The Day B.B. King Went to Jail

ON A SUBLIME autumn day in 1970, B.B. King performed for 2,117 prisoners in Cook County Jail. Against the sound of B.B. King's musicians tuning their instruments and the bass guitarist playing slow, meandering notes, a female official from Cook County Jail introduced members of the prison administration. As she asked the prisoners to recognise, "our own, beloved Sheriff Woods", the polite, scant applause was swiftly extinguished by an unruly sound of booing from the prisoners.