Thu 27 Aug 2009
Hear Al Kooper talk about his amazing life as well as his amazing record White Chocolate.
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Whether you know the name Al Kooper or not you’ve heard his handy work. Al wrote “This Diamond Ring,” which was a huge hit for Gary Lewis & the Playboys. He played keyboards on Bob Dylan’s 1965 record Highway 61 Revisited and the 1966 Blonde on Blonde. Because his keyboard playing was so special on “Like A Rolling Stone” everybody wanted him to play on their records. When Al didn’t want a job he would just say it would be triple scale and they’d still hire him. The funny thing is the keyboard was not the instrument he had been playing at the time, it was the guitar. So with all these keyboard jobs coming in he decided he needed to work on his keyboard playing, so he joined the Blues Project as their full time keyboard player. After three popular records he left that band to start a new band of his own. In the mean time he worked on organizing the Monterey International Pop Festival as well as getting to perform there and meet some interesting artist like Jimi Hendrix whom he became a good friend with. The new band Al Kooper put together was like no other band that was out there at the time it was Blood, Sweat, and Tears. He only stayed for one record, Child Is Father to the Man, but hey, there is only one direction to go after a masterpiece like that. He took an A&R job at Columbia Records where he made a record with Mike Bloomfield & Stephen Stills called Super Session. Al and Mike had been good friends’ since the first time they met at the Bob Dylan Session for “Like A Rolling Stone”. This became the best selling record of Mike’s career. Later they put out a live record called The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper. Then Al started a solo career with the record I Stand Alone. He was asked to record with the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, and George Harrison. Oh, did I mention he discovered Lynyrd Skynyrd and produced their first three albums. I could go on and on, but why do this when you could buy Al Kooper’s autobiography and get the whole story right from Al? The autobiography is called Backstage Passes & Backstabbing Bastards. The book goes into far more detail than I’ve been able to. Al has a great way of telling a story that builds interest and throws in funny little comments too. Be sure you buy this from his website because it’s the newest most up to date version (2008), plus Al will autograph the book.
The real reason we’re here today is because Al Kooper has a new follow up to his record Black Coffee it’s called White Chocolate. When someone has made as many monumental records as Al has, it’s got to be hard for him to keep making better ones. Never the less White Chocolate is full of excellent songs written by Al (and a few covers) with great performances. This record came together in about six months but some of the songs were written many years ago. “Cast the First Stone” had been written about the Nixon administration. Al said after seeing how the Bush administration had run things he felt this song was reverent again. A good funky song is the Booker T. Jones song “I Love You More Than Words Can Say”. Al plays all the instruments on the beautiful song “Calling Card”. Al also said he had demos of all the songs he was going to record with himself playing all the instruments. He sent the demos all band members so they could learn the songs. This shows how into the music he really is. Not only can he write these wonderful songs but he already knows how all the parts should sound, work together, and can play them himself. There is also an interesting version of “It Takes a Lot to Laugh (It Takes a Train to Cry),” a cover that he originally played keyboards for on Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited LP. Three years later Al and Mike Bloomfield recorded it on the Super Session LP. This version has some nice horns and a saxophone backing the song. We’ve come a long way from Bob’s harmonica playing. Al is a big fan of song writers Goffin & King so on this record he got to write two songs with Gerry Goffin. “You Make Me Feel So Good” and the lovely “No 1 2 Call Me Baby” Al does a really nice job with some heartfelt vocals. He even does a great job on “I (Who Have Nothing)” Al shows on White Chocolate he still can make great music weather the mainstream radio cares to play it or not. If you like the songs in this show please go by Al Kooper’s Website and buy the CD.
Don’t forget to pick up his autobiography Backstage Passes & Backstabbing Bastards it just may be the most enjoyable book you read this summer. Al will even autograph the book and CD for you.
Songs heard in the show:
I Cried So Hard
(I Don’t Know When But) I Know That I’ll Be There Soon
Love Time
You Never Know Til You Get There
Staxability
Buy the CD & autobiography at Al Kooper’s Website
Buy Al Kooper Cd’s from Amazon.Com
There is a Al Kooper MySpace but it is not Al’s
Thanks to Al Kooper for taking time out of his busy day to talk with me.
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