Monarch Angel: The Thrill Is Gone

It's a sad, sad day that had to come eventually; the legendary B.B. King has passed away at 89.

Everything I have to say, I already said here, back when he got sick and had to stop a concert in Chicago. In the end, it was fitting that his last performance should be there. I've also reposted that 1978 concert from WXRT-FM in the Windy City here, if you missed it back in October.

 

Obviously there are no words to express the loss, so I will get right to what I would like to share in his memory today. Part of this circulates in mp3 form on iTunes and elsewhere as a sort of "official bootleg," but it's incomplete and lossy so I am going to (mostly) correct those issues with this post. 

This comes from pristine master soundboard reels that I stayed up all night remastering a tiny bit once I had awoken from a nap and heard that the man had taken his last. I also edited out the songs from the first set that repeated in the second, that it might form a single-CD version that would fit -- with a special treat video from French TV, filmed later in 1971, that's so rare it isn't even on YouTube -- in a single upload folder for y'all.

B.B. King

NY + Paris 1971

1.

Fillmore East
New York City, NY
6.19.1971

01 Let Me Love You
02 Walkin' Doctor Bill
03 You're So Fine
04 Ain't That Just Like a Woman
05 Instrumental
06 Instrumental
07 Please Accept My Love
08 Instrumental
09 Every Day I Have the Blues
10 How Blue Can You Get
11 Instrumental
12 A Whole Lotta Lovin'
13 Nobody Loves Me But My Mother
14 Hummingbird
15 Instrumental
16 band intros
17 Sweet Sixteen
18 Instrumental
19 The Thrill Is Gone
20 Instrumental

Total time: 1:19:19

B.B. King - lead guitar, vocals
w/Sonny Freeman And The Unusuals:
Joseph Burton - trombone, percussion
John Browning - trumpet, percussion
Sonny Freeman - drums
Wilbert Freeman - bass
Milton Hopkins - guitar
Louis Hubert - tenor saxophone, percussion
Ron Levy - piano
Earl Turbinton - alto saxophone, percussion

soundboard master reels from Davmar77, slightly edited/remastered by EN

2.

POP2
L'Olympia
Paris, France
11.27.1971

01 intro/talk
02 Whole Lotta Loving
03 interview w/B.B. pt. 1
04 If You Let Me Love You
05 Walkin' Doctor Bill
06 interview w/B.B. pt. 2
07 The Thrill Is Gone
08 outro

Total time: 23:37

B.B. King - guitar, vocals
w/Sonny Freeman And The Unusuals:
Joseph Burton - trombone, percussion
Sonny Freeman - drums
Wilbert Freeman - bass
Louis Hubert - tenor saxophone, percussion
Ron Levy - piano
Earl Turbinton - alto saxophone, percussion

B&W PAL DVD from a recent rebroadcast, exact date unknown

both shows zipped together

1.95 GB total/May 2015 archive link

Please accept these as a token of appreciation for the legacy of Riley B. King: a formative, indispensable musician whose music will live forever and a half.--J.

9.16.1925 - 5.14.2015