Posted on 04/07/2014 8:35:15 AM PDT by raccoonradio
B.B. King has spent decades singing “The Thrill Is Gone.” Perhaps at long last it actually is. Make no mistake: King is a living legend, a national treasure, and the sobriquet “king of the blues” is not mere wordplay, but a title earned. To be in the same room as him and breathe the same air is an honor and a privilege.
But for the majority of King’s concert at the Peabody Opera House on Friday night, the sizeable crowd could have been excused for thinking that’s all they were going to get.
King’s shows in recent years have featured as much talk as playing, and the 88-year-old musician is obviously slowing down, just as anyone would. But the balance slipped way out of proportion at this show. King sat center stage and spoke, sometimes in non sequiturs, sometimes inaudibly. He flirted with women in the first few rows and made a few ribald comments, without apology. “I like to have fun,” he said. “I love who I am and what I do.”
For a while, the audience was with him, laughing at his jokes and asides. But it was 45 minutes into the show before King performed anything resembling a song. Even then, his playing was shaky. He explained that he and the band had been off for two months, causing him to lose confidence.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
James Brown put on a solid show in ‘96 or ‘97 when I saw him.
He might be coming out of retirement, I know he is working with Adele on some songs for her new album. Even hinted he might be willing to do a few gigs with Genesis.
I saw Eric Burdon at a very small venue in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle in the 90s. He was also on Coast to Coast one night, I think when Ian Punnett was hosting. Riveting show, for me, anyway.
Long John Baldry was an interesting guy. He was famous for being tall, among other things. When I was in London in 1980, I knocked myself out going to hear him in Putney. It was worth it. He was appearing at a similar place( well, actually, tougher) in Pioneer Square in Seattle probably about 15 years ago. He didnt look nearly as tall!
The show started around 8:00 PM, with many excellent blues groups. The young couple in the seats behind us kept saying ‘Can’t wait to see John Lee, can’t wait to see John Lee’, on and off most of the night. Each had a bottle of Jack Daniels. By the time JLH came out to perform, around 1:00 AM, the couple had finished both bottles and were sound asleep. I couldn’t wake them up, it was lights out for them!
Since the topic is aging entertainers, one guy I respected was Dave Clark, of The Dave Clark 5 (duh). Unlike most rock stars of his era, he had good business sense and retained control over his own music. He also refused to go on the “oldies” circuit. He once said something like, “We were good, and it was fun, but it was teenage music for a certain time in our lives, and I don’t want to ruin it and make a fool of myself by doing it over and over (no pun intended) until I’m 70.”
Yeah he’s a smart guy, a lot of these bands in the 60s allowed themselves to get ripped off blind. Probably the biggest rip off in music history was the Beatles catalog which was the Beatles manager Brain Epstein just being a complete idiot. I mean imagine, the guy makes a deal with this guy Dick James that all the songs the Beatles write James OWNS in exchange for publishing the songs and paying the Beatles a mere pittance. The guy formed a huge company out of those songs called Northern songs and then he sold it for a fortune without even telling them. That’s just incredible to me. To this day none of the remaining Beatles own any of that music. McCartney had a chance to buy it back in the 80s but being the cheap bastard he is he hesitated and the worlds most blatant pedophile Michael Jackson bought it from under his nose, but the current estimate is the rights to those songs alone make around $40 - 50 million a year.
BTW, the only other A list musician that played at our venue was George Thoroughgood (sp?)....
We used to book The Delaware Destroyers on a regular basis (his backup band).....
As a thank you (and off the books) he played at our venue for 3 sets.....
I have a picture of him and myself singing Bad to the Bone on our stage.....
Owning that venue for 3 years, it was a fun and wild ride.....
Around 1999 I saw him at Great Woods in MA (he boasted about being in the forthcoming Blues Brothers 2000 movie) he sat down for most of the show. If not all. (Robert Cray and Tower of Power horns were openers)
Yep,it’s time for him to go home———and I’m not far behind him.
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Saw Leon Redbone at a theatre in Stoneham MA about 10 yrs ago; there was a duo opening act who did 3 songs then Leon came on and did about 40-45 min. He said something along the lines of thanks for coming out, etc and the show concluded—but we thought it was a short intermission. we went into concession area etc and someone said uh, apparently that was the end of the show.
40-45 min.? Someone went backstage and convinced them we
were hoping for a bit more; his backing band came out and played a tune or two, then he did a few more tunes and that was it. I wasn’t expecting 2 hrs, 2.5 hrs etc, but 40-45 minutes was a bit short...we figured he was starting to get up there in age.
Poor man. We saw him perform, I believe about ten years ago. He was wonderful.
I wonder if that is the show that I was thinking of, because it was at Great Woods, and I remember he sat in a chair for most of the show. I guess time really does fly!
The Storyteller tour of course was meant to be stories and songs, and I enjoyed his show at the Music Hall in Portsmouth NH. Just before the show a friend and I ate at the nearby Press Room restaurant and the waiter said Ray had eaten
there a bit earlier. I don’t know if we woulda bugged him had we been there at the time but hope he enjoyed his meal, too.
Probably 1997—I looked up Blues Bros. 2000 under Wiki and it said it came out in Feb of 1998, and the BB show was maybe in the summer or fall of 97, then.
BB: “When they made the Blues Brothers movie, they didn’t put me in it...” (Crowd laughs, some boos). “Well they just made another one...I’m in THIS one!” (Crowd cheers.)
Jerry Lee Lewis is playing the annual Memphis In May show (with the Tony Joe White, Budy Guy, Anthrax, and others):
http://memphisinmay.org/bsmflineup
He played at least two shows with the Doors in the 1960s (at least one was a festival that also had John and Yoko Ono).
I saw BB King about 1991 (with Leon Russell) at the Coash House in San Juan Capistrano, California.
At that time BB said he was turning 65 and would no longer tour. Turned out he continued touring.
Making it to 88 before the performance drops off is quite a feat. Hats off to the man.
(Dave Clark):“We were good, and it was fun, but it was teenage music for a certain time in our lives, and I don’t want to ruin it and make a fool of myself by doing it over and over (no pun intended) until I’m 70.”
That’s what Mick Jagger said up into the 1980s and why John and Paul broke up the Beatles before they turned 30. Paul is STILL singing those songs.
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