Not Alice Cooper, you dorks! Al Kooper: played with Bob Dylan, started Blood, Sweat & Tears, produced the first Lynrd Skynrd album, that guy.
Is he any good? As a B3 player, I mean.
What is he doing now?
Stuff like that.
Well, I really enjoyed his stint as the musical director of the Rock Bottom Remainders.
I think Kooper is a really dumb way to spell Cooper. Other than that, I got nuttin’.
Nah. He keeps playing the B7 or B14 and never gets Bingo.
Kooper was one of the most overlooked artists of the 60s. As a musician, he was first-rate (listen to his Super Session and other albums of that type) and he seemed to be a good judge of other talent and a top producer.
For what he’s doing today (still performing, of course) see http://www.alkooper.com
“Easy Does It” is one of my favorite albums; lots of good music for the open highway. His book Backstage Passes & Backstabbing Bastards has some great stories in it.
Since I saw his report in “No Direction Home” (and also heard it on Fresh Air) about how he came to play organ on Like a Rolling Stone he’s been my man. That took true balls.
big Kooper fan here. “Sad, Sad Sunshine” is on my turntable (YES!) now. On BST his singing is painful (in a good way).
Another huge fan of Al Kooper here.
In addition to his work with Blues Project, Blood Sweat and Tears, the Zombies, Lynrd Skynrd, not to mention “Super Session” and “The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper” (two absolutely essential albums), Kooper addest zest to one of my favorite television shows of all time: *** Crime Story*** (1986-1988).
Set in Chicago in 1964, Crime Story was a police drama produced by Michael Mann. Kooper was chosen as musical director, and the songs he picked for the show were spot-on every time! In addition, he had the brilliant idea of using Del Shannon’s “Runaway” as the theme for the show, but rearranging it a bit (substituting sax for Clavioline organ during the instrumental bridge) and rewriting the chorus (“watching all the trains go by/some live and others die” for “wishing you were here by me/to end my misery”) and then getting Shannon himself to perform it. All in all, a kick-ass job of reworking one of rock’s standards.
In typical quirky Kooper fashion, he was credited as “Guy who picks music for the show.”
Kooper is an absolute icon of pop music, and as RealityChuck notes, far too overlooked.
Hokey smoke, I totally forgot the Blues Project! We used to play Electric Flute Thing, too. Thanks!
All I know about him is that the album cover for Act Like Nothing’s Wrong is really weird. Yeah, and… uh… boy, that really is a weird way to spell Cooper.
I found this CD in a remainders bin at one of the mega mall stores in 1998 or so. I’ve turned more people on to this album than anything else I’ve ever owned.
Now I’m going to have Season of the Witch stuck in my head…
I saw him in the early 90’s after I auditioned for a band. We all went downstairs to Downtime (a hole in the wall club) to have a beer and there he was onstage with a small band. It was a weekend early evening so everybody was pretty mellow. Nice time.