Black, White, and Blue:  Racial Politics in B.B. King’s Music from the 1960s:  An Analysis

            Although racial politics were involved in blues music, the article brings to light the music itself cannot be classified in racial context.  The 1960s was an era of change in the black community with the advent of the Civil Rights movement.  The attitudes of the black community towards blues music and B.B. King were not favorable.  To survive economically it became necessary for B.B. King to attempt to crossover to the white audience and initially he met with little success.

            Ironically, B.B. King chose to hire a Jewish manager, Sidney Siedenberg.  I found it interesting the author should point this out as Jews were discriminated against as well in the South.  This was to be a turning point in B.B.’s career, however, as Sidney booked him to perform in front of a predominately affluent, white, hippie audience.  Again, the author presents us with another group stereotype with the reference to the audience as being affluent and of the hippie culture.  From the moment he stepped out on the stage, he received a standing ovation prior to ever beginning to play.  He felt overwhelmed these people would treat him in such a fashion.  He was honored and torn at the same time, which I found interesting.  The author also points out:  “It is important to note that in actuality neither King’s audience nor his music had ever been purely “black” in the first place, and that his “whitening” is only a matter of perception (one of the fascinating aspects of King’s shift in audiences was that the actual music did not dramatically change).” (Adelt, p. 204).  His success continued to build and gradually he became accustomed to the “white ways” of dealing with his music.  “An ‘all black’ audience represents obscurity and failure, whereas a crossover to ‘mainstream’ or ‘white’ audiences equal the ultimate success in America.”  (Adelt,  p. 201).  “Black” audiences, however, continued to turn away from King and the blues in the 1960s in favor of soul music.  They did not want to be reminded of a time and place they had outgrown and they did not like what they called King’s “Uncle Tom” attitude.  They either booed him in concert or stayed away altogether.

            He had a sense of loss over the lack of interest of his own people in his music.  The author points out how ironic it was indeed that just when the hippie generation started listening to his music, his own people had turned away from him.  His success with the “white” audiences continued to grow and he appeared on television shows to perform.  His albums became a mix of his works designed to appeal to the hippie audience.  The author discusses the album, Indianola Mississippi Seeds, as winning a Grammy for Best Album Cover.  King’s picture was not on the cover “but a watermelon carved in the shape of a guitar, replete with pickups, strings, and cable.” (Adelt, p. 208).  A worn out amplifier served as the backdrop.  Clearly, the author wants us to see the association of the blues to “blacks” being marketed to the “whites”.  Live at the Regal became a blues “classic” when it was reissued with a different album cover, which was in the form of a newspaper article bearing the headline “A Classic Revisited:  B.B. King Live at the Regal, and additional production.  King continued to market to the white audience with the production of a live album from the Cook County Correctional Institution in Chicago, which was a predominately black inmate population.  He followed in the footsteps of Johnny Cash who had gained a measure of success from marketing this concept to his fan following.  The name of the album was Live at Cook County Jail and its purpose was to elicit nostalgia from the “black” inmates to supply the “white” audience buying the album with the “authentic” background.  The author in conclusion writes, “Despite their social and economic relevance, the confluence of racial categories in the process of crossover, for instance in the reinscription of “black”sounds for “white” audiences, shows the ultimately unstable nature of these categories.” (Adelt, p. 213).

            I found from reading this article just how politics of the time could be manipulated to market an art from one group, “black” to another group of people, “white”, with the help of a Jewish manager and a mixed group of others of various nationalities and skin color.  I agree with the author that there is no true race sounds but merely the presumptions of prejudiced or uneducated people.  B.B. King’s music is real art, expressing emotions and life experiences with and unequaled talent of the guitar and a tone of voice which is unmistakably his own.

References

Adelt, U. (2011).  Black, White, and Blue:  Racial Politics in B.B. King’s Music from the 1960s.

            The Journal of Popular Culture. 44, 195-214.