Live at the Regal

King, B.B.

album cover

A King-Sized Helping of Blues History

The first clue that this isn't a typical evening of blues is the screaming. After the first two songs, the crowd at Chicago's Regal Theater sounds like it's responding to the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show—shrieks of elation erupt every time B.B. King plays. It's not an applause-meter contrived sound, either: This is a direct circuit between performer and audience, and it's running hot.

The second clue comes from the guitar of the mighty King himself. He's plenty flashy when he wants to be, but on this night he lights up the disconsolate "How Blue Can You Get?" with some of the most exquisitely restrained note-bending ever heard in the blues. Most guitarists make wild slurping arcs, of a minor third or more, when they bend a string. King thinks mostly in carefully controlled microtones here. He swerves in such a way that when he reaches the desired note—at, of course, the exact millisecond he intended—it feels like the end of a long journey. The expression seems greater because it's accomplished within such a narrow range.

With these slight-yet-significant gestures and his charming song introductions, King keeps listeners glued. Culled from a week of performances in November 1964 at the theater, this disc stands among the best in King's extralarge discography. Listen to King and the band open up and roar, and it becomes impossible to settle for the perfunctory, punching-the-clock blues that has, sadly, become the status quo.

Genre: Blues
Released: 1965, Chess/MCA
Key Tracks: "Every Day I Have the Blues," "Help the Poor."
Catalog Choice: Live in Cook County Jail.
Next Stop: Muddy Waters: At Newport 1960
After That: Little Milton: Grits Ain't Groceries.
Book Page: 426