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Re: B.B. King at the national press club 1/23



-- [ From: Thomas G. Farrell Jr. * EMC.Ver #2.10P ] --

NP:  Zeppelin, "Going to California" Cleveland, August 1977

Ian,
	I laughed when I read your comments about BB King's speech.  I
generally agree with you about the Who not playing strictly blues, but
it's nice to hear that he mentioned them.
	Here's the reason I laughed.  I saw BB King on the Johnny Carson Show
some years ago (when I was but a mere teenager), and as I listened to
him play, I thought, "Damn, BB King sounds just like Led Zeppelin."
	Well, as I found out later, it was the other way around:  Zeppelin
sounded a lot like BB King.  So, it was Led Zeppelin, who played a lot
of *straight* blues music, including covers of Howlin' Wolf, Robert
Johnson et al, that introduced me to blues music, not the Who, Stones
or Clapton.  I also have a friend in Chicago who tells me that Zeppelin
introduced him to blues music.   So I'm a bit surprised that BB King
didn't mention Zeppelin, because of all the groups he mentioned, they
were the most, for want of a better term, "bluesy."...
 	But so long as BB made his point....
	Btw, if you're watching speeches at the National Press Club, you must
be a CSPAN enthusiast... I'm envious... since I moved, I don't have a
TV anymore, and miss those rockin' Special Orders in the House <sniff,
sniff>.
	Every good wish--Tom Farrell