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The Rise and Reign of B.B. King
by Daniel de Vise
The first full and authoritative biography of an American - indeed a worldwide - musical and cultural legend.
Riley "Blues Boy" King (1925-2015) was born into deep poverty in Jim Crow Mississippi. Wrenched away from his sharecropper father, B.B. lost his mother at age ten, leaving him more or less alone. Music became his emancipation from exhausting toil in the fields. Inspired by a local minister's guitar and by the records of Blind Lemon Jefferson and T-Bone Walker, encouraged by his cousin, the established blues man Bukka White, B.B. taught his guitar to sing in the unique solo style that, along with his relentless work ethic and humanity, became his trademark. In turn, generations of artists claimed him as inspiration, from Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton to Carlos Santana and the Edge.
King of the Blues presents the vibrant life and times of a trailblazing giant. Witness to dark prejudice and lynching in his youth, B.B. performed incessantly (some 15,000 concerts in 90 countries over nearly 60 years)—in some real way his means of escaping his past. Several of his concerts, including his landmark gig at Chicago's Cook County Jail, endure in legend to this day. His career roller-coasted between adulation and relegation, but he always rose back up. At the same time, his story reveals the many ways record companies took advantage of artists, especially those of color.
Daniel de Visé has interviewed almost every surviving member of B.B. King's inner circle—family, band members, retainers, managers, and more—and their voices and memories enrich and enliven the life of this Mississippi blues titan, whom his contemporary Bobby "Blue" Bland simply called "the man."
"Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist De Vise amply demonstrates his masterful storytelling and research skills in this definitive look at legendary blues musician B.B. King (1925–2015)...Even readers who aren't fans of the blues will be engrossed by this nuanced look at an American icon." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"As blues royalty and one of the 20th century's most influential musicians, B.B. King has long deserved a well-considered biography that places his achievements in a cultural and historical context. This is it...Interweaves tales of American history, pop culture, racial relations, music theory, and much more to fully demonstrate King's significance...Magnificent...The thrill is here, as B.B. King finally gets his due in this first meticulous account of his historic life." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"The definitive biography of blues master Riley 'B.B.' King...Engaging. The book expertly interweaves King's music career into the U.S. social fabric, especially the civil rights movement. With this fast-moving, informative, evenhanded, and exhaustive biography, de Visé vividly captures King's life." - Library Journal (starred review)
"B.B. King was the stone truth, the man who took down home uptown and, yes, the undisputed king of the blues. This, his first full and authoritative biography, is both right on time and long overdue. Dan de Visé has done a solid for music lovers everywhere." - Leonard Pitts, Jr., Pulitzer Prize-winning national columnist and author
"De Visé writes beautifully. His command of narrative is compelling. The level of detail he amassed is awesome." - Charles Sawyer, author of The Arrival of B.B. King: The Authorized Biography
"Extremely thoughtful, thorough and insightful." - David Ritz, biographical collaborator with B.B. King, Ray Charles, and Aretha Franklin, and biographer of Marvin Gaye
This information about King of the Blues was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Daniel de Visé is the author of the critically acclaimed Andy and Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Classic American TV Show and The Comeback: Greg LeMond, The True King of American Cycling, and a Legendary Tour de France, and coauthor of I Forgot to Remember: A Memoir of Amnesia. He shared a 2001 Pulitzer Prize for his journalism and has worked at the Washington Post and Miami Herald, among other newspapers. He lives in Maryland.
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