We all know that B.B. King has influenced countless numbers of musicians, such as Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan, just to name a few. But who were the musicians which influenced and contributed to B.B.'s style? According to the King of the Blues himself, "If you dissect everything that I've done, you would probably find bits and pieces of each one of the people that I idolize."(1)
Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker was born in Linden, Texas on May 28, 1910. During his
lifetime, espcially during the 1940's and early 1950's, T-Bone laid down the rules for the
electric blues guitar. In an interview with Guitar World magazine, B.B. King says, "T-Bone Walker -
man, that was the prettiest sound I ever heard in my life, hearing electric guitar playing single string
blues. It seemed to me that every time I got a guitar, the notes that T-Bone and all my other idols
played, they weren't on my guitar. [laughs] Just my luck!"(1)
Walker's guitar playing was bluesy in a jazzlike way. He crisply articulated notes interspersed with slurs
in the manner of a jazz trumpeter. His storming chords were a six string imitation of blaring brass and
reeds. Walker played with many of the Big Bands in L.A. during the 1940's and was first recorded in
1942. An example of T-Bone's excellent guitar can be heard in the song, 
"Two Bones and a
Pick" (180 K, 17 sec.) - recorded during an L.A. session on December 27, 1957 - Copyright ©,
Atlantic Records. The blues world lost one of its greatest musicians when T-Bone died in L.A. on
March 16, 1975.
Like the blues itself, the birthdate of Alonzo "Lonnie" Johnson is not exactly known: it has
been given as 1889, 1894, 1899 and 1900. What is known is that Johnson was born into a
musical family in New Orleans and began playing in his father's string band at age fourteen. Although he
is remembered as a guitarist whose riffs would be echoed by jazz (Charlie Christian and Django
Reinhart) and blues greats (T-Bone Walker and B.B. King), the violin was Lonnie's primary instrument
in his early years. After the influenza epidemic of 1918 wiped out much of Johnson's family in New
Orleans, he and his brother James moved to St. Louis where they played in Charlie Creath's band, the
Jazz-O-Matics. It was with this band that Johnson made his first recording, "Won't Don't Blues," in St.
Louis, 1925. Two days later, Johnson appeared as leader on the first of some 130 sides he recorded
for the Okeh label.
Lonnie was first not only to improvise as a jazz guitartist, but to use the guitar as a "crying"
counterpoint to lyrics, elaborated on by many blues guitarists, inspired by the playing of
T-Bone Walker and B.B. King's Lucille. Without sounding antiquated, Johnson continued to make
music that was not so much unchanged as it was timeless up until his death in 1970. A sample of
Johnson's music, recorded in 1939, can be heard in the song, Jersey Belle Blues (243 K, 23
sec.) - from He's a Jelly Roll Baker, Copyright ©, RCA records. Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top asked
B.B. in an interview, "What were the first blues 78's that knocked you out?" B.B. replyed, "My Aunt
used to buy records like kids do today, and some of her collection was Blind Lemon and Lonnie
Johnson. She had Robert Johnson, Bumble Bee Slim and Charlie Patton. I could just go on and name
so many she had. But my favorites turned out to be Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lonnie Johnson. I liked
Robert and all the rest, but those were my favorites."(2)
The greatest bluesman of the early 20th century was Blind Lemon Jefferson. He was born
blind in 1897 near the town of Wortham, about 70 miles southeast of Dallas, Texas. Jefferson's
singing voice was strong, expressive and clear and he had a seemingly unlimited amount of interesting
and often technically difficult ideas on the guitar. He was a true artist, absorbed in making and creating
music. He played the Texas style of folk blues guitar, sometimes thumping on the bass string while
playing rythmically on the treble strings, and at other times following the vocal lines with freely
improvised guitar leads. Mississippi bluesmen accused him of "breaking time" and playing music that
was not danceable, but his did not lessen his popularity. His records sold well in the Delta, and no
other artist has ever came close to matching his sound.
B.B. King was asked in the interview by Billy Gibbons, "What was the appeal of Blind Lemon?" B.B.
answered, "He had something in his phrasing that's so funny. He had a way of double-time playing.
Say, like, one-two-three-four, and then he'd go [in double time] one-two-three-four,
one-two-three-four. And the time was still right there, but double-time. And he would come out of it
so easy. And then when he would resolve something, it was done so well ... But he'd come out of it so
smooth. His touch is different from anybody on the guitar - still is. I've practiced, I tryed, I did
everything, and still I could never come out with the sound as he did. He was majestic, and he played
just a regular little 6-string guitar with a little round hole. It was unbelievable to hear him play. And the
way he played with his rhythem patterns, he was way before his time, in my opinion."(2)
Much of Jefferson's blues were about deceit, abandoment, mistreatment, selfishness, horror and death.
Jefferson's blues of grinding poverty and homelessness can be heard in the song, Match Box
Blues (223 K, 21 sec.), recorded in 1927 and can be found in The Blues - volume 1 of the
Smithsonian Collection of Recordings, copyright ©, Sony Music Special Products. "Match Box
Blues" became a rock standard via covers by Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley and the Beatles.
Mystery surrounds the circumstances of Blind Lemon's death. One version is that he froze to death
with his guitar frozen to his hand, in the gutter, while trying to get from one part of Chicago to another.
Still another version is that his chauffeur abondonded him after he died from a heart attack in
December of 1929. In the Black Music Bulletin, Fall of 1988, E.S. Virgo makes a good case for a
March 1930 death date. In one of Blind Lemon's songs, "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean," his lyrics are:
For years Blind Lemon Jefferson's grave was neglected - until 1967, when the Texas State Historical
Association dedicated a plaque on his gravesite in the old Wortham Negro Cemetary.
Elmore James was born in Richland, Mississippi in 1918. He started playing guitar in the
conventional way, but probably after he heard or saw Robert Johnson, he began to develop his
slide guitar style for which he is best known and imitated. He started performing in his early 20's, by
which time Robert Johnson was dead. Elmore was first recorded in the late 1940's when he
accompanied Sonny Boy Williamson for his sessions with the Trumpet recording company in Jackson,
Mississippi. An example of Elmore's slide guitar can be heard on the song, Dust My Blues
(183 K, 17 sec.), copyright ©, Flair/Virgin records. Dust My Blues was a rework of Elmore's popular
hit, Dust My Broom, a Robert Johnson standard.
Although Elmore James is best known for his slide guitar, he was also an excellent single string lead
guitar player. His influence on B.B. King's soloing style can be heard in the following 3 audio samples,
Sho Nuff I Do (134 K, 12 sec.), Mean and Evil (105 K, 10 sec.), Dark and
Dreary (119 K, 11 sec.), all songs copyright ©, Flair/Virgin records.
Elmore was diagnosed with a heart problem in 1946. He suffered a second heart attack in 1956 and
by 1962 his health was fast deteriorating, not assisted by his frequent bouts of heavy drinking. On May
24, 1963, Elmore suffered a final heart attack and died in Chicago.
Booker T. Washington White, better known as Bukka White, was born in the hills of eastern
Mississippi, and was the cousin of B.B. King's mother. He soon moved to the Delta, where as
a young man, Charlie Patton inspired him to pursue a blues career. When B.B. King was very young,
Bukka White, now living in Memphis, would come to visit the family when they lived in Kilmicheal,
Mississippi. This might have been young B.B. King's very first exposure to a real bluesman. When B.B.
King first moved to Memphis in the summer of 1946, he lived with Bukka White. For the next ten
months, Bukka schooled B.B. in the art of the blues. Bukka had prepared B.B. for his life as a
bluesman by teaching him everything from how to hold his guitar to phrasing lyrics. Bukka's most
important trait which he impressed upon B.B. was his durability, and without it, B.B. King would not
be who he is today.
Bukka White, like Elmore James, was one of the titans of the slide guitar. The influences of both White and James can be credited towards the development of B.B. King's excellent vibrato technique. In an interview with Guitar World magazine, B.B. recalls, "In the early years I used to hear a lot of slide guitar players. I've never been able to use the slide myself. So, I found that when I trill my hand, my ears tend to be fooled somewhat by that sound - as if its a person using a slide or steel guitar. I can sustain the tones, get overtones and do quite a few of the things you couldn't do otherwise. And I've been doing it to this day. Though I'd have to say that I still haven't perfected it."(3)
In Mississippi, Bukka got in some trouble with the law over a shooting scrape, and he was sentenced
to a stretch in Parchman Farm State Penitentiary. While in prison, White recorded for a visiting
researcher from the Library of Congress. By early 1940, Bukka was out and heading to Chicago
where he had recorded before going to prison. An example of a song he recorded in 1940 is District Attorney Blues (272 K, 25 sec.) - from The Complete Bukka White, copyright ©,
Columbia records. Blues which dared to protest Southern justice were extremely rare in 1940.
Bukka's doomy tribute to the power invested in the district attorney was a brave statement from an
ex-con soon to return to the south. Bukka White's career continued up until his death in 1977.
Robert Lockwood, Jr. was born in Helena, Arkansas in 1915. Although he has been referred
to as Robert "Junior" Lockwood, he prefers the proper order of Robert Lockwood, Jr.
Lockwood started out playing the organ (his father was a preacher) when he was 8 years old. After his
parents divorced, the great bluesman Robert Johnson lived with Lockwood's mother on and off for 10
years. Johnson taught Lockwood how to play the guitar. Lockwood's first guitar was home made,
which Robert Johnson helped him to build. Lockwood recalled in 1991, "My mother's home was his
home. That's how I learned to play the guitar ... I wanted to play the piano, but I learned how to play
that guitar like Robert, and I didn't touch the organ no more. He was one of the nicest people I met.
He was very sharp, patient, and I figured he was just right, 'cause he showed me something that didn't
leave. He taught me, period. My first thing I was playing was 'Sweet Home Chicago.' Yeah, that's the
first thing Robert taught me."(4)
Over the years, Lockwood also teamed up with another blues legend, Aleck "Rice" Miller, better
known as Sonny Boy Williamson. At age 15, Lockwood first went down to Mississippi with Sonny
Boy to play the blues. The partnership lasted a couple of years the first time, but they got together
again in 1941 and were featured on the very first King Biscuit Time radio show on station KFFA in
Helena. During the 1950's, the two teamed up again in Chicago for Sonny Boy's second Chess
records recording session. The line up for that Chicago session featured some great bluesmen:
Lockwood on guitar, Sonny Boy on harp and vocals, Willie Dixon on bass and Otis Span on piano.
The following track was a take from that session, and was recorded in October/November of 1957,
"99" (264 K, 24 sec.) - from Sonny Boy Williamson's Down and Out Blues, Copyright ©,
MCA records.
Lockwood and B.B. played together early in B.B. 's career while he was living in Memphis. During
B.B. King's WDIA days, Lockwood had a disagreement with another WDIA DJ named Gatemouth
Moore. "Moore told B.B. to don't pay us no attention, because if we were so great we would have
done what B.B. done," Lockwood recalls. "B.B. really listened to Gatemouth until he found out I was
fixing to cut a'loose. Then he told me to give him two weeks, see would he improve. B.B. didn't have
no sense of time. I was working with him as a sideman all over Arkansas and Tennessee. He had a
horn player, a drummer, me and him. I tryed my best to teach him time, but I think that I - it was hard
for him to understand. When I got ready to leave, B.B. had a contract with somebody who was going
to record him and I told the man to put eight pieces with him and he would have to listen to the band!
So the man put eight pieces with him, which was part of the Newborn family - little Silas and big Silas
[Phineas Newborn, Jr. and Sr.]. That was B.B.'s first real band."(5)
Lowell Fulson is generally associated with the Texas style of blues. Actually from Tulsa,
Oklahoma, he settled in the San Fransico Bay area by the time he began recording in 1946.
Most of his records were in a small combo format, and he is viewed as one of the leaders in the
development of comtemporary blues lead guitar. In his early years of recording, however, he
occasionaly performed only with his brother Martin on second guitar, providing a deep droning country
blues sound that was well complimented by his crying vocals.
In 1952, B.B. King's first real hit song, "Three O'Clock Blues," was a cover of a Lowell Fulson song
(which had also done well for Fulson when he first recorded it in 1948). As was the case with B.B.
King, instrumentally Fulson's greatest influence was blues guitarist T-Bone Walker. Jimmy Rushing was
the vocalist Fulson modelled himself after. Fulson achieved no real commercial success until 1950. His
first hit was a recording of the Memphis Slim number "Every Day I Have the Blues," which B.B. also
covered in 1956. Fulson followed "Every Day" with a string of best sellers over the next four years.
The following recording was Fulson's first after joining the Chess lineup of blues artists, and it proved
to be one of his biggest hits for the company. Young Elvis Presley later also covered it, but Fulson's
version was the better seller and the better rendition. A sample of Fulson's blues can be heard in his
1954 recording of Reconsider Baby (299 K, 28 sec.).
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Text copyright ©, 1996 Jim Kerekes & Dennis O'Neill
Last updated on 1/3/97 ...
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