<![CDATA[Fifty Years Ago Today (Al Kooper's New Music For Old People Website)]]>Tuesday, June 16, 2015

IT WAS FIFTY YEARS AGO TODAY!
On June 16th, 1965 the complete take of "Like A Rolling Stone" was recorded (Take 4) at approximately 3:30 PM in Studio A at Columbia Recording Studios on Seventh Avenue in New York City. Ten more takes were recorded until they realized that #4 was the one. It was the first take to be played all the way through the 6 minute plus lyric.
At it's conclusion, Tom Wilson, the producer, suggested a playback and the picture above shows left to right: Engineer Roy Halee, Producer Tom Wilson, Assistant engineer Pete Duryea (behind Wilson), manager Albert Grossman, publisher Artie Mogul, Bob, photographer Sandy Speiser, assistant Vinnie Fusco (partially blocked) and yours truly smoking a Marlboro.
I was a songwriter at the time and also a studio guitarist. I knew Tom Wilson pretty well and we were good friends. When he found out I was a Dylan fan, he invited me to this session as a guest to watch. I was 21 at the time. A song I had co-written had six months previously been the #1 song in the country (This Diamond Ring by Gary Lewis & The Playboys) for about a month. I also got calls as a studio guitarist to play on recording sessions.
Me and my neighbor from Queens, NY, Harvey Brooks played a lotta Top 40 club dates in various bands as well. We had previously played a place called Carousel Park at The NYC Worlds Fair about a year before six nights a week and made a nice pile of change for those days. Harvey got me that gig and i owed him big.
At the time, I was trying to make it big in the music biz and I was about ten per cent talent and ninety percent ambition. I decided immediately I was gonna get to the Dylan session early with my guitar, plug in, and tell Tom Wilson I had misunderstood his invitation and thought he meant to hire me as a guitarist.
The session was called for 1 PM and so I showed up about noon to pull off my ambitious caper. The other musicians knew me from other sessions and nothing seemed amiss to them. I was warming up when Dylan burst through the door with another guitarist in tow and that guy sat down next to me said hello and plugged in his guitar and started warming up as well. He looked to be about the same age as me and so I was quite surprised and disappointed to hear what an amazing player he was as he warmed up. I immediately took a cigarette break, put my guitar in it's case
and went in the control room where I actually belonged. This happened before Tom Wilson arrived, so he hadn't seen my failed ambitious caper go up in smoke. The guitarist was, of course, Mike Bloomfield from Chicago who I had never heard of or met before. He had just joined The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and their first album was due to be released soon.
An hour into the actual session. they moved organist Paul Griffin over to piano instead. Here was another chance for me. I played keyboards early in my life but switched to guitar when Elvis Presley came along because by then it was hipper to play guitar. But I always still played keyboards i.e. for songwriting, sometimes on sessions, etc.
So I went over to Tom Wilson and said: "Tom, why doncha let me play organ on this ? I gotta great part to play on this!" Actually, I had nothing but that ninety percent ambition. Wilson looked at me and said "You're not an organ player - you're a guitarist!" and then they called him away to take a phone call.
I thought to myself - he didn't actually say NO - and so i walked into the studio and sat down at the organ.
A Hammond B3 organ is very complicated to start up and I didn't yet know how to turn it on. Fortunately, Paul Griffin had left it on.
Tom Wilson hadn't seen me go back in the studio and sit behind the organ. When he finished his phone call he said over the talkback mic - " OkayBob - we got everybody here.
Let's do one and I'll play it back to you and you can pick it apart. (Pause as Tom sees me sitting at the organ) What are you doing out there?(all the other musicians start laughing cause they knew me as a guitarist). Wilson laughs as well. This is where he should have said "Would you get your white ass back in the control room where you belong please ?" But because he was a kind man and also because he would have had to explain what i was doing there, after he laughed he said:) Okay - stand by - This CO86446
Like A Rolling Stone remake Take 1."
And so began my career as an organ player. Three takes later, I did miraculously come up with a part and the first full take of the song was recorded and everyone went back into the booth to listen to all six minutes and thirty five seconds of it. About a minute into the playback, Dylan said to engineer Roy Halee, "Turn the organ up louder" Tom Wilson quickly replied "Bob, that guy is NOT an organ player" Bob said " I don't care - turn the organ up!" thus cementing my career as an organ player.
Another ten takes were taken but they were all much faster than Take 4 and so it was decided to return to Take 4 and use that as the final master.
Nothing else was recorded that day but Bob came over to me and asked me to return the next day and play on the rest of the album. Within a coupla days, I talked Dylan into hiring Harvey Brooks on bass to join us. Years later Miles Davis had Harvey play on hisBitches Brew album. So we were finally even for that great World's Fair gig he had gotten me! Unfortunately and mysteriously, Tom was replaced the next day as producer by Bob Johnston, and never produced another Dylan track.
But he did sooo much more - produced "Sounds Of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel, discovered and prodduced The Mothers Of Invention and The Velvet Underground. And signed and produced The Blues Project with me playing keyboards as a session guy and I was asked to join their band - which I did for three years.
So today I sit here at age 71 and am amazed at what a lucky and bizarre career I have had as well and bless Tom Wilson for inviting me to that Bob Dylan session because he was my friend and thought I would enjoy it.

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]]>https://brownsboard.com/topic/37256/fifty-years-ago-today-al-kooper-s-new-music-for-old-people-websiteRSS for NodeThu, 01 Oct 2026 01:01:12 GMTTue, 16 Jun 2015 10:03:33 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Fifty Years Ago Today (Al Kooper's New Music For Old People Website) on Wed, 17 Jun 2015 11:59:26 GMT]]>This is the source for Kooper's e-Letter.

I cannot find the original email I received. It is legit, however.

http://www.themortonreport.com/features/new-music-for-old-people/

]]>https://brownsboard.com/post/511629https://brownsboard.com/post/511629Wed, 17 Jun 2015 11:59:26 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Fifty Years Ago Today (Al Kooper's New Music For Old People Website) on Wed, 17 Jun 2015 11:21:10 GMT]]>

@cavu said:

Chicopee John,

Please CONFIRM that the article above was written by Al Cooper.

Is this the original location of it being posted or was it pasted from another location? If so, what was that location?

Thanks!

Michael.

Michael - I looked but have already deleted the email I received from Al Kooper's "New Music For Old People" mailing

Also, you might want to subscribe to the E - Letter by using the link on my original post.

You might also want to listen here: http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/06/16/music

I'll continue to look for the same article on-line but I already have one job. I'll do my best.!!

]]>https://brownsboard.com/post/511623https://brownsboard.com/post/511623Wed, 17 Jun 2015 11:21:10 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Fifty Years Ago Today (Al Kooper's New Music For Old People Website) on Tue, 16 Jun 2015 20:04:56 GMT]]>Chicopee John,

Please CONFIRM that the article above was written by Al Cooper.

Is this the original location of it being posted or was it pasted from another location? If so, what was that location?

Thanks!

Michael.

]]>https://brownsboard.com/post/511555https://brownsboard.com/post/511555Tue, 16 Jun 2015 20:04:56 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Fifty Years Ago Today (Al Kooper's New Music For Old People Website) on Tue, 16 Jun 2015 17:50:04 GMT]]>

@tour2ma said:

So Chicopee John = Al Kooper... I did not know that.

Very good read.

I am not Al Kooper, although I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Experss last night!

This is a site he maintains and distributes from. He looks for new music that reminds him of the music back in his prime.

Information is sent out virtually weekly. I don't read each issuel, but I read some. Easy enough to delete them, if not.

I found this story to be particularly interesting, exactly because it talks about- arguably - one of the Top 5 'Rock and Roll' songs of all time.

Dylan = Genius, no doubt about that.

]]>https://brownsboard.com/post/511521https://brownsboard.com/post/511521Tue, 16 Jun 2015 17:50:04 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Fifty Years Ago Today (Al Kooper's New Music For Old People Website) on Tue, 16 Jun 2015 16:11:17 GMT]]>So Chicopee John = Al Kooper... I did not know that.

Very good read.

]]>https://brownsboard.com/post/511503https://brownsboard.com/post/511503Tue, 16 Jun 2015 16:11:17 GMT