B.B. King: There Is Always One More Time (Lives in Music) by David McGee;B.B. King

Author:David McGee;B.B. King
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-04-28T03:12:00+00:00

You see, I had to put another band together, because I was living in L.A. at the time. I had found Russ Kunkel and Bryan Garofolo. I had done some sessions when I had first got there and they were young guys, up and coming, and I had worked with Walsh, because I had found him in the James Gang and signed him. The very first session I ever saw was a Carole King-Gerry Goffin demo, and she was playing piano and singing the demo. I became a huge Carole King fan. We kept semi-in touch and I had seen her around, and I just thought it would be so cool, because I know she plays great blues piano. So I call her up and said, "Carole, would you like to play on a B.B. King album?" It was an instant "You bet!" So when I got in the studio the very first day, one of my favorite stories is, I said to B, "B.B. King, I'd like you to meet Carole King. Carole King, B.B. King. Perhaps you're related!" They loved it.

Jimmie Haskell, your arranger, had done monumental work in his career, especially for Ricky Nelson in the early days. That was an inspirational stroke to bring him in. His touch with strings is impeccable.

Yeah. Once again, when I moved to L.A. I had to get a new arranger. I had heard a couple of things he had done for Steve Barri, who was my boss. I heard some of his charts and hired him. And he became my Bert DeCoteaux on the West Coast. He's a mild-mannered sweetheart of a guy. He would do anything. He was great. We actually later on tried to make an album with him, with guest vocalists and stuff, but it got slaughtered by the record company. That was after I left. He'd tell us all the Rick Nelson stories, and I'd tell him the B.B. King and James Gang stories. And then we'd lie to each other.

Carole King is playing piano on four of the nine cuts. Throughout this record, including the cuts that Leon's on and the one with Paul Harris, it strikes me that you really allowed the piano players to be heard almost as a duet with B.B. They're very up front on these recordings. Which is good because they're all great piano players. Was that the design?

I think it turned out that way because of the caliber of player that I got in all three of those. And the fact that there isn't someone for B to play off of other than the piano player. The rhythm guitar player, maybe, whether it be Hugh McCracken or Joe Walsh, but in some cases there was no other guitar player, and it would be, Who do you play off? You play off a great keyboard player. And also they didn't take the shine off B's thing.

There's a genuine and ongoing dialog between these instruments. It happens on Completely Well with Paul Harris, but it's really pronounced on this one.

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