This DVD features blues legend B.B.King doing a "call-in" type concert with his band and invited friends. The show was an A&E Network special broadcast and the idea was that callers could phone in and request any song they wanted from B.B. and the band. It was a good gag and the band is game for the songs, but the A&E Network hosts are irritating and so freaking plastic you want to hit the fast forward every time they show up.
The songs that make up this DVD are:
Let The Good Times Roll
Sweet Little Angel
Bad Case Of Love
Night Life
Neighborhood Affair
Exactly Like You
Guess Who
The Thrill Is Gone
Rock Me Baby - with Jeff Beck
Key To The Highway - With Jeff Beck
When Love Comes To Town
Caldonia
I'll Survie
Paying The Cost To Be The Boss - With Jeff Beck
The playing is rather subdued for one reason - old B.B. is now 80 years old and it shows. Now don't get me wrong, I hope I'm even ALIVE at that age, let alone playing live gigs, but the years have taken a toll on King's playing and singing. Gone is the fire and intensity of his earlier singing and playing, replaced by a more mellow restrained effort.
Don't get me wrong, the man's still a genius, it's just this is more of a marking time gig than anything earth-shattering.
Now Jeff Beck joins him for a few numbers and here things DO get interesting. Beck's current atonal style is a weird match for B.B.'s silk smooth blues stylings. I had heard one person say "Yeah, Beck just comes on and makes a bunch of stupid noises with his guitar" but I actually enjoyed it. It's nice to see something other than the same old pentetonic noodlings we've all heard for the last 70 years from guitarists (I'm guilty of it too;).
So, I'd say this DVD is something that's nice to have in the collection, but it's not a must for B.B.King fans. You can get it still through Amazon (right from this page) so check it out, if only for Beck's stuff.
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