AL KOOPER
Rare & Well Done: The Greatest & Most Obscure Recordings 1964-2001
Columbia Legacy
C2K 62153


Al Kooper is an artist Ive always been aware of. but somehow never heard this keyboardists music until now, save the first Blood Sweat & Tears album. Even that disc, people mistake for the second one which was chock full of radio hits such as Spinning Wheel and covers of Laura Nyros And When I Die and Save The Country. There are lots of tracks here, two filled discs, one mostly unreleased material. Im going to cover a lot of individual tracks because if youre a fan, youve probably automatically bought this anyway, but young folks and other geezers like me will get much pleasure from this well-documented digipak. Ill refer to Koopers own track by track notes when pertinent.

The disc labelled Well Done (the other, of course, is Rare) opens with a rousing original blues from 1994, I Can't Keep From Cryin' which sets the tone for the whole well-sequenced disc. This set flows well, bringing it back to your player continuously. Next comes one of the strongest tracks from Child Is Father To The Man, that first BS&T album from 1967, which I highly recommend, in a Legacy reissue with superb sound and extra tracks. Koopers vocals here are stirringly emotional and ur-rock, appropriate strained without being unbelievably histrionic. I feel like making a tape placing this next to Led Zeps Since Ive Been Loving You. Valerie Simpson and Melba Moore do the background honors

This Kooper Kollection has tons of surprises for me. I hadnt known that Gary Lewis and the Playboys 60s hit This Diamond Ring, their claim to fame, was penned by Kooper. This 1976 version was recorded in Floridas TK Studio, famous for their southern disco and soul hits such as Anita Wards Ring My Bell and K.C. and The Sunshine Band. Its done here as a soul-stirrer, with Stax-like momentum. Kooper writes, I get a lot of crap about having co-written this, but here is the way it was originally conceived as a song for The Drifters. I think it's a good song. I'm just not crazy about the Gary Lewis version. This was recorded down in Florida at TK Studios when Howie Casey [K.C.] was the gofer.

Albert's Shuffle is from the legendary jam album Super Session, which I didnt care for then and dont now, but of course this instrumental white blues had to be represented in this collection. Kooper writes, Definitive Mike Bloomfield here. Lotsa today's guitar hotshots ate this for breakfast when they was in short pants. Maybe, but there are a lot of twiddling guitarists out there now too.

Bury My Body makes up for the previous track with a gospel blues which finds Kooper doing the piano service and impressing again with his ability to blend easily with black gospel and blues musicians, without resorting to black vocal mannerisms nor sounding out of place. Its a super nine-minute cut. The great Shuggie Otis, fifteen years old here, is featured on guitar. This one of from the Kooper Session album with followed the Super session. Id like to hear more from it.

Donovans Season Of the Witch get an 11:05 workout, with good organ work from Kooper and guitar from Steve Stills, yet it treads water compared to Donovans original and to Terry Reids cover (plea to Legacy: even though I have the BGO reissues from the UK, please do a remastered edition of the complete Mickey Most sessions of Terry Reid.) I wasnt surprised to read this track from the Super Session album.

I could easily live without the misogynist and faux-love for New York in New York City You're A Woman, with its cheap metaphor youre a bitch, cold-hearted woman, etc. Its a waste of a the fine Trident Studios session players so well-known from Uncle Eltons first few discs. He says its autiobiographical. Poor thing. (This is written the day after the Twin Towers disaster, though Ive felt this way since I got the disc.)

A fine performance of Child Is Father To The Mans I Can't Quit Her recorded at The Bottom Line is strong in its own right and all fans will want to have it. I Stand Alone is an effective gospel-tinged plea recorded in Nashville, 1968. Flute Thing, with Andy Kulberg on flute, is a slight, pleasant 60s jazzrock fusion piece with a generic drum solo. Its probably here because it was sampled byThe Beastie Boys and MC Serch. The promo literature points out that many of Koopers tracks have been sampled.

You Never Know Who Your Friends Are is a 1968 jug-and-dixieland song complete with Beach Boy style harmonies featuring Lou Christie, theremin and arranged by Kooper with Charles Calello. The combo of French horn and theremin is a hoot when you first hear it, but also a delight. Ray Charles I Got A Woman from 1970 finds Kooper introing with a wonderful piano solo which suggested had he chosen he could have been fine jazz player. The vocals are okay, but the slow rhythm of this is mighty effective and makes the piece special.

Brand New Day is a 1970 times-of-turmoil song with lots of enjoyable overproductiona la Laura Nyros work at the same time. There is a moving version of this by The Staple Singers on Stax. The final piece is Love Theme with its notable lyric: While he makes you a woman he becomes a man. If you say so.

I prefer my steak as well as this disc Rare. (Apologies to our vegetarian readers.) Rare begins with two famous numbers from Child Is Father To The Man. A new version of I Can't Quit Her recorded for this release has some amazing falsetto tightrope singing which teeters at times but is always moving. Kooper without blinking claims its included here to tempt the D'Angelo and R Kelly crowd. A mono publishing demo of Somethin' Goin' On from 1964 has a heavy organ with a light touch, and when Kooper writes that it is heavily influenced by James Brown At The Apollo, you must know that JB is rightfully known for his ballads despite that the majority of the yup and post-yup set know him only for Outta Sight.

Autumn Song is arranged like, and has lyrics which could easily be, a late Beach Boys track sung as if Kramer did the vocal. He found a track with a ref vocal and redid it for this set. This is a major treat. I Can't Stand The Rain, the famous Ann Peebles soul track, gets a fantastic cover that also sounds like the Beach Boys, but slurred like Leon Russell with yawps like David Thomas, with Stax type horns. This is fantastic.

Baby Please Don't Go by Big Joe Williams continues the mood and was recorded live Koopers whispered, caressed, almost cocooned singing, offering gospel-blues based chord riffs and rumbles reminiscent of Laura Nyros piano work on Beads of Sweat. Flute, wah-wah and organ add to the spirit without making it sound dated. Another long and tasty track.

I Let Love Slip Through My Fingers also finds his voice slipping in a generic blues. His liners ref Clapton and Harrison and indeed he imitates some All Things Must Pass guitar licks. A big nothing.

The title of The Earthquake Of Your Love predicts poorly for dreadful lyric in a generic rock song, and though that is indeed the case, I admit a fondness for the winking line the earth opened wide and I fell inside... It sounds like a bad Neil Young song, but for Neil, I do like even his bad songs. Bulgarya purports to be a trad Bulgarian song in the style of Jeff Beck, but this 1993 track just sounds like near-prog instrumental splooge. Nuthin' I Wouldn't Do (For A Woman Like You) features excellent harmonica work by a Jellyroll Johnson, but is otherwise generic.

New York's My Home (Razz-A-Ma-Tazz) aka The Street Song is a 1965 single that should have landed on some kind of Nuggets compilation, but with a definite New Yorky studio sound, thanks to the arrangement by by Artie Butler, which features eerie strings, and a repeating figure stolen for a track from CIFTTM which escapes me at the moment.

XTCs already quirky Making Plans For Nigel receives a delightfully quirky cover with pizzicato rhythm and bizarre (Harpers Bizarre) arrangements; another major surprise treat. Kopper describes it as English Music Hall in The 1900's. I think you can actually can-can to it.

I learned Ray Charles I Believe To My Soul via Van Morrisons classic live Too Late To Stop Now. This has Rae-lettes type background vocals courtesy of cream of the 60s/70s soul singers Rita Coolidge, Clydie King, Dorothy Morrison, Donna Weiss, Venetta Fields and Claudia Lennear, featured typical Kooper piano, and is another strong one. A cover of Dylans Went To See The Gypsy does no more for me that anyone elses. Koopers own Rachmaninoff's Birthday is a The Band imitation, written for a Elvis Costellos birthday, though the lyric is not as clever as either tributee, but for curiousity lovers like me, this satisfies my quirk quotient. A 1969 cover of 1969s Hey Jude clocks in at a mere 5:11, and is basically a big band exercise arranged by Charles Calello and Kooper, featuring, our jazz audience will want to know, Chuck Rainey, Jimmy Knepper, Sol Schlinger, Bill Watrous and Dick Hyman. The horns do some nice solos.

Living In My Own Religion uses a gospel chorus to explain his background and his being bathed in [the] glory of the Swan Silvertones (perhaps my favorite trad gospel group) and God, but lack of organized religion. The explication is too wordy is more a treatise than a lyric, but in a compilation like this it takes on both musicological and personal significance. The background vocals by Etta Britt, John Cowan, and Bill Llloyd are marvelous.

The Big Chase is an unused cue from the Crime Story TV series and as such is interesting; actually it is a good piece of writing, but unfortunately for me, spoiled by the use of Fairlight sequencers. They Just Dont Make 'Em Like That Anymore is a reggae-rhythmic memorial to Mike Bloomfield, but otherwise not interesting. Rare concludes with A Drive Through The Old Neighborhood, a sentimental tune that emotionally is a fitting ending, though the song itself is slight at best.

Despite the caveats, each disc is chock full, nearly eighty minutes each, of rich material and a worthy purchase for newbies like me, and a must have for fans.


-- Steven H. Koenig


Track Listing Rare: 1. I Can't Quit Her (home demo); 2. Somethin' Goin' On (demo); 3. Autumn Song; 4. I Can't Stand The Rain; 5. Baby Please Don't Go (live); 6. I Let Love Slip Through My Fingers; 7. The Earthquake Of Your Love 1979 ; 8. Bulgarya; 9. Nuthin' I Wouldn't Do (For A Woman Like You); 10. New York's My Home (Razz-A-Ma-Tazz) aka The Street Song (single version); 11. Making Plans For Nigel; 12. I Believe To My Soul; 13. Went To See The Gypsy; 14. Rachmaninoff's Birthday; 15. Hey Jude (rehearsal tape); 16. Living In My Own Religion; 17. The Big Chase; 18. They Just Don't Make 'Em Like That Anymore; 19. A Drive Through The Old Neighborhood

Track Listing Well Done: 1. I Can't Keep From Cryin' Sometimes (live w/ The Blues Project); 2. I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know (w/ Blood, Sweat & Tears); 3. This Diamond Ring; 4. Albert's Shuffle; 5. Bury My Body; 6. Season Of The Witch; 7. New York City (You're A Woman); 8. I Can't Quit Her (live w/ Child Is Father To The Man); 9. I Stand Alone ; 10. The Flute Thing (w/ The Blues Project); 11. You Never Know Who Your Friends Are; 12. I Got A Woman; 13. Brand New Day; 14. Love Theme (from the United Artists film The Landlord)