Thursday, February 19, 2009

Hear's Al

Hey, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where's AL!

I'm at a loss as to why Al Kooper is not an inductee to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame!
Consider the following about AL:
Al Kooper joined The Royal Teens, who had a Top 5 hit with the tune "Short Shorts" in 1958 and a Top 30 hit a year later with "Believe Me."
He apprenticed as an audio engineer and a songwriter teaming with Bob Brass and Irwin Levine to write, "This Diamond Ring,” performed by Gary Lewis and the Playboys.
Al plays the signature organ riff on Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone" 1965.
Joined the Blues Project, 1965 -67.
Al Kooper started Blood Sweat & Tears. Kooper left Blood Sweat and Tears in 1968 after just one album, CHILD IS FATHER TO THE MAN.
Began recording albums; first with Mike Bloomfield (and Steven Stills),
SUPER SESSIONS, 1968 and again with Bloomfield on Live Adventures,1969.
Solo debut, I STAND ALONE, 1968.

He also found time to contribute as a player on:
1966 PARSLEY SAGE ROSEMARY & THYME- Simon & Garfunkel
1966 BLONDE ON BLONDE - Bob Dylan,again on Organ
1967 WHO SELL OUT - The Who
1968 ELECTRIC LADYLAND Jimi Hendrix
1968 WOW!/GRAPE JAM Moby Grape
1968 IN MY OWN DREAM Butterfield Blues Band
1969 NATCH’L BLUES Taj Mahal
1969 SWEET LINDA DEVINE - produced and played
1969 LIVE AND WELL BB King
1969 LET IT BLEED Rolling Stones, playing the organ on "You Can't Always Get What You Want."
1970 SELF PORTRAIT Bob Dylan
1970 NEW MORNING Bob Dylan
1971 Produced and played on "Appaloosa" album, Compton and Batteau's masterpiece
1972 Kooper moved to Atlanta, signed and produced Lynyrd Skynyrd.
1979 He moved to England and produced David Essex.
Also, performed with the remaining Beatles, George Harrison, Paul McCartney,and Ringo Starr on the No. 1 single "All Those Years Ago."
1980 Moved to Austin and produced "Texas Tornado" with country rocker Joe Ely.
1986 He took the job of West Coast Director of A&R for PolyGram Records, Michael Mann hired Kooper to score his Crime Story TV series. He wrote the original music and chose source music for each episode Al also produced some of the soundtrack for John Waters film "Cry Baby".
1991 Palyed keyboards & guitar in Joe Walsh's Ordinary Average Guy tour.
1991 Musical director chores for Ray Charles 50th Anniversary TV special.
1997 Taught at the Berkley School Of Music.
2001 His teaching cut short in when a an illness permanently robbed him of two-thirds of his sight.
The Rolling Stone Magazine's "500 Greatest Recordings of All Time" includes 12 albums with his participation.
So, why no Al? Beats me.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm with you. Kooper belongs in the Hall. He also co-wrote "I must be Seeing Things" for Gene Pitney, top fourty here and top ten in UK. He also championed The Zombies "Odyssey and Oracle" album here in USA culminating in "Time of the Season" becoming huge hit after the Zombies had broken up.