Blues All Around Me: The Autobiography of B. B. King - Softcover

King, B. B; Ritz, David

4.11

889 ratings by Goodreads

9780380807604: Blues All Around Me: The Autobiography of B. B. King

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0380807602 ISBN 13: 9780380807604

Publisher: It Books, 1999

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

“A treasure trove of information...told with real feeling.” —Washington Post Book World

“Charming...honest...transcendent.... It reads like a warm and lengthy conversation with a close friend.” —Billboard

The undisputed king of the blues, B.B. King puts his life into words in a story that spans tragedy, triumph, and everything in between—and he tells it just how he plays it, straight from the heart. A true-to-life tale of overcoming monumental odds to succeed as an artist in an often unfriendly world, Blues All Around Me is also the story of how blues music changed during its migration from the Mississippi Delta to urban areas such as Chicago. Rolling Stone calls B.B.’s memoir a “very American success story [told] with the lyricism and leisurely pace of a born storyteller.”

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

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.

From the Back Cover:

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.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.