Blues All Around Me: The Autobiography of B. B. King
by B. B. King, David Ritz
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Book Summary Information
Author: B. B. King, David RitzEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-12-08
ISBN: 0380807602
Number of pages: 360
Publisher: It Books
Book Reviews of Blues All Around Me: The Autobiography of B. B. King
Book Review: Blues All Around Me
Summary: 5 Stars
In biographies, early backgrounds are often the most interesting part, and this is no different. His early years were tragic, growing up on a sharecropper plantation on the Mississippi Delta, losing his mother from untreated diabetes at a very young age, and extreme losses and adversity. Somehow he was able to power through, earned enough money on the cotton fields to move out, and shows no bitterness.
Age 7 was the first time he ever touched a guitar, sneaking into a bedroom at a party. Its owner, his reverend, caught him, but let him to pick it up, and showed him a few chords. Then he made his first guitar by stringing wire onto a broom handle, and later bought real guitar from Sears. He describes the Memphis blues scene, at the time when Elvis was also there, picking up blues. How various white managers put their names on first copyright of his songs to get the royalties.
These are among other stories, and the book is never dull. Possibly a little too much emphasis on his sex life, however. So, "I stepped out of Mississippi when I was 10 years old, My suit cut sharp as a razor, and a heart made out of gold" [Riding With the King], pretty much describes it. This book would enjoyed by anyone who loves music, period, not just the blues.
Summary of Blues All Around Me: The Autobiography of B. B. King
From the rural poverty of the Mississippi Delta to his celebrated position as the world's leading blues musician, B. B. King has led a remarkable life. In this riveting autobiography, he dramatizes his whirlwind adventures from the Memphis of the forties to the Moscow of the nineties with unflinching candor and sincerity--disclosing his complex relationships with women and chronicling his experience with racism, the Civil Rights movement, and the shifting politics of show business. But most of all, B. B. 's story is the story of the blues--the evolution from country acoustic to urban electric; the birth and explosion of rock 'n' roll--and B. B.' s own long but ultimately triumphant struggle for crossover success, during which he remained unwaveringly true to the music of his heart.From the rural poverty of the Mississippi Delta to his celebrated position as the world's leading blues musician, B. B. King has led a remarkable life.In this riveting autobiography, he dramatizes his whirlwind adventures from the Memphis of the forties to the Moscow of the nineties with unflinching candor and sincerity--disclosing his complex relationships with women and chronicling his experience with racism, the Civil Rights movement, and the shifting politics of show business. But most of all, B. B. 's story is the story of the blues--the evolution from country acoustic to urban electric; the birth and explosion of rock 'n' roll--and B. B.' s own long but ultimately triumphant struggle for crossover success, during which he remained unwaveringly true to the music of his heart.His real name is Riley B. King, but the B.B. stands, as any aficionado knows, for Blues Boy, a nickname he was given in the late 1940s when he was a disk jockey in Memphis, Tenn. Of course, he's best known as the King of the Blues to millions of fans throughout the world. At 70, B.B. King is still singing the blues and this is his story, from his childhood growing up in the Mississippi Delta, to the purchase of his first guitar at age 12, from his first real break after his appearance on Sonny Boy Williamson's King Biscuit Time radio show, to his ascent to international acclaim as America's ambassador of the blues.
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