Outside Counsel

Al Kooper's "Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards: Memoirs of a Rock 'N' Roll Survivor" assumes that we're more interested in Al Kooper than perhaps we really are. Kooper is at pains throughout the book to point out that many rock histories are written without talking to people who were in the room, and that many inaccuracies are perpetrated as a result. Fair enough, and certainly Kooper was in a lot of interesting rooms. He's got a lot of good stories, but I get the feeling that he still isn't telling us everything he knows. In the early going it really is more of a history-- he goes into elaborate detail about the difference between the Brill Building and 1650 Broadway (the latter is where early 60's rock was written he tells us), and this is interesting and important to know. He is good on the business of selling songs in that period-- again, inside stuff that a lot of bios ignore. Once he gets rolling, though, Al Kooper looms larger in the narrative than Al Kooper ever did in rock'n'roll, and this distortion, perhaps inevitable in a first person narrative, has a sort of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" effect on the story.

The history of sixties and seventies rock that we get from Kooper more or less starts with "This Diamond Ring" (he didn't like the version Gary Lewis and the Playboys did, and later recorded it himself); his time with Dylan; The Blues Project; Blood, Sweat and Tears; "Super Session"; Mike Bloomfield; session work with the Rolling Stones on "Beggers Banquet" (that's Al on the French horn into to "You Can't Always Get What you Want"); Lynyrd Skynyrd; and The Tubes. There's a lot more, and just that list covers quite a bit of ground, but he spends nearly as much time discussing his various solo albums (quick-- name one) as he does on any of the other projects. I like "Child is Father to the Man" as much as almost anyone, I daresay, but as interesting and charming as it is, it is nowhere near as interesting or important as Dylan or the Stones. The book is a weird view of the period as a result of the fact that he insists on writing as much about "I Stand Alone" as he does, very nearly, about "Blond on Blond".

It would be more interesting, for example, to read more about the business machinations surrounding his departure from The Blues Project and Blood Sweat and Tears. The latter was formed, he tells us, with the explicit understanding that it was his band. How'd they fire him from his own band? (The "why" he shares with us-- they wanted a stronger singer.) Just about the only person in the book that he slams is Steve Katz, who worked with him on both of those ventures-- he is pissed off at Steve Katz, who most of the rest of us will have to look up. (It is important to Al that we understand that The Blues Project, which produced a couple of likable enough sides, and which I haven't thought about in at least 20 years, did not break up because he wanted the band to play "This Diamond Ring". Just so you know, that wasn't it at all.)

He spends some time on the deal the label had with Skynyrd, but doesn't mention the terms of his buyout-- long-time "Outside Counsel" readers already know more than he tells us, although the background is interesting.

Kooper gets to write a memoir because he played the organ part on "Like A Rolling Stone". None of the rest of it-- writing "This Diamond Ring", "Super Session" discovering and producing Lynyrd Skynyrd-- gets you a book deal, but Al makes the most of it. More Dylan stories would go a long way-- Kooper worked with him in the "Highway 61"/"Blond on Blond" period, and was on stage at Newport. The stuff he writes about this is fascinating, even though it is more about being Al Kooper playing in Dylan's band than it is about what Dylan is like. Kooper was also on the "Shot of Love" tour, and worked on the 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration show. More stuff about these things would be illuminating. ("Shot of Love" was where a lot of people got off the Dylan bus. All we really learn about this time was that Bob didn't go to soundchecks, and that it was Al's idea to play some older numbers to keep the audiences happy.) He seems to have feuded with Dylan, or fallen out for some reason, but he doesn't discuss it, and as a result we are deprived of whatever insight he might have about an artist that he has worked with for years-- maybe longer than anyone else, when you think about it. In the end the most illuminating thing we learn about Dylan is contained in a remark he makes about a television producer: "Michael Mann reminded me of Bob Dylan. They were both masters of intimidation, but both were sweethearts underneath it all. I decided to play a hunch and act toward Michael the same way I did toward Bob-- as an equal who did not feel intimidated by him."

He's careful to give credit to just about everyone, and he is interesting when he gets going on music production. He doesn't spare himself, and deserves props for that. The section on kicking Percodan, while hardly as harrowing as a page of Art Pepper's book, is honest, and he takes the responsibility for the failure of his first three marriages without being dramatic about it. The section on his draft physical is worthy stuff, and one of the few passages in the book that looks outside of the music biz to talk about life in that period. Probably the most valuable thing about the book, though, is the insight it provides into what a tough way of life working in the music biz really is. Kooper has made a lot of money for a lot of people over the years, but he himself has really had to scuffle at times notwithstanding his skills and his reputation. He seems like a nice guy-- a nice Jewish kid from Queens. And the photographs are terrific.