Late Music York Blog

Nikita Khrushchev, Acker Bilk, James Brown, B.B. King. 

Who’s the odd one out?

Clue: it’s all about things we’ve seen on television.

The characters:

 

Nikita Khrushchev was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the man who played nuclear bluff with U.S.A. President Kennedy. 

Acker Bilk is best known for his elegaic, mournful tune “Stranger on the Shore” which used as the theme tune for a BBC children’s TV show.  

James Brown was “The Hardest Working Man in Showbusiness”.

B.B. King is a Blues legend who plays a guitar called “Lucille”.

The incidents:

Nikita Khrushchev is also well known for banging his shoe on his desk at the United Nations to disrupt proceedings – an image seen throughout the world. Oh, he banged.

Acker Bilk’s band were featured on BBC TV in a London highlights segment of a Miss World show playing up a swinging storm. I kid you not – they were stonking.

James Brown started out as a street dancer and his flying feet led the way for many future artists in the same way that his funk rhythms defined subsequent black music. He demonstrated several popular 60s dance steps in about a minute during an interview with Jools Holland on Channel 4 (“The Tube”?). He flowed.

B.B. King appeared several times at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. During one concert – shown on BBC (2?) – his band played a gospel song which showed the links between secular and religious black music, but which was clearly the great bluesman celebrating gospel music.

The answer:

The odd one out is Nikita Khrushchev. There are lots of clips on the Web and all show that he never did bang that shoe, except the clip that’s been doctored. 

The other incidents are all locked in my mind but, as the bureaucrat said: “If it’s not documented, it didn’t happen”.

So my plea is Please, Please, Please, do try to find anywhere on the Web (or anywhere else so that it can be posted) evidence of Acker swinging, James throwing out his feet and B.B. going home.