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68
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
68/100Critics
67/100Scholars
Author:
Daniel de Visé
Publisher:
Grove Press
Date:
October 5, 2021
The first full biography of an American--indeed a world-wide--musical and cultural legend.
What The Reviewers Say
B.B. King, who died in 2015 at age 89, gets the royal treatment from his biographer, and rightly so. We get it all, a life in full.
De Visé ably chronicles how, in the mid-1960s, when the blues had fallen out of favor with Black audiences, the British blues revival—led by Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, and Peter Green—brought King’s music to white listeners.
... lack of awareness about how Black people process pain, especially in front of White people, reflects an irredeemable flaw of de Visé’s book. He only sees King as other White people see him. Although de Visé uses Black sources to flesh out King’s experiences, he relies on White writers...to provide historical context for the blues and to make connections between King’s life and work.
... the definitive biography.
