‘King of the Blues’: New revelations mark definitive B.B. King biography – Commercial Appeal

Bob Mehr|Memphis Commercial Appeal

When Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Daniel de Vis began contemplating a biography of B.B. King one of the most iconic figures in American music he was shocked at what he discovered.

I was stunned when I realized a major bio on him hadnt come out since 1980, when Charlie Sawyer published his book on B.B. And B.B.s own memoirs were almost 25 years old. It felt like there was an opportunity there to tell a big story. I love books that take a huge important person and explain why they are so well known, says de Vis who will discusshis new book, King of the Blues: The Rise and Reign of B.B. King, during a free event at Memphis Listening Lab on Saturday.

For de Vis, each of his books have come with a personal connection. His first biography, Andy and Don a dual portrait of the professional and personal relationship between Andy Griffith and Don Knotts was a matter of family, as de Vis is Knotts' brother-in-law. His next book, "The Comeback," about cycling legend Greg LeMond, was inspired by de Vis's father, a native of Belgium who was a major cycling enthusiast.

de Vis ultimately came to write Kings story through his love of the blues. Raised in Chicago, he grew up seeing the citys great bluesmen in concert as a teenager and studied music before becoming a successful newspaper journalist.

I was always a kind of frustrated music writer. I knew wanted to write some kind of music book. And, for me, B.B. was the ultimate topic. I think hes the only true blues superstar, says de Vis. When you look at his career, he played something like 17,000 gigs in 90 different countries… its incredible. I mean, we sold the foreign rights to this book in places like Estonia. That tells you the reach he had.

de Vis began work on the King book in 2018 three years after Kings May 2015 passing and started his research in the Delta, Memphis and the Mid-South where the musicians early roots lay.

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Riley B. King was born Sept. 16, 1925, in Berclair, Mississippi, between Itta Bena and Indianola. The great-grandson of a slave, his childhood was filled with heartbreak, as he lost most of his family by the time he was a teen. Blues music through the records of Lonnie Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson and via his cousin, the slide guitar master Bukka White had a profound effect on the young King who, between work at the local cotton plantation, would spend Saturday afternoons picking and playing on the street corners of Indianola.

By the late 40s King had moved to the Bluff City, where he soaked up the city's hothouse musical atmosphere. It was the big city to him, says de Vis. He made two pilgrimages to Memphis. The first one was aborted, as he wasnt able to get the foothold he wanted. So he returned to Indianola and returned to life there. But he eventually came back to Memphis for good in 1949.

Before long, he went knocking on the doors of Memphis Black-oriented radio station WDIA, where he made his name as a performer and radio personality. King would rise through the regional entertainment ranks, recording at Sam Phillips fledgling Memphis Recording Service, and releasing his first sides for the Modern and R.P.M. labels. He scored his first hit record, the chart-topping R&B number 3 OClock Blues, in 1952.

B.B. was a citizen of the world, says de Vis, but Memphis was massively important to his history. It was the center of his universe, as much as Chicago was the center of Muddy Waters'or Howlin Wolfs universe.

One of the most interesting aspects of King of the Blues is how it recognizes and contextualizes the fact that King was heralded more, at least initially, as a vocalist than a guitar player.

Throughout B.B.'s early career as an entertainer, in the Black R&B genre, he was almost never celebrated for his guitar work, he was known as the greatest blues singer, over and over again in hundreds of clippings. His fans, the African American press, almost took it for granted that he played guitar, says de Vis.

Its hard to get your head around that now because there was so much adulation for his guitar work later on. But all the way up to (1964s famed) Live at the Regal album hes introduced as ladies and gentlemen… the worlds greatest blues singer.

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It would, however, be Kings innovations as a guitarist that stand as his greatest legacy.

Historically speaking, B.B King created a role for the guitar, for the electric guitar, at the absolute center of popular music, says de Vis. I think its because of B.B. that you have these successive generations of guitar heroes. Guitar was a backbench instrument in 1949 when B.B. recorded his first sides. There werent very many people playing guitars and leading combos. The R&B charts were filled with singers, and singers who played piano or saxophone. The guitar was not at the front and center of R&B music then.

B.B. took this lineage of people who had developed a solo guitar style starting with Lonnie Johnson and Charlie Christian and T-Bone Walker and his big innovation was the idea of the guitar being an extension of his voice, his own singing voice. That set him apart from all the others. He took the vibrato of classical violin and added in the cry of the Hawaiian steel guitar, the plaintive sound of early country and the exhortations of Bob Wills band, and he created this vocal style of solo guitar."

His work would come to resonate profoundly in Britain, where a generation of budding rock guitarists from Eric Clapton to Jeff Beck to Jimmy Page felt his impact in the 1960s. "All these guitar players started listening to him," says de Vis, "and a decade and a half later he was repurposed as a guitar hero.

Beyond the creative aspects, King of the Blues offers a deep investigation into Kings personal life and history as well, and de Vis provides a wealth of new revelations. One claim in the book which Kings estate has pushed back against is that none of Kings 15 children were his. de Viss research suggests that an accident as a boy left King unable to have children of his own, though he would eventually accept numerous paternity claims and support a contingent of sons and daughters.

The way I see it is that B.B. lost his own family when he was young. He was an only child, his brother died in infancy. His mother left his father when he was 5. Then his mother died when he was 10. His grandmother died when he was 14. His family just vanished and evaporated. So I think he spent the rest of his life trying to build a family, says de Vis.

Its really lovely and actually quite poignant that he built and supported this family and he didnt care whether they were his children or not. He embraced every single paternity claim without question… until he didnt. There was a point that he stopped and said the familys full, were done. The fact that they probably werent his biological children is fascinating. I think he just loved and cherished the idea of having a family.

The book also looks at howKing became the blues'biggest starand how he managed to remain a relevant musical figure for seven decades.

Starting in the late-60s with his crossover to the white rock market, and his biggest chart triumph with 1969s Top 20 hit and Grammy-winning single The Thrill Is Gone, King would become a kind of ambassador for the genre, exposing the music to its biggest audiences through his appearances on television, in film and on the road. He continued to tour tirelessly until the end of his life, spending an average of 250 nights on the road most years.

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Every decade brought a kind of renewal for him, says de Vis. In the late '60s he began playing places like the Fillmore, for white pop fans, and then he toured with the Rolling Stones in 1969. By the end of the 1970s, he had his first big comeback LPs as a record maker, working with producer Stewart Levine and the Crusaders, and then by end of the '80s he was working with U2, who worshipped him. He was able to be reinvigorated and reintroduced to mainstream audiences every so often.

Over the course of his career, King would record some 80 albums, and de Vis notes that there'sa scope and breadth to those recordings thats often overlooked.

Considering hes the greatest blues artist, its striking how many dozens of records he made that dont sound anything like 12-bar blues. Some of the really great records he made with (producer) Bill Szymczyk at the close of the 60s or Stewart Levine in the late-70s, theres tons of stuff on those records that doesnt sound like blues. Hes branching out to funk and jazz and rock, all these genres, and at times hes very far removed from Delta blues, says de Vis.

Thats a big part of why he stayed on top for so long. He kept stretching into these different areas. That's why his story is so interesting too hereally was an innovator and a visionary.

Daniel de Vis discusses "King of the Blues: The Rise and Reign of B.B. King"

6:30 p.m. Saturday at Memphis Listening Lab, 1350 Concourse Ave., Suite 269

The event is free. For more information go to MemphisListeningLab.org.

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'King of the Blues': New revelations mark definitive B.B. King biography - Commercial Appeal