Customer Reviews

Live at San Quentin

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

B.B.'s live set, "Live At San Quentin," is, perhaps, one of his all time best album releases. From start to finish, he makes you laugh, cry, and boogie, all the while educating you as to what blues truly are, and that lesson being that they are not just weepy, depressing songs, but that they can be both happy and sad. When listening to "Live At San Quentin," it is uplifting to know that B.B. was bringing sunshine into the ordinary dreariness of prison life that his "captive audience" experienced daily. He did not need to remind them of their plight by delving into long, depressing sets and acting the part of a half-hearted rebel pretending to fully understand their situation. I highly recommend this CD to anyone who loves B.B. King's music, anyone who is a casual fan of B.B. and blues music, to anyone who is an uninitiated blues listener, or any music lovers, in general. This is a first class masterpiece!

Is there any doubt B.B. King has the sweetest sounding vibrato in blues history? "Live at San Quentin" is a tribute to B.B.'s greatness as a guitar hero and to his ability to entertain. If you can keep an unruly batch of inmates entertained, you must be doing something right. From "Let the Good Times Roll" to "Rock Me Baby," B.B. King shows here that he can make the blues fun- fast or slow.

Now I must tell you that I am a B.B. King fan and rarely miss a concert. Any time I want to attend one of his concerts when he is not in town, I slide in this CD. Fun, great music, positive beat-you'd never know that it was recorded in a jail unless the periodic references to the warden. I love this CD because it has his great tunes, audience involvement and shows his caring side. I'd give 83 stars but it only goes to 5-oh well.

This is not in category of B.B.'s great live albums like The Regal and Cook County Jail or the live side of Live And Well; add Live In Japan to the mix. What kills this album is some real bad songs like Into The Night, but worst of all is the inclusion of B.B.'s very corny, trite and downright weird bantering. He can be so charming, but it is uncomfortable, almost embarrassing here and at it's worst on Rock Me Baby where B.B. gives overly complicated and corny sing along instructions to the audience. However, there is alot of redeeming music here, with some impassioned guitar work and vocals, including one of his most impressive versions of The Thrill Is Gone and some smokin' guitar on Sweet Little Angel. It's worth owning for the serious B.B. King fan. Allmusic is a "go to" site of mine and they absolutely panned this with a 1 1/2 star rating. I rate it better than that based on the strong grooves, guitar and vocals and far better than, say, his 1982 album Love Me Tender...

It's not BB;s fault, his singing and playing are faultless on the cd. It seems the jailbirds weren't too receptive to the blues legend and that the material(not all of it) and backup band sound dated. Afful songs like Into The Night, are terribly dated soundubng today. BB however sounds great on Sweet Little Angel, Sweet sixteen, and a few others. all bb performances have value, but try others before this, if this cd were a pizza it would be a regular pepperoni pizza from a chain pizza restaurant. ok