"BYE-BYE" to "B.B." (King)

A "Savior" of Many Souls!

Had he lived just four more months, B.B. would have "made 90"!  Ninety years of toil, bringing solace and consolation to the mature;  as well as fun and jubilation to the young, in these United States.  Long abused and exploited by whites, along with Duke Ellington and hundreds of other giants of our music, B.B. "toiled in the vineyards", and eventually conquered his "conquerors".

Long before the Crackers found gold in his music, and before they permitted it to be aired on radios in this country; his music as well as all music by Black Artists was "covered" by whites and "banned from the Air" as Race Music.

I turned 13 in 1952.  Rosemary, (an "older woman" of 15) taught me how to dance.  You had to know how to get in at Miss Mabel's House, where teenagers gathered after school.  A Juke Box and dance floor comprised one room of her tiny house.  She whipped up delicious food in her kitchen , that she sold to kids who could afford it (slipped it free to kids who couldn't).  We had our music, and were safe and "free" in our world.  That was 12 years before the "Mop-heads" showed up.  I have hundreds of those old "45's", acquired "free" from the local Radio Station where they were banned as Race Music.  B.B. and "T-Bone" Walker were prominent among the music we danced to.  

I guess only we old folk remember what it was like, before the Beatles.  The MEDIA obscures and lies about that part of the History of Rock and Roll.  They're mostly interested in the parts featuring Whites.  Unfortunately, Black and Brown Youth in 2015 are complacent and compliant in today's versions of that same old "system".  Kudos to artists like Stevie Wonder, Prince, and Quincy Jones who appear to have maintained control over their product.  Too many Black Artists, today, continue to become more "valuable dead"; when whites own all Rights to their work.

Stay Vigilant:  Those who do not know, or ignore, the Past, will certainly repeat the worst of that Past!

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