54. B.B. King - Live at the Regal (1965)

1. Everyday I Have The Blues
2. Sweet Little Angel
3. It's My Own Fault
4. How Blue Can You Get
5. Please Love Me
6. You Upset Me Baby
7. Worry Worry
8. Woke Up This Mornin'
9. You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now
10. Help The Poor

There sure are a lot more live albums in the early part of this list than I was expecting. And here I thought that the live album was invented by Peter Frampton in 1976 in a laboratory setting! Boy, is my face red!

Anyhow, here we get a live album of the blues caliber. We haven't heard from the blues since Muddy Waters' Newport concert back in 1960, and it seems even the blues has been hit by the changing spirit of the times. While Muddy's band stuck to traditional arrangements, B. B. King and his band change it up a bit, adding a horn section and playing anything from traditional slow blues to jumpin' juke joint blues to even some tracks that sound vaguely like a rumba or something. It's all very recognizably blues of course, the lyrics make that clear enough (A pleasant reminder to today's emo kids that you could whine about your problems musically for an entire set and STILL be thought of as a badass. Isn't the blues fun?), but it is not the blues you've heard over and over again, at least.

B. B. King is most assuredly a skilled performer as well as an entertainer. He talks a lot more than you'd expect from a live album this early, whether to lead into the next song or to reveal to the audience his secrets of love. It lends the record a more personal atmosphere, if only because most live albums tend to edit out most of the stage banter.

Oh, did I mention he's quite the guitar player? He really makes Lucille sing here, playing clean expressive solos with a hell of a tone. It's guitar playing more in the vein of Clapton or Stevie Ray Vaughan than the cruder, more earthy styles of Muddy Waters or Bo Diddley. Wow, that sure sounds racist! But all I'm trying to say is that B. B. is quite the innovative soloist. The first two minutes of 'Worry, Worry' are doubtlessly the finest on the record.

This live album is apparently so well regarded among blues fans that there's even a bit of backlash against it, by no less than B. B. King himself, who didn't really get all the fuss over it. But hell, albums don't get critically acclaimed by sucking, after all! A very fine piece of work. 8/10