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B.B. King: King Of The Blues

Tony Russell, The History of Rock, 1983

Riley King was born in Itta Bena, Mississippi, on 16 September 1925. For a young black boy growing up amid the poverty and racial segregation of the South, the future must have seemed to go little further than the end of the field he was ploughing. The most he might hope for was an elementary schooling, unremitting farm work and, at the end of the year, maybe a few dollars in hand.

Total word count of piece: 2130

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