In Black America; Blues Legend B.B. King

- Transcript
he's fb from the longhorn radio network the university of texas at austin this is in black america do you write it david you and one of the things
bears money in an illegal way doesn't stay with you may make money money on top of five but eventually get bussed to get busted this drove the holy money or you probably everything ahead because you might have hidden a new shoe box when they get to a gig the lawyers get through the meadow the authorities get to have been avoided arrest anyone of not going on a lot of the family members have been involved in the panel what happened which apple in the same thing and fell in the people who show them the best way there is no limit now for americans can do that used to be you could and those who've given some a tenement buildings have an education is as not animals throughout the nineteen eighties as well as the nineteen seventies sixties in the nineteen fifties is that only one king of the blues reilly became officially know as
pvt there's babies die recording in the late nineteen forties he has released over fifty albums minute concert moves classics bibi's first big break came in nineteen forty eight when before no sunny williams radio program on station kplu gm out of west memphis this letter stating days haven't really west memphis and later to examine a spot on radio station that you do yeah i so we need a change right away we start out as beale street blues boy was sort of blues boy king and eventually we became king's middle initial be is just that it is now an abbreviation today bb king of the seven time grammy award winner and the father of rock n roll i'm jan elements in junior and welcome to another edition of in black america this week legendary blues master bb king in black america
last night people like when they take vacation the local subways or not ok now i'm alone so i'm not one final vote every year every day every employee free country every year the boys weekend it's free of intuitively that he enjoyed i think what i'm friends at you is that in the country boy that i am gay couples and it avoided i do feel that
all those haven't in this town is obviously radio bb king topped the r and b charts in the late nineteen fifties and sixties we saw it including three o'clock blues you don't know me and sweet sixteen party was the nineteen seventies crossover hit book through his garden a deuce and pop audiences and earned him his first grammy award for best r and b vocal performance five more grammy awards while and in nineteen eighty seven year and the grammy lifetime achievement award and was inducted into rock n roll hall of play borel september sixteen nineteen twenty five on a cotton plantation in mississippi bb king want to be a gospel singer to realize who make more money and sing in a blues with his guitar and two dollars and fifty cents each side north to memphis in nineteen forty seven to pursue his musical career in a rush you can say is history the biggest thing about combating additional move jazz way and mainstream
pop has made him an influence for other famous artists like mick jagger eric clapton vaudeville we stain and you too bebe's group has progressed from chitlin circuit to performances this summer most prestigious concert halls and festivals a world of reason yeah color with him in austin texas a few days after his seventieth birthday it's bare the violist of the program opera's sang happy birthday well thank you very much my gosh you make me feel so loose i just been erected just been working at spin at work in an atlanta joe is up about james brown i had him do it yeah spin it and atlanta ga walk in and at the time after these many years it's
you believe in to get your resources no i did not it you know to be honest which i never thought that i would be a blues singer period i started out to be a gospel singer never be a blue state but the tips on the streets when people would request a gospel tune that you would you know think neither provided that known as shoulders and say keep it up sun you'll be good one day but they didn't have the blessing of those opposed to win over mia beer something so i really started and what i thought i would be would be popular as a gospel singer but not to video you know the weight is today last august and spent some time and a migrant is jack well you senator i agree on is that they're likely raza so what's different automation and they know it presented a cd or something in that you seem to use it up for you that i had been out what to call them pick six hundred you have real real world that was so i was no dissent there was just a guy as you say
it's a man a microphone once you decided of made the switch you figured out that you could probably make more money over them play and blue thing possible what gave it has to really put forth the effort to be a great jobs well it has been a terrible that i am would have lied to try to do the best that i can do that look at data manager which i think is the best the world's main named sid seidenberg and then i got a great record the emcee a great agency associated in great public relations people and the greatest than ever for me and looked out the seven i think all that together made a pretty good hit and good ingredients in and so that may mean you know feel like there was a come home away little to our listeners that don't know the story of how you happened to name you are a ceo could you tell us that story well it would seem so far back and have these pretty ladies around the huge really really messing things up
i mean and they had a way to come back in nineteen forty managed to play this place into a stock and so twist ark and so for people that an afternoon with it as well for a bad mouthing off west of memphis tennessee so i used to play them for women's equality know what money and get permanent split up quite often but we didn't and it used to get quite cold and twist and when a big hit called i take something like a big garbage pail set it in the middle of the dance floor half fill with kerosene they would like that fuel and that's what we used for heat the building was not that large it was about to get about two hundred people in a job in but some of the night we may have to four hundred people because they come in and go out anyway with this container sitting in the middle of a war born and people used we used to the heat but people dance and dance around and never disturb that one night to vast up white and one not go home and complain when they did it spilled fuel when this bill on the floor or a brand
of nevada river for every burst out front of clinton be became bad those nailed up the people from sleeping anyway or bible when i did the building was a wooden building put in that women started to collapse around so most lost my lifetime the same exam the next morning we found that these two that was fighting was fighting about a lady that worked in a little nightclub and that that made her name was lucille i mainly guitar lucille or miami never do a thing like that again they didn't get another gift of another be picking it happened to come up with there's bb king's rule you know well when i was a young guy in school is just my duty to
sit me down and say wait be that time so i think that when i started to play my thoughts along the line of taken a time sam was the same thing and playing the guitar solo artist or a watch heard about some animals that was he's adamant that the country is up eating grapes fox came along later in some of them say that the amount of grapes through he was a requirement and we couldn't climb seriously well as either promise our way anyway that so well or the boss the plane never play very fast good ideas to work so i think that the practice quality not quantity for the light that that first recording they think you had instant i had known about it man up by got to record and one evening i'd never witness at takata not to sound like you know saying and so they got rid of the way back i've said
and i was so sorry i had been branch on tenor saxophone a name engraved but he worked a lot with operation push and he and i had done a lady from both named sammy debt and the trumpet then breaks brother thomas plans and i met with danny instantly finds no one below people latest outcome for years but finds that finds no one on people and his brother calvin own guitar his father on drums solos financing in flanders jr an as his brother come on guitar and the bass player was very critical of the family and that was my first record so you see headed now just to free people pieces like some people seem to think i have a ford man from the chore and i used to sneak in a play
at yale lyles was since that time the army and popularity huge and big concert halls please do a deep intimacy with a crowd playing and large vineyards oh yes more so in a way because you you now that the book that sounds better i so funny it would say that no audible our memory in a piece from mr wilson but you're right for the new york times and he's had bb king twenty five a one night success not the beginning twenty five the overnight success and it's also the fiber what he was talking about all the lights of that play was in the small places like el sol failing we serve that would have made it in some of the larger the news and it's been good to you our young artist to have an appreciation for the move politically active american artists are we losing something than ours over decades
well to be honest with you i never really had it and i never have had from the beginning of the young blacks when i started out was my age and older which was my my fans usually they was my age and older so when i was eighteen they waiting they do afro americans that seemed to steal and drummer best known that seemed when you mentioned moved to them i guess is like meanwhile mission in life to be a very like twice you know you like because you are blackening a black because he sang the blues with which another strike know makes me sad though because as i travel the world people not only caucasian asians anyplace we go usually quite happy
to see its happy to hear about these letters it's all set to me from time to time in my own children to talk to them about it and the more once dad took my one of my sons to see the movie you know lady day and so he was very sad give him back and said to the area have people live like this what you like and then i didn't really voted against him because i figured that maybe have slipped somewhere didn't tell a moment think maybe i should get one of the sad thing that bother me now it's almost like it's across the board like if you and i was introducing a piece and so i want to make plain you know if i go to any hotel any city and usually when i meet afro american young afro american oh my mother's going to die i see bb king my father's god that you know so you get this i get it and
then we see i get it every place our goal anna and his doctrine that they're not really put me down or they don't mean to put me down or what they say and that's a and so it's either it but now i've started to think of it this way this is their way of sand to maine that they have family members that unlike me about you know the liberal whites and the other ethnic groups of different colors they will say ah baby jane many other referees after america may have one for my mother played marlowe host still hurts because unlike your love by roberta you care wear it any number of musicians one of them the most enjoyable performances you head
well that's so hard to get him into an excerpt about try one of my greatest experiences band jamming has been with my dear friend and my favorite thing about the way i think they're giving up real well the record at the un base itself one ill week was recorded together for the first time we had a critic there i think with the rolling stone and he said whatever we were doing before we did that we should go and not long after that down so i wrote them and told whoever was you the moment well obviously it's b
ms babb is both ways i was told and then still believe that david memphis is the home of the blues ballad talk about chicago and although the place to me memphis blues and i didn't do like some of my friends but going to different places
i've been going on ferguson went to memphis because that all of the facilities that i needed to record and to make it to make it if you will was in them as well i used to walk beale street then in his near record shop right there where colombia's today called the home of the blues and eyes to go in a quite often and wonder you know how could i do think what would happen what it ever happened that i worked about seven miles away with the lived about seven now that seem at least five miles way i lived and i'd have to walk to town to my job and sometimes i had to jump on the radio and his other job and then sometime but they cut my dream job is to try to keep things make individually so when we did start to renovate when they started to innovate beautifully one of them would
do any good would want do good of bb king and so we've got some investors most of my manager and we'll win in i came up with the bb king blues club today we have to leave that one in hollywood and we just broke ground but that women actually on well how do you go about writing the songs in which you perform and also what have been some of the songs you which it very enjoyable or a linen item i wrote a lot of song but i never thought that they would you know i didn't think of the settlers or right i've written i guess fifty two and the song will do much right and today it seemed like to me now everybody that's writing a writing something that i would want would have asked them to radiohead arnold knew they were gonna write it you know i find
some of the rhine so many good song let it alone but i we know the people i just hear the song is it yes that was that how to our ideas after times like now mckeown and i see this beautiful lady is no avail and the bus around in the pupil so on the way home of my way to vote over something beautiful thoughts come in my mind than saw the time the went to the place where one so nice i've thought about that do those things so it's all in bad sometimes you might wake up with a thought an idea this artist like q u sometimes probably a melody will come in your head you whistle you know what it is where you get it that's what i do that's what happens to me when i'm really well managed to agents that are continuously looking now than there
was a good yes it is yeah it's always lined up now all bought up as someone for example the enemy and we had to take quite a few takes but the one for wendy's with mr thomas dave thomas oh i didn't take manning he's a very nice cat they're very nice very very rich get through what is a very nice man i promised something called a holiday but with that much money in amman ali still must thompson and before our time is ticking bk any advice you would give to you know artists in the napkin americans of what it takes to succeed or well i have found that you do what you enjoy doing it don't do it simply because somebody want you to do it you get paid to do it because you enjoy it that's money
in an illegal way doesn't stay with you you may make money money on top of my but eventually give us what you get busted these drones they take all the money or you're probably everything ahead and the low because you might have hidden a new shoe box were in they get through it to the lawyers get through with it i mean when the government or the authorities get to have been avoided arrest of three one of another and i know a couple family members there's been involved in atlanta what happened which are told in the same thing and fell in the people on the show now the best way there is no limit now to what afro americans can do it used to be you could notice to hear the summit's dannen believes it can have an education is as not anymore today you can get going get that education major in music of computers as something that major new music
in mind and something else and take two majors if you have to get the education education is one thing no one can take away from the more proper i guess today i have to say this too i'm in the hollywood walk of fame iman abou rock'n'roll hall i've been honored with a grammy lifetime achievement award and been honored with a handy achievement award and seven art that i think is bab amr got their degree you want from tupelo mississippi don't miss do you agree with the way you just said but i have other degrees from tupelo honorary degrees from row convicts from butler school of music and from yale well out of all of these arias dollars on me an honorary
degrees i should say and the many things that have happened that you know me i still missed education i didn't get i still think about the people that obama promised that they'll go and then i wanna move mrs who sacrifice in the end to try to do it today i wish to head i would give up a whole lot of this just have that education saw say to them an educational one can take from me how to make money you have to make a living too things better for not only you put your store on education have to do that i think the world today the one thing that we need more than anything else is education aka because i personally think that education will be dancer the most of the problem we have today so i would say to this young person
if you'd have gone to screw i knew in college finish if you haven't you still have a chance and when you get the play estimate play like bb king well eric clapton mm hmm learn all the progression of all then you can play like yourself and then somebody comes to town and wanted to play one play i wanted to play jazz play because you can sell its eight of them practice hard study hard to low the world today us you will make your mark in history important to the young people make your mark in history of the world have survived a long time and it will survive with or without you which you can have a decent it is i'm not a question of famine or suggestions as to the truth in black america
rises also let us know what radio station hers or views and opinions expressed on this program and not necessarily those of the station or the university of texas at austin like buying austin city limits to their assistance and the production of his preferred until we have the opportunity here for production assistant crisp also and i be a technical producer hargrove i'm jenelle hansen jr thank you for joining us today and please join us again next week cassette copies of this program available and maybe purchase by writing in black america cassettes communication villains the ut austin austin texas seventy seven one two sets communication from austin texas seventy seven from the university of texas at austin this is the longhorn radio
network this week black america major new music and mine and something else that they can make because they have to get the education education with blues legend bb king this week off somewhere and it's been
- Series
- In Black America
- Program
- Blues Legend B.B. King
- Producing Organization
- KUT Radio
- Contributing Organization
- KUT Radio (Austin, Texas)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/529-2j6833p160
If you have more information about this item than what is given here, or if you have concerns about this record, we want to know! Contact us, indicating the AAPB ID (cpb-aacip/529-2j6833p160).
- Description
- Episode Description
- no description
- Created Date
- 1995-10-01
- Asset type
- Program
- Genres
- Interview
- Topics
- Social Issues
- Race and Ethnicity
- Rights
- University of Texas at Austin
- Media type
- Sound
- Duration
- 00:30:17
- Credits
-
-
Copyright Holder: KUT
Guest: B.B. King
Host: John L. Hanson
Producing Organization: KUT Radio
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
-
KUT Radio
Identifier: IBA49-95 (KUT Radio)
Format: 1/4 inch audio tape
Duration: 0:28:00
If you have a copy of this asset and would like us to add it to our catalog, please contact us.
- Citations
- Chicago: “In Black America; Blues Legend B.B. King,” 1995-10-01, KUT Radio, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed May 29, 2023, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-529-2j6833p160.
- MLA: “In Black America; Blues Legend B.B. King.” 1995-10-01. KUT Radio, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. May 29, 2023. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-529-2j6833p160>.
- APA: In Black America; Blues Legend B.B. King. Boston, MA: KUT Radio, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-529-2j6833p160