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B.B. King Brought More than the Blues to Memphis and Indianola

Christopher Blank

  

The great bluesman B.B. King died Thursday (May 14)  in Las Vegas. But in the two cities most associated with his life, his legacy is more than just the blues.

Credit Christopher Blank
Roses were placed around B.B. King's brass note on Beale Street.

On Friday morning, on a Beale Street sidewalk, white roses encircled the brass note bearing the name of world famous blues man B.B. King.

Regena Bearden of the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau said she’d come to honor the man who had done so much for Memphis.

"He helped us brand our city," she said. "Millions and millions of people travel -- not only to Memphis but to Mississippi and to his museum -- to just honor him."

Crowds gathered throughout the day on Beale to remember King, who died Thursday night in Las Vegas at age 89. His passing closes a major chapter in the history of the blues. It’s also a day of mourning in the two cities most identified with his life and music: Memphis. Tenn. and Indianola, Miss.

"In my mind B.B. King means everything to Indianola," says Allan Hammons, president of the B.B. King Museum. "He is the name that essentially has put Indianola on the map."

For many here, his life was as inspirational as his music.

"This man, to me, was the shining example of how you take opportunity and move it forward to your full advantage," Hammons said.

Credit Christopher Blank
On Church Street in Indianola, this plaque marks the place where a young Riley King would sing the blues on the street corner before his career in Memphis.

King maintained close ties with his hometown, returning every year to put on a free concert for residents. For friends and locals like Carver Randall, he was Indianola’s greatest ambassador.

"He was a down to earth person, who worked all his life, who became famous and accepted that fame with dignity and pride and never forgot who he was, was a friend to everybody and his heart was just completely open," Randall said.

Many residents remember King's humility. Hammons says that King warmed to the idea of a museum in his honor only after realizing it had an educational value for children.

King's hand prints and shoe prints can be found in a Church Street sidewalk in Indianola, Miss.

"The first thing B.B. King said when he came into the building... he has a way of putting both hands over his heart and looking down at the ground," Hammons said. "He did that and said, 'Oh please tell me this is not just all about me.' And I was overwhelmed by that statement. Because when I thought about it, I thought, 'This man, one of the most successful artists in the world, doesn't feel worthy of this attention.' Which I thought to be rather remarkable."

A young Riley King first discovered the blues in the cotton fields outside Indianola. He and his first wife, Martha, shared a home with friends Birkett and Delcia Davis. 

Ms. Davis says that King stayed up late nights listening to records by T-Bone Walker, Charlie Christian and DjangoReinhardt.

"You know, they'd play the records and had his guitar playing what they were doing," Davis said. "And he'd play so much we couldn't go to sleep. My husband said, 'Riley, stop, we's trying to go to bed!' (King would respond,) 'Birkett, I just got one more thing I got to do. I got one more.' He'd keep on hitting on that guitar til he get what he wanted. He played and played and finally I guess we all go to sleep. Get up the next morning and we go to the fields. And we'd pick cotton."

King left Indianola and went to Memphis where he found both his entree into the music world, and his now iconic name.

Credit Christopher Blank
Flowers were placed around the bronze statue of B.B. King Friday morning at the Memphis Visitor's Center.

"It's Beale Street Blues Boy," said Jay Sieleman, president of the Blues Foundation. "That's where the B.B. came from. It's Riley B. King, but everyone knows him as B.B. because of Beale Street Blues Boy."

King got his start in radio at WDIA, the first black-operated radio station in the country. He also performed in amateur contests.

His career took off later in life, when he began collaborating with pop musicians such as U2. He brought his signature style to their music with little deviation. 

Sieleman related a story connected to his recording of "When Love Comes to Town" with U2 in the 1980s.

"Bono was asking B.B. to play chords," Sieleman said. "B.B. replied 'I don't play chords.' And when Bono told this to Keith Richards, Keith Richards looked at Bono like he was an idiot, and said 'B.B. King doesn't play chords. He's a stylist!"

The name B.B. King would later anchor the blues to a city best known for rock and roll and soul. Tommy Peters, president of the group that owns B.B. King’s restaurant, says King’s legacy help make Beale Street what it is today.

"Everything except for Rum Boogie had failed on Beale Street before B.B. King's opened," Peters said. "When B.B. King's opened in May of 1991, it was the catalyst to making Beale Street successful."

Signatures filled this get well poster put up last Tuesday when the city of Memphis celebrated "B.B. King Day." It has now become a farewell to the great bluesman.

Funeral plans are still being organized. But discussions include a procession down Beale Street before traveling once more through the cotton fields where King’s life began. According to Hammons at the B.B. King Museum, King's wishes were to be buried in Indianola. The museum would like for him to be entombed on the property.

Though the world’s most celebrated bluesman has left an economic mark in Memphis and in Indianola, fans worldwide will still remember his greatest legacy: a soulful voice, a guitar named Lucille and decades of incomparable music.

Reporting from the gates of Graceland to the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, Christopher has covered Memphis news, arts, culture and politics for more than 20 years in print and on the radio. He is currently WKNO's News Director and Senior Producer at the University of Memphis' Institute for Public Service Reporting. Join his conversations about the Memphis arts scene on the WKNO Culture Desk Facebook page.