Al Kooper: Always A Bridesmaid?

Backstage Passes: Rock 'n' Roll Life in the Sixties by Al Kooper with Ben Edmonds ; (Stein and Day) _*

by John Morthland

For A1 Kooper, the Sixties began in 1959, with him scrambling around the edges of the Brill Building scene, one of many schoolkids looking for an opening, any opening; they ended in 1969, with him playing out the temporary fame he'd won as a solo artist from his Super Session concepts. In between came a brief flinqas a folkie; sideman work with Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones; the Blues Project; Blood Sweat and Tears; numerous production credits; and the transition from stereotypical middle class Queens existence to the life of the well-off bohemian. Always at his best as a sideman and at his worst as a leader or solo artist, Kooper was right in the thick of the Sixties musically, and his journeyman role gives him a perspective missing from previous pop books.