B.B. King - Come by Here

Topic: Dance Music
B.B. King recorded the first commercial dance version of "Come by Here" in 1958. The simple substitution of "baby" for "oh Lord" changed the import of the lyrics without altering the AAAB form. The verses used incremental repetition to advance a narrative that went from "I love you" and "I want you" to "we’ll get married" and "raise a family."

At the time he made this recording, King "had a beefed-up sax and brass section," [1] and that’s all I could hear. If King was playing guitar, he was drowned out by them.

Even though it wasn’t the instrumentation one expected on a B.B. King record, the same kind of interaction existed between it and the human voice. The brass set a refrain pattern in the opening measures. Thereafter, every time King sang a line, it answered.

The record was made in the period when rock ’n’ roll had replaced rhythm and blues, and his audience was shrinking. [2] He told David Ritz, he didn’t know if "it was the financial difficulties I was facing, or the fact that my career felt stalled. Maybe it was the monotony of the road" that made him want to marry and settle down. [3]

That may be one reason he wrote the words he did. However, he also told Ritz that Memphis, Tennessee, had felt less like home after his father had moved to California [4]. He added

"My mother stayed in the memory of my heart as a missing link [. . .] I wish that the pain in my heart that came from missing my mother would subside. But it didn’t, and it doesn’t, and her lost love remains forever lost." [5]

He may have learned the song in the local Church of God in Christ church [16] before she died when he was ten-years-old. [7] He remembered:

"As a kid, I was a regular churchgoer. I felt the spirit of God in gospel music and dreamt of being a gospel man myself." [8]

After she died, he was

"still tied to the church and didn’t quite give up the notion of preaching or at least singing the gospel. I was a strong voice in the choir and was learning to use my guitar to accompany spiritual songs." [9]

Performers
Vocal Soloist: B.B. King
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: brass, reeds [10]
Rhythm Accompaniment: drum set

Credits
King-Taub [11]
BMI Mod Music Pub.

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: Come by HERE (short-shorter-long)
Verses: his own

Vocabulary
Pronoun: we
Term for Deity: none
Special Terms: baby

Basic Form: six-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Line Repetition Pattern: AAAB
Line Form: statement-refrain
Literary Devices: incremental repetition
Ending: none
Unique Features: secularization of a religious song

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3 family
Tempo: moderate
Rhythm: syncopated

Basic Structure: repetition in different keys; modulation occurred after every two verses

Singing Style: one syllable to one note

Vocal-Orchestral Dynamics: King sang a complete line and instrumental group repeated its refrain

Notes on Performers
King was one of the most important musicians in the creation of electrified urban blues after World War II. He was raised by his grandmother to be a sharecropper in Mississippi, but his grandmother’s sister had a phonograph and records by Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lonnie Johnson. [12] His great-aunt’s son was a Delta bluesman, Bukka White. [13]

He learned his first guitar chords from the local COGIC preacher when he was seven-years-old. [14] King remembered Archie Fair’s

"sermon is like music and his music—both the song from his mouth and the sound of his guitar—thrills me until I wanna get up and dance. He says one thing and the congregation says it back, back and forth, back and forth, until we’re rocking together in rhythm that won’t stop. His voice is low and rough and his guitar is high and sweet; they seem to sing to each other, conversing in some heavenly language I need to learn. The choir joins in, and the congregation joins the choir, and I’m right in the middle of a universe of music filled with nothing but pure spirit. There’s an old piano and tambourines, hand clapping and foot-stomping and shouting that starts in your toe and goes through the top of your head. The beat is steady and strong as the beat in your heart. No room for fear in here; no room for doubt; it’s a celebration of love that gets even better when, after services, Mama says Reverend and his wife are coming over to visit." [15]

King first heard the blues that was emerging in the Mississippi delta on a Memphis area radio station in 1941. He moved there in 1948 where he had his own radio program. Once he started touring, he never had a settled home, while his music became associated with both Memphis and Chicago. [16]

Availability
Single: Kent 319. 1959. Uploaded to YouTube by Miguel A Garcia on 15 July 2014.

Album: B. B. King Wails. Crown Records 5115. 1958. [17] Uploaded to YouTube by Universal Music Group North America on 25 January 2017. (It had a more mellow sound than Garcia’s version.)

Reissue: Twist With B. B. King. Crown Records CLP 5248. 1962. [18]

Reissue: Let Me Love You. Kent KST 513. 1964. [19]

Reissue: "Come by Here" has been included in several reissues and compilations, especially after King died on 14 May 2015. One was uploaded to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises on 18 February 2016.

End Notes
1. B.B. King [Riley B. King]. Blues All Around Me. With David Ritz. New York: Avon Books, 1996. 188.

2. King. 186.
3. King. 195.
4. King. 195.
5. King. 195.

6. King. 16. Charles Harrison Mason and the Church of God in Christ were discussed in the post for 23 December 2017.

7. King. 34.
8. King. 193.
9. King. 42.

10. Two people have posted the names of people they thought played on this recording: Blues Fan, "B.B. King," his Japanese website, and Anita Pravits, "B.B. King," Keep on Living website. Blues Fan said the trumpets were played by Kenneth Sands and Henry Boozier. Praivts believed the men were Sands, Boozier, or Hobart Dotson. Pravits suggested Pluma Davis played trombone, but Blues Fan did not mention the instrument.

Blues Fan said King used an alto (Lawrence Burdine), tenor (Johnny Board) and baritone (Barry Hubert or Herman Green) saxophone. Pravits listed Burdine, Board, and Hubert. They both mentioned Marshall York on bass, but Blues Fan said Lloyd Green played piano while Pravits wrote it was Milliard Lee. Blue Fan said Ted Curry was on drums, but Pravits thought it was Curry or Sonny Freeman.

Wikipedia indicated King’s first band included Burdin, Curry, Millard Lee, and Sands. ("B.B. King."). King’s autobiography included an undated photograph of the band that included the same men, Burdine, Curry, Lee, and Sands. (King, opposite page 178).

11. King’s recording company was owned by the Bihari Brothers. Jules Bihari took part of King’s royalties by claiming he, Taub, was one of the composers. (Wikipedia. "Bihari Brothers.")

12. King. 20-23.
13. King. 24.
14. King. 18.
15. King. 16-17.
16. Wikipedia, King.
17. Discogs entry for album.
18. Discogs entry for album.
19. Discogs entry for album.