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2 Issues
4 Reviews
Don't feel badly about listening and then letting it drift away ...
Sitting here on the album jacket of this collection we find Al Kooper doing his best shirtless leather pants impression of Jim Morrison, though there the similarities end. As a founding member of blues and jazz laced 60’s bands such as The Blues Project and Blood Sweat & Tears, along with his sensational work with Bob Dylan, as Dylan electrified the world, Kooper was also responsible for the classic chart topping AM radio hit “This Diamond Ring” sung by Gary Lewis & The Playboys back in 1965 … though what most people don’t know, is that he was also a member of The Royal Teens in the early 60’s, who had a silly novelty song called “Short Shorts.” Yet still there’s more, there’s the amazing Super Session that he laid down one hot summer night with Stephen Stills and Mike Bloomfield, perhaps his crowing achievement, and a vinyl record that should be in everyone’s collection.With so many artists searching under their beds for lost material and outtakes that have been gathering dust for so many generations, it becomes difficult to know just what’s good and what’s bad, though without a doubt, all of that material, including this, is for the collector only, those who want to tie up the loose ends, and dive headlong into chapters that have to date remained unfinished or in complete. That being said, there’s a reason these songs are titled The Greatest and Rarest of Al Kooper, and that’s to draw you in, because his actual greatest songs were committed to vinyl a lifetime ago, with this material being but curiosity when it comes to the legacy of Al Kooper.
Of course there are those who in an attempt to hype and sell the collection will suggest that the material found here is a springboard into the musical times of Al Kooper, using phrases such as ”An indispensable look back at one of rock music’s most prolific artists …” where you instantly zone in on the word ‘indispensable’, when what you should doing is absorbing the entire phrase. Yes, there certainly is some great material found here on this two disc set, Rare and Well Done, yet for the most part it comes across as incomplete and unpolished. That being said, there are staggering highlights, consider his instrumental version of The Beatles’ “Hey Jude”, or check out “Went to See the Gypsy,” and outtake form Bob Dylan’s New Morning album, or the aforementioned “This Diamond Ring,” where Kooper shows Gary Lewis how it’s supposed to have been done. With that in mind, it gets me to wondering why material such as “Albert’s Shuffle,” was included, we already had that delivered back in 1968, or “Flute Thing,” “Season of the Witch” or several others that seemed designed to occupy nothing but space; yet even with all of that in mind, the Well Done disc is very good to say the least.
For all the praise and adulation, the discs clock in at around 37 minutes each, and are selling on the secondary market for about $6 US, so that should certainly tell you something, with that ‘something’ being that this is a fine archival outing to listen to once, perhaps snag a tune of two for you music library, and then to be shelved or resold, as it is what it is, and no more.
Al Kooper is one of those artists where you can walk through his catalog, select the songs you dig from all of his incarnations and create your own timeline of favored tracks, which I promise you, will be much more rewarding over time than this collection. Now, if you’re asking me if if I’m pleased to have heard this adventure, the answer would be, ”Of course I am. Yet in the same breath, I don’t feel the need to commit it to my collection.” So while I’m rating this package well, I’ve not kept it.
Published
C2K 62153 CD (2001)
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3/4 of the first CD ("Rare") is almost unbearable. If you already own the "Well Done"-Tracks you better skip this issue.
Published
I am a bit disappointed by this issue.
All the classic tracks including Blues Project, BS&T etc are already available easily elsewhere. The rarities are many old re-reocorded songs that Al Kooper pretended to "update". If updating means, adding some digital sounds just to get a "modern" sound, therefore I prefer listening to the old version in spite of sounding a bit dated.
One the most obvious example is "A Drive Through the Old Neighborhood", closing the first CD which is sung with a lounge voice and a digital background when the song has been recorded in 1970.
Fortunately the "Well-done" CD is way better and offer us a batch of good old Al Kooper songs, as a single artist or with Blues Project and BS&T.
One of the reason why I bought this CD is because my nephew, a rap freak wanted to know the original Al Kooper version of the 2001 Jay-Z sample of "Love Theme".
This double-set doesn't sound too bad but all this re-worked stuff doesn't fit me.
For Al Kooper freaks mainly.
All the classic tracks including Blues Project, BS&T etc are already available easily elsewhere. The rarities are many old re-reocorded songs that Al Kooper pretended to "update". If updating means, adding some digital sounds just to get a "modern" sound, therefore I prefer listening to the old version in spite of sounding a bit dated.
One the most obvious example is "A Drive Through the Old Neighborhood", closing the first CD which is sung with a lounge voice and a digital background when the song has been recorded in 1970.
Fortunately the "Well-done" CD is way better and offer us a batch of good old Al Kooper songs, as a single artist or with Blues Project and BS&T.
One of the reason why I bought this CD is because my nephew, a rap freak wanted to know the original Al Kooper version of the 2001 Jay-Z sample of "Love Theme".
This double-set doesn't sound too bad but all this re-worked stuff doesn't fit me.
For Al Kooper freaks mainly.
Published
Great look at his career with two CD's worth of music.
1 CD is the _Well Done_ portion that features songs he has done over the years with numerous artists (or should I say, other artists have done with him?).
Artist include Blood Sweat and Tears song "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know", Al and Mike Bloomfield on "Albert's Shuffle", Steve Stills and Al on "Season Of The Witch", The Blues Projects "Flute Thing" and ten more songs.
The other CD is the _Rare_ portion. 19 songs of Demo's, alternate recordings, live stuff, etc.
Included is a Big Band version of "Hey Jude" recorded in 1969.
Some absolutely great stuff on both CD's.
For those of you not familiar with Al, he has numerous credits to his name in rock-n-roll history.
Played on the Rolling Stones "You Can't Always Get What You Want", played the organ on Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone" and played on _Highway 61 Revisited_ and _Blonde On Blonde_, formed Blues Projects and Blood, Sweat and Tears(which thankfully he left after just one album and before David Clayton Thomas's arrival), discovered and produced Lynyrd Skynyrd's first three albums, his supersession album with Steven Stills and Michael Bloomfield is legendary.
It amazes me this man isn't more of a household name to fans in the world of rock-n-roll
1 CD is the _Well Done_ portion that features songs he has done over the years with numerous artists (or should I say, other artists have done with him?).
Artist include Blood Sweat and Tears song "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know", Al and Mike Bloomfield on "Albert's Shuffle", Steve Stills and Al on "Season Of The Witch", The Blues Projects "Flute Thing" and ten more songs.
The other CD is the _Rare_ portion. 19 songs of Demo's, alternate recordings, live stuff, etc.
Included is a Big Band version of "Hey Jude" recorded in 1969.
Some absolutely great stuff on both CD's.
For those of you not familiar with Al, he has numerous credits to his name in rock-n-roll history.
Played on the Rolling Stones "You Can't Always Get What You Want", played the organ on Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone" and played on _Highway 61 Revisited_ and _Blonde On Blonde_, formed Blues Projects and Blood, Sweat and Tears(which thankfully he left after just one album and before David Clayton Thomas's arrival), discovered and produced Lynyrd Skynyrd's first three albums, his supersession album with Steven Stills and Michael Bloomfield is legendary.
It amazes me this man isn't more of a household name to fans in the world of rock-n-roll
Published
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Catalog
6 Mar 2023
26 Jan 2021
27 Mar 2018
7 Dec 2017
4 Sep 2017
15 Dec 2015
11 Nov 2015
23 Jul 2015
17 May 2015
16 Feb 2015
19 Sep 2014
21 Apr 2014
28 Aug 2013
6 Mar 2013
17 Feb 2013
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