B.B. King 94

Talvez a seguir a blues, a palavra que mais se associa a B. B. King é Lucille.
 A história da Lucille é sobejamente conhecida, mas não será por isso que ela deixará de ser escrita, lida ou ouvida. E para lê-la, ouvir e escrever

1949. B. B. King teria vinte cinco anos e em pleno inverno tocava num bar em Arkansas. Para aquecer o ambiente decide-se fazer um pilha de madeira e jornais velhos. A pilha é acendida com gasolina e ela arde bem.
Subitamente dois homens inciam uma luta entre si e espalham esta pilha, esta fogueira que flamejava. Enquanto lutavam a fogueira espalhou-se e o incêndio atingiu todo o bar.
B. B. King foge a tempo. No entanto deixa para trás a sua gibson e decide voltar ao braseiro para ir a buscar.
No rescaldo do incêndio descobriu-se que os dois homens tinha morrido e que tinha sido por causa de uma mulher chamada Lucille que a briga tinha começado.

O bluesman para se recordar do gesto que quase lhe custou a vida, decide baptizar não só aquela guitarra, mas todas as suas guitarras, com o nome da mulher por quem tudo tinha começado: Lucille.

A canção Lucille é uma conversa, uma declaração lindíssima de amor, de gratidão à sua guitarra, ao que ela fez por si.


B. B. King nasceu há 94 anos e o Google tem um doodle bem fixe para nos recordar a todos desta lenda da música, em particular dos blues.
Tive o supremo privilégio de o ouvir tocar ao vivo no dia 4 Julho de 1998, na Expo 98, no pavilhão da América.

The sound that you're listening to Is from my guitar that's named Lucille I'm very crazy about Lucille, Lucille took me from the plantation Or you might say, brought me fame I don't think I could just talk enough about Lucille Sometime when I'm blue seem like Lucille try to help me call my name I used to sing spirituals and I thought that this Was the thing that I wanted to do But somehow or other When I went in the army I picked up on Lucille, and started the singing blues Well, now when I'm paying my dues, Maybe you don't know what I mean when I say paying dues, I mean when things are bad with me I can always, I can always, you know like, depend on Lucille Sort of hard to talk to you myself I guess I'll let Lucille say a few words and then You know, I doubt if you can feel it like I do But when I think about the things that I've gone through, Like, well for instance, if I have a girlfriend and she misuses me, And I go home at night, maybe I'm lonely Well not maybe, I am lonely, I pick up Lucille And it bring out those funny sounds that sound good to me, you know? Sometime I get to the place where I can't even say nothing Look out Sometime I think it's crying You know, if I could sing pop tunes like Frank Sinatra or, Sammy Davis Junior, I don't think I still could do it, 'Cause Lucille don't wanna play nothing but the blues And I think I'm, I think I'm pretty glad about that 'Cause don't nobody sing to me like Lucille Sing, Lucille Well, I'll put it like this, take it easy, Lucille I like the way Sammy sings and I like the way Frank sings, But I can get a little Frank, Sammy, A little Ray Charles, in fact all the people with soul in this A little Mahalia Jackson in there One more, Lucille! Take it easy now, ah! You know, I imagine a lot of you wanna know, A lot of you wanna know why I call the guitar Lucille Lucille has practically saved my life two or three times No kidding, it really has I remember once I was in an automobile accident, and When the car stopped turning over, it fell over on Lucille, And it held it up off me, really, it held it up off me So that's one time it saved my life The way, the way I came by the name of Lucille, I was Over in Twist, Arkansas, I know you've never heard of that one, have you? And one night the guys started a ball over there, you know, started brawling, you know what I mean And the guy that was mad with his old lady, When she fell over on this gas tank that was burning for heat, The gas ran all over the floor And when the gas ran all over the floor, the building Caught on fire, and almost burned me up trying to save Lucille Oh I, I imagine you're still wondering why I call it Lucille The lady that started that brawl that night was named Lucille And that's been Lucille ever since to me One more now, Lucille Sounds pretty good to me. Can I do one more? Look out, Lucille Sounds pretty good. I think I'll try one more All right