One of the comments on article: “you were going to see an 88 year old just what the hell did you expect for him to moonwalk across the stage?” A couple people said it wasn’t really heckling, people were just shouting out song requests...and as noted perhaps having the house lights on distracted BB.
yeah, his peeps ought to protect him and tell him to go relax in Florida
Just needs a little ‘rehearsal time’ and a set list.
I’d love to sit and talk to him.
I saw him 10ish years ago in Laughlin NV. and he had to be helped around on stage back then. But his playing was still spot on. Glad I got to see him while he still had it.
The ones that get on my last nerve are the rough-&-tough guys who aged but still try to give the appearance that they can battle like they are 25. TV/movie directors have to put their ‘actions’ in slow motion and use other camera/setting tricks just for them to appear to be tuffies.
Speaking of which, ‘Ahhhhhhhhnold’ is not doing so well on his return to ‘action’ movies. They are flopping.
by Steve Goodman
My baby came to me this morning and said I'm kinda confused
She said "If me and B.B. king was both drownin',
Which one would you choose?"
And I said "Oh Baby,
I said Oh Baby,
I said Oh, Oh Baby,
Babe, I ain't never heard you play no blues!"
About 30 years ago, my wife and I owned a small Nightclub/restaurant in Wilmington DE just south of Philly.
On occasion, a few promoters would call us to have a act do a warm-up on a weekday night prior to their appearance in Philly....
One of those was a last minute (same day) performance by a guy I had never heard of BB King.... I was 23 and into rock not Blues...
We booked him for virtually nothing, the promoter stated he just wanted a warm up venue and a stool and a mic on stage.
There was only about 50 people enjoying dinner when he arrived. The nicest guy you would ever meet in the music industry.
He and I had dinner together then he asked me if I would like to hold “Lucille”. I did not know that he named his guitar...
The 30-50 people there got a real treat for two sets.....
I started listening to some blues after that...
Scotty Moore gave up playing some years ago when he realized he could no longer remember the songs. He still was going out publicly though.
I once saw James Brown play in approx. 1984.
He did a lot of wandering around the stage, bouncing up and down, and the old schtick of his handlers putting robes and coats on him as he tore them off. He could do none of the moves he might have done 15 years earlier - not that the audience was expecting that....
He was very much overweight, sweating like he was in a sauna, and I felt he was high or drunk. He spent the whole time vamping the audience to the band’s background music. It wasn’t really a performance. Terrible show.
And as to turning on the “house lights” for a sing along, some audiences LIKE that sort of thing. I don’t go to concerts to sing. I go to see the entertainers sing and play.
I’ve seen Little Richard several times, and the thinnest performance came when he stood on his piano, let someone else play the keys, and led the audience in a variety of songs (including Itsy Bitsy Spider).
I came to see him, do HIS songs (even if he DID record a child’s album later in life).
Some performers will give the audience the show they think they will “like” (covers, etc, “you know, the songs you KNOW”) or the show they deserve (not much effort) if they are unresponsive early on.
Supposedly in the 80s/90s, Marlon Brando would give a director 2 readings of a character, if the director chose the wrong one, he’d “phone in” the performance.
Heck, Hunter S. Thompson made a career out of letting his fans take over the speaking tours, inviting them to sit onstage and talk instead of shouting things over his monologue from the audience. Sometimes they’d babble on for over 20 minutes while Hunter nodded.
Even many years ago I wondered what was going on with B.B. King. You would have thought that such a great guitarist would have more variation and spontaneity in his performances.
I just took my daughter to see him March 1st in Salem Oregon. The man played great and I honestly think his voice sounds better now. He was pure class, his stories and jokes were great. He signed guitars for free and even had a young kid join him on stage for a song. Second best concert I have been too right after Robert Plant/Alison Krauss Raising Sands tour in Sweethome Oregon.
He was thrilled to get a chance to wait on her and her husband Gary Morton at an upscale restaurant.
When the waiter asked what she would like, her husband said, "She'll have the steak."
"How would you like that done, Miss Ball?" the waiter asked. She never looked up.
"She doesn't speak to the help" said Morton.
I believe this story. She was a nasty piece of work.
Many years ago, I saw Eubie Blake on the old Merv Griffin show.
Eubie was in his 90s. The interview was painful and he was very confused. Finally, he waved Merv away and said, “Maybe I should just play.”
And he played brilliantly.
“There comes a time when performers have to realize...it’s not ‘there’ anymore...”
With guys like BB King, there comes a time when the audience needs to just quit being pricks, sit back, and enjoy the 90 minutes of whatever he can give them. And St Louis,,,, Im about 99% sure that I KNOW the problem that night, though it can not be openly named.
Eeech, Cerebral Flatulence, I saw him with my father in 2008 when he was 92.