This was a fascinating episode of the pod show for more than one reason. The title is interesting if only in the sense that it might a reference to B.B. King—who wasn’t on the playlist either last night or the song selection for today’s podcast. Briefly, what we learned was that B.B. King had a lot of heirs (17 was the number of dependents) to his fortune when he died and that led to conflict over his estate. This came up during the conversation about Mud Morganfield.
One song that I couldn’t find on the Big Mo Blues Show playlist was “Floating Bridge” a 1937 classic by Sleepy John Estes and I couldn’t remember hearing it last night. It’s a deeply personal story of his own near-death experience when he nearly drowned but was saved by a friend. Eric Clapton covered it in 1981.
Another thing we learned about was the double neck guitar, which came up in the conversation about the tune “Blue Guitar” by Earl Hooker. Earl Hooker was famous for playing the double neck guitar, a heavy instrument with two necks, in this case a six string and a 12 string. I found a very long and deep web article about multi-neck guitars and they appeared in the late 17th century.
As Big Mo and Noah pointed out, there were other musicians who played double necks, among them Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin (“Stairway to Heaven”).
Big Mo mentioned the word “mambo” while talking about Mud Morganfield, who sang “Big Frame Woman.” I had to look up mambo and I think he might have meant a latin dance of Cuba? On the other hand, I found a reference that the word has African origins as well. Maybe some of you have ideas about that?
Go Retire Psychiatrist 
Since I spent 3 years in East Africa and sort of learned Swahili – you piqued my interest. I also lived in a part of Kenya where Kikuyu was the predominate tribe and language. I think they are also Bantu so I thought would see what mambo translated to in both languages. The result may be a sign of just how bad Google translate is for this task. For Swahili – they suggest it is a casual greeting. I think they have it confused with “jambo”. For Kikuyu they suggest it means holes in hides that are used to tie the hides down to cure in the sun.
I would not take either one of those definitions to the bank….
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This is helpful. I wonder if Big Mo’s definition for “mambo” could be idiosyncratic.
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