B.B. King - Live in Cook County Jail
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CD Details
Artist: B.B. KingBrand: KING,B.B.
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Live, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 1998-04-21
Music Label: Mca
Product features:
- KING B. B. LIVE IN COOK COUNT
- Introductions
- Every Day I Have The Blues
- How Blue Can You Get?
- Worry, Worry
- Medley: 3 O'Clock Blues, Darlin' You Know I Love You
- Sweet Sixteen
- The Thrill Is Gone
- Please Accept My Love
Music reviews of Live in Cook County Jail
Music Review: It's not "Live at the Regal", but there are some tremendous performances here nevertheless
Rating: 4 Stars
B.B. King has a uniquely personal way of addresssing his audience, smalltalking to the crowd like they were sitting across the table from him. And on this September, 1970 recording from Cook County, Illinois, he holds a crowd of 2,117 inmates of both sexes in the palm of his hand, chit-chatting in between the songs, and getting an enthusiastic response in return.
B.B. King's monologue during the ten-minute "Worry, Worry" is politically incorrect, a bit dirty, and quite funny, and the inmates eat it up. Yes, the initial applause has a polite quality to it, but the heat builds quickly, and the reaction to songs like "Sweet Sixteen" and "The Thrill is Gone" is genuinely heartfelt.
King is backed by a six-man band which includes a small, unobtrusive horn section, he is an excellent form vocally, and his playing catches fire on perhaps the best "How Blue Can You Get" I've ever heard. The Beale Street Blues Boy's tasteful lead lines are pure liquid fire, pianist Ron Levy provides the perfect, soulful, jazzy backing, and we get the most wonderful trumpet solo from John Browning as an extra bonus.
There are some letdowns, too... the truncated 1½-minute "Every Day I Have The Blues" with its manic drumming is hideous, a total waste of space like virtually all of King's covers of that song from the 60s and 70s, and the saccharine pop ballad "Please Accept My Love" which closes the much too-brief set should never have been included on a blues record.
But when it clicks, it really clicks. The band is terrific, pianist Levy in particular. King's playing is (generally) inspired. And "How Blue Can You Get", "Sweet Sixteen", "3 o'Clock Blues", and the wonderful, swinging "The Thrill is Gone" is B.B. King at his best. I said that this live rendition of "How Blue Can You Get" is probably the best one I've heard, and I'll say the same for "The Thrill is Gone". The horns are perfectly scored, the rhythm section dig a tremendous groove, and King's vocals are spot-on.
This is not the best live B.B. out there by any means. "Live at the Regal" has more grit and power, and the live "Blues is King" is also a stronger record overall, but fans of the great B.B. King will not want to be without this one either. "How Blue Can You Get" and "The Thrill Is Gone" alone would make this record worthwhile.
Description of Live in Cook County Jail
KING B. B. LIVE IN COOK COUNTOne of the greatest concert recordings of all time. How could it be less, with B.B. King performing some of his best material before a literally captive audience in an Illinois prison? "Worry, Worry" and "How Blue Can You Get" take on deeper meanings here, although King works the latter's camp lyrics as if he were in a juke joint. His mix of down-home humility and commanding stagecraft is instantly appealing. And his guitar barks, sings, and squeals with such authority that this is a bravura performance from the first bent, soul-searing note. A true desert-island disc. --Ted Drozdowski
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