Happy 30th Anniversary to B.B. King’s thirty-second studio album There Is Always One More Time, originally released October 1, 1991.
Ubiquitous (juːˈbɪkwɪtəs): present, appearing or found everywhere
There is no musician who exemplifies the notion of being ubiquitous more than B.B. King. Take 1956 for example—though records may be somewhat sketchy, it is believed that Riley B. King (to use his given name) played 342 one-night stands during that year. Coming four years after his breakthrough hit “3 O’clock Blues,” it showed a man hell-bent on building a career and unafraid of the commitment needed to do so.
In addition to his punishing schedule, it is also important to note the scale and importance of some of those dates and how they relate to his place in the world. Watching Questlove’s jaw-dropping documentary Summer of Soul stuffed full of superstars of soul lighting up Mount Morris Park in the summer of 1969, Stevie Wonder, Sly And The Family Stone, David Ruffin and Nina Simone sat cheek by jowl with vocal powerhouses like the Staple Singers and the incomparable Mahalia Jackson. But lurking there, the solitary blues musician on the bill, was Riley B. King.
Or take a look at either Soul Power or When We Were Kings that document the Rumble In The Jungle and the associated musical concert that took place in Zaire to mark that momentous occasion in 1974 and there you’ll see B.B. King again, amidst James Brown and his band, Miriam Makeba and The Crusaders. As well as being testament to that incredible work ethic, these appearances also underline his unique position in Black culture as an artist who transcended the supposed limitations of his genre and brought joy to all who heard him.
His adaptability and willingness to stray slightly from blues convention and include elements of other genres meant that although blues music has waxed and waned in popularity among Black audiences, he remained an integral part of the culture. Another collaboration demonstrates his willingness to work with unexpected musicians, thereby expanding his fan base and influences even further. U2’s Rattle and Hum featured King on the huge “When Love Comes To Town” from 1988. Despite his reticence to play any chords (he is quoted by Bono as simply stating “I don’t do chords”), he dominated the song and picked up countless new fans along the way.
One of the major supports to King’s career was the presence of Sid Seidenberg as his manager. It was his determination to see King showcased to a new generation of white, blues-loving fans turned on to the genre by Cream, John Mayall and the Rolling Stones, that led to the comparative riches of the late 1960s and early 1970s. This was just one of the booms in blues music that King’s career experienced.
The revitalized scene of the early/mid 1980s led by artists like Robert Cray, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Bonnie Raitt found King, once again, able to introduce himself to new fans all over the world, but by 1991, things were less booming. However, as Tony Russell said in The Blues Collection (a magazine to accompany a CD/tape) in 1993, “that didn’t matter . . . he was recognized by millions as B.B. King, the King of The Blues.”
Still working as tirelessly as ever, King released his thirty-second studio album (not inclusive of his many live albums) entitled There Is Always One More Time. As a 15-year-old in thrall to blues music since hearing Robert Cray’s Strong Persuader (1986) through my bedroom wall from my sister’s stereo, this was the first B.B. King album where I was aware of its release and, therefore, it holds cherished musical memories for me.
Of course, being a cash-strapped teenager meant it was a copy of the album on C90 tape thrust furtively into my hand by a fellow lover of the blues at school, rather than a shiny new cassette (sorry B.B.). Putting the cassette into the player and pressing play is imprinted on my memory as sure as if it happened yesterday. And, of course, within literally two seconds, it is clear that it is B.B. and no one else—his unique vibrato picking and his barrel chested, soulful voice are both perfectly intact.
At that point in his career, some 40 years after his first hit record, it was less about innovation and more about the quality of the sublime skills that King possessed and the associated musicians that surrounded him. The key component of this album (besides the legendary B.B. himself) is Joe Sample from The Crusaders, who writes and plays some sparkling piano on the album. Their paths had crossed on the trip to Zaire for the Rumble In The Jungle and they had worked together before on Midnight Believer and Take It Home in 1978 and ’79 before reuniting for There Is Always One More Time in 1991.
The album starts with “I’m Moving On” a mid-tempo number that consolidates his travelling bluesman persona, in lines like, “Might try Vegas / And keep on playing till I win / Or take it out to Hollywood / And fall in love again.” After all, those tour dates aren’t going to play themselves, are they?
Robert Santelli wrote in The Big Book Of Blues that the album “contained a conscious, though uneven, attempt to work his blues into contemporary pop.” But this description misses the entire point of B.B. King. Namely that he was always open to those notions and indeed that was part of what made him so successful and durable. Pure blues (whatever that may be) shifted few units and put even fewer behinds on seats, so his allure has always been in melding a little pop into his arsenal.
“Back In L.A.” swaggers in a way only B.B.’s legendary playing allows, but it also showcases the first flourishes of Sample’s lithe piano playing, while “The Blues Come Over Me” finds King in impassioned voice embracing the itinerant bluesman tradition. “Fool Me Once” though is a foot-to-the-floor stomper with typical bad luck running through it: “Lady swore she loved me / Loved through and through / And then my pal said / She said she loved him too / And the milkman and the postman / And in a dream / I saw her with the local / Football team.” If it wasn’t for bad luck, he wouldn’t have any luck at all.
Elsewhere, there’s the stately “The Lowdown” replete with all kinds of fretboard acrobatics filled with 100% certified guaranteed BB King feeling; the defiant done-wrong lament of “Mean And Evil” and the jaunty, pop-inspired “Something Up My Sleeve.” There’s more piano joy from Joe Sample on the slightly too long for its own good “Roll, Roll, Roll” before the album is brought to its conclusion by the title track.
At almost eight-and-a-half minutes, it is a slow burn of elegiac, heartfelt optimism from King. With a touch of sanctity courtesy of the organ, King’s gusto-filled delivery and the redemption-filled lyrics, it could almost be a gospel song dedicated to the hope that God brings. At its zenith, King’s playing is frenzied, deeply felt and highly impactful—a track that feels like the end, rather than a beginning or a chance to start again.
Of course, this was far from the end for King. He maintained a slightly healthier tour schedule almost right up until his death in May 2015 and released a further eleven albums, but there is a palpable sense of something ending on this album, despite its title—there is always one more time, until finally there isn’t.
LISTEN: