Kathleen Loves Music

[No, this is not about the group who did “Spinning Wheel.”]

Unless you’re a 50-something muso there’s no way, or no reason really, to explain how much a difference Al Kooper made to us. He’s dined out way too long on the story about being an songwriter/amateur organist/hustler who convinced Dylan to let him play on Like A Rolling Stone, but something about his hustle, his fandom, and the limited talent he had made a generation of musicians believe they had a chance to go all the way. The fact he started to believe he was the prime talent on his records, rather than the catalyst, tanked his career and ambitions. (It wasn’t until he got back to producing the first three Lynyrd Skynyrd records that he made it clear what he was good at.)

With his original Blood, Sweat & Tears Kooper was the sparkplug for the marriage of jazz sensibility with post-rock pop. These are three of the tracks I love from their only album (two written by Kooper, one by Harry Nilsson).

–Fred

PS: So how would you have liked to have Norman Rockwell do your portrait for an album?