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I love BB King.  I am probably a bigger Buddy Guy fan but that’s probably my Chicago-centric arrogance coming out there.  Yeah, sure, Buddy may not have actually been born here, but he has sure become a legend here and has really made Chicago his home.

But there it just something about good ol’ BB King that just makes me smile.  I see him playing and he appears to be just having such a great time you can’t help but smile back and nod in approval.  Sure, he’s singing the blues and it’s about how his wife done him wrong, but he appears to be winking and smiling the entire time and playing that guitar to effortlessly, you just have to admire it.

I remember his appearance on the documentary about U2 called “Rattle and Hum.”  They did the song “When Love Comes to Town” and they showed Bono and the band rehearsing.  At one point BB said, “no chords, I don’t do chords.”  Considering how I had taken guitar lessons and couldn’t play chords either, that made me feel just a little better.  Of course, I can’t play guitar like BB either even without that, but still.  It made me feel a little better.

BB is a little on the older side these days.  Our time with him is precious and probably getting rare.  I found this clip in YouTube of a much younger BB and just had to smile again.  Here he is playing in SingSing!

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