will be celebrated in Memphis — and anywhere in the world where listening to the blues brings the opposite — as the centennial of B.B. King’s birth. Lest we forget just how grand this King’s influence was, recall that he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 (the institution’s second class) while still very much in his prime and at the tender age of 62. He influenced this city’s “other” King (his given name: Elvis Presley), not the other way around. Fittingly, B.B. King’s statue stands proudly a few feet from Presley’s in Downtown’s Tennessee Welcome Center.
What is a century of impact? And why do the nice, round numbers (especially when there are two zeroes) matter? My wife and I saw King perform precisely once, on March 20, 2003, in the Beale Street club that carries his name. It was a profound experience, to say the least, one of the very few times I’ve actually felt goose bumps form when a legend takes his stage. (Others: Mikhail Baryshnikov at the Germantown Performing Arts Center in 1997 and Michael Jordan at The Pyramid in 2001.) The intimacy of a club setting magnifies the look and sound of a music titan, and I’m grateful, here 22 years later, for my one night with “Blues Boy.” So yes, the 100th-anniversary reminder of his lifetime also lifts my spirits, and surely those of countless others who had an unforgettable “one night.”
I returned to Memphis in time to attend King’s funeral procession down Beale Street. And again, my thought at the time was about impact, how the right kind outlives the second date in our obituary. Will B.B. King be celebrated on the bicentennial of his birth, in 2125? Let’s hope so, and here’s to the human race getting there with perhaps less acrimony than we feel globally today.
On the subject of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, September 29th will mark 90 years since Jerry Lee Lewis arrived on the planet, surely shaking his delivery room by one measure or another. You’ll recall Elvis hitting 90 years in spirit last January. (Sadly, we’ll mark 50 years since Presley’s passing in less than two years.)
Back to B.B. King and my current reflection. I happened to be in Las Vegas on May 14, 2015, when King died in that very city. A pair of dear friends were renewing their wedding vows after twenty years . . . and with a faux Michael Jackson(!) as their officiant. Among the few American music stars as famous as B.B. King, Jackson had already been gone six years, having died at, yep, age 50 in 2009. I recall wondering at the time if a B.B. King impersonator might marry a future couple or two, knowing fully that “The Thrill Is Gone” will appear on playlists just as long as Thriller survives. That would be forever.
I returned to Memphis in time to attend King’s funeral procession down Beale Street, at the time a short walk from the Contemporary Media office building. And again, my thought at the time was about impact, how the right kind outlives the second date in our obituary. Will B.B. King be celebrated on the bicentennial of his birth, in 2125? Let’s hope so, and here’s to the human race getting there with perhaps less acrimony than we feel globally today. (Has there ever been a better time to sing the blues?) What goes without saying: B.B. King’s tunes will hit the right notes as long as there are anniversaries to count.
In 2020, shortly after the death of Eddie Van Halen, Rolling Stone published its ranking of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. B.B. King landed at number six, behind only Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, and Jeff Beck. (Ahead of Chuck Berry and two slots ahead of Van Halen.) “He plays in shortened bursts,” wrote ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, choosing the present tense for his profile, “with a richness and robust delivery. . . . It’s so identifiable, so clear, it could be written out.” How fortunate we all are that King’s life was more than a shortened burst, and that he spent so much of that life in Memphis, Tennessee.
We are more than the anniversaries we celebrate, be they 100 or 50, or somewhere in between. But what a nice reminder those round numbers provide. Relish those who bring you pleasure, especially while the thrill is here.
