Al Kooper talks about the recording of Bob Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone
Kooper's most notable playing with Dylan is the striking organ parts on "Like a Rolling Stone". Kooper had been invited to the session as an observer, and hoped to be allowed to sit in on guitar, his primary instrument. After hearing a guitar player who turned out to be Mike Bloomfield warming up, and recognizing that Bloomfield was a much better player, Kooper put his guitar aside and went to the control room. During the recording of Like a Rolling Stone, Paul Griffin moved from organ to piano. Kooper told producer Tom Wilson that he had a good organ part for the song (which he later noted that it was just a ruse to get into the session), and Wilson responded "You're not an organ player, you're a guitar player", but Kooper insisted that he play. Before Wilson could explicitly reject Kooper, he got a phone call. Kooper went and sat down at the organ, though he had rarely played organ before the session. Wilson soon returned, surprised to find Kooper in the studio. You can hear the organ coming in just behind the other members of the band at many places in the song, to make sure he was getting the chords right. During recording, Dylan famously said, "Turn the organ up," and a classic rock organ part was born. The organ was the soon to be iconic Hammond B3, and Kooper later revealed that because it is a somewhat complicated instrument to turn on (hold one switch for a count, then flip the other switch)-- had it not already been done by someone else at the studio -- he probably wouldn't have figured it out on his own, and would never have manuevered his way in to the role as organist on these sessions.
text via youtube.
Hear the final version and also see the related links from the 1st link of the LP recording sessions and all the different takes, time signatures etc....(Highway 61 Sessions LP)
6/17/09
Turn The Organ Up!
Al Kooper talks about the recording of Bob Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone
Kooper's most notable playing with Dylan is the striking organ parts on "Like a Rolling Stone". Kooper had been invited to the session as an observer, and hoped to be allowed to sit in on guitar, his primary instrument. After hearing a guitar player who turned out to be Mike Bloomfield warming up, and recognizing that Bloomfield was a much better player, Kooper put his guitar aside and went to the control room. During the recording of Like a Rolling Stone, Paul Griffin moved from organ to piano. Kooper told producer Tom Wilson that he had a good organ part for the song (which he later noted that it was just a ruse to get into the session), and Wilson responded "You're not an organ player, you're a guitar player", but Kooper insisted that he play. Before Wilson could explicitly reject Kooper, he got a phone call. Kooper went and sat down at the organ, though he had rarely played organ before the session. Wilson soon returned, surprised to find Kooper in the studio. You can hear the organ coming in just behind the other members of the band at many places in the song, to make sure he was getting the chords right. During recording, Dylan famously said, "Turn the organ up," and a classic rock organ part was born. The organ was the soon to be iconic Hammond B3, and Kooper later revealed that because it is a somewhat complicated instrument to turn on (hold one switch for a count, then flip the other switch)-- had it not already been done by someone else at the studio -- he probably wouldn't have figured it out on his own, and would never have manuevered his way in to the role as organist on these sessions.
text via youtube.
Hear the final version and also see the related links from the 1st link of the LP recording sessions and all the different takes, time signatures etc....(Highway 61 Sessions LP)
