My heart belongs to... Memphis

Eilen perjantaina vietettiin bluesmusiikin legendan Blues Boy Kingin muistotilaisuus Las Vegasissa. Keskiviikkona hänen ruumiinsa kuljetetaan kotiin Memphisiin. Keskipäivällä keskiviikkona järjestetään kulkue hänen muistolleen Beale Streetillä. Bluesmusiikin kuningas sai aikanansa kutsumanimensä B.B. juurikin Memphisissä, kunnianosoituksena musiikistaan. King of Blues oli Mississippin oma musiikin maailman lähettiläs, now he´s gone.

First there was a slope of woodland that met the Mississippi river. Chikasaw indians hunded there until the early 19th century. Then there was Beale Street. It begans as the main road of South Memphis and by 1850, when that separate town was consolidated with Memphis, Beale was already major thoroughfare. At is western end, where it met the Mississippi, roustatabouts piled cotton onto 200-foot steamboats:  about a mile upriver at its eastern end gently lived in mansions. In between was growing community based on commerce and good times.

By the early 1920s Beale Street had become the Capital of Black Memphis and the Mid-South. It was a mecca for musicans, politicans, ministers, businessmen, gamblers, conjurors and bootleggers. There were banks and bordellos, pawnshops and theaters - a few blocks of brick and cement where the well-heeled and down-and-out could hope and dream and have a life.



"I liked Blues from the time my mother used to take me to church. I started to listen to gospel music, so I liked that"

Drinks in B.B. Kings

"My mother had filled my heart with love for a compassionate God. Gospel sounds sang of that love. And, God knows, I loved singing gospel"

"When I was going to church with my mother, the pastor made me feel a different way than anybody else. He made me feel that I could get a message to God. I didn´t have that feeling again until five or six years ago"

"I would sit on the street corners in my hometown of Indianola, Mississippi, and I would play. And generally, I would start playing gospel songs. I started to like blues about 6 or 7 years old. There was something about it, because nobody else played that kind of music"

You call me Mississippi, I call You Queen
Hand in hand we travel
Two tug boats in the night
Remember those ol´ paddle wheels?
We made the current turn
Beneath those wooden swirls

B.B. King - Lucille

The sound that You´re listenin´to
is From my guitar that´s named Lucille
I´m very crazy about Lucille
Lucille took me from the platation
Or you might say brought me fame...

I remember once I was in an automobile accident
And when the car stopped turnin´ over it fell over on Lucille
And I held it up off me, really, it held it up off of me
So that´s one time it saved my life...

One more now, Lucille
Sound pretty good to me, can I do one more?
Look out, Lucille
Sounds really good, I think I´ll try one more, alright