Customer Reviews

Live at San Quentin

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

 

 

Prison performances are sort of a standard for blues singers, and it just doesn't get any better than this -- B.B. King playing his classics live at the San Quentin Correctional facility. I used to have this cassette, but I played it so much that it popped!

Here King is playing to a truly captive audience offering up such classics as "The Thrill is Gone," "Sweet 16," "In the Heat of the Night," and my personal favorite "Nobody Loves Me But My Mother." In the intro to that last selection King explains to the inmates that while the blues was not just about hard times, some of the tunes could be pretty depressing. "Some of it can be pretty down alley. Like I'm fixing to do right now. I'm going all the way down to the bottom." Yet he also encourages the audience to go on and boogie off some of the uptempo tracks. This is music from the heart, and you can just feel the soul of the artist. This is the blues -- unvarnished, straight up and raw -- served up by a master of the genre.

King broke a few strings on his faithful Lucille during this performance, but he never misses a note. His voice is still clear after all these years and he still knows how to spin a tale through song. He does a few audience participation numbers and banters smoothly with the crowd and the band. This is a fundamental recording, and an important part of my collection.

I concur with the first reviewer. This is a great album. I used to like the Cook County Jail album a lot (and it's good), but this one has it beat. B.B. sounds so fresh, yet totally in control. It's really a classic album

One of B.B. King's lesser-known live albums, "Live at San Quentin" was recorded in 1990, and it features King backed by a tight seven-man orchestra which includes two saxes and a trumpet.

As good as that performance is, I probably wouldn't have opened a prison concert with "Let the Good Times Roll", and King does seem a little too oblivious to the fact that his audience is actually being held against their will...his on-stage chit-chat on "Live in Cook County Jail" was much more succint and to the point, while these standardized concert clichés could have been delivered anywhere.
But there is nothing wrong with the music. In fact, "San Quentin" has an edge over "Cook County" in being almost half an hour longer, and we get terrific, muscular renditions of some of King's best songs, including a spirited "Sweet Little Angel" with some wonderful, jazzy piano playing and a soulful horn riff, and a swinging "The Thrill is Gone".
And guess what? He does Memphis Slim's "Every Day I Have the Blues" _without_ the hideous, maniacal drumming in double time which marred that song on both "Live at the Regal" and "Live in Cook County Jail". This one is actually really good!

There are a few lesser tracks as well, sure, and I would have preferred to hear King singing "Rock Me Baby" to this too-cute singalong. Some listeners will probably wonder why B.B. King adds these predictable covers of "Ain't Nobody's Business" and Ira Newborn's not particularly bluesy "Into the Night" to his set, and why add a studio recording of the well-meaning but clichéd pop song "Peace to the World" in the middle of a live set?
But the overall impression that this album leaves is quite strong nonetheless, and the inmates sound like they're having a really good time. King tries to make them cheer the warden, which is oddly clueless and results in some booing, but their enthusiasm for King himself and his music is obviously genuine and heartfelt.

This is not the grittiest or most enthusiastic live B.B. King you'll ever hear. It's not an absolutely necessary CD, not like "Live at the Regal" or "Blues is King", but fans of Mr King should enjoy it. I did.

I have seen B.B. King live, and he was just amazing - A brilliant musician, a crowd pleaser, and a bundle of energy. He is an amazing performer, and this live c.d. is awesome!! Worthy of any Blues fans collection, "Live at San Quentin" had me wishing I was a fly on the wall at that show. What a performance! Every song here is great, and King doesn't slow down for a minute. Like he says in the album, the blues doesn't mean "blue" as in depressing all the time. I actually listened to the entire c.d. while i was on the treadmill at the gym. It was very upbeat for the most part.
A sensational record that is worth buying. Rather than have his whole catalog, I prefer this! It is just masterful!
Highly recommended!!

The product came and was as I expected it would be. The recording was great and the service was great.