I have had a bean bag in my place of residence ever since I was a teenager. They are very handy to throw somewhere and sit. When you play guitar or want to watch a movie it’s a comfortable place to sit. They are also affordable and can be a good alternative sometimes to chairs.
The only part of owning one I don’t like is the inevitable end when the white small styrofoams like “beans” (expanded polystyrene) start coming out and going everywhere.
I would like to get an original leather bean bag one day.
According to some historians, bean bags were first invented by the ancient Egyptians sometime around 2000 B.C., and for thousands of years, they were used to play games and for other recreational diversions. The first bean bags were small, round and made of leather. They were most likely filled with dried beans or pebbles.
The first bean bag chairs as we know them were developed in the sixties. They were first called a Sacco chair, and released in 1969. They were designed by Cesare Paolini, Piero Gatti, and Franco Teodoro who were commissioned to create the piece by Zanotta Design in Italy.
Bean bags were huge in the 1970s and they were at first usually made of leather and filled with PVC (short for PolyVinyl Chloride) pellets. Soon nylon and polyester were used with expanded polystyrene (EPS) for filler. That combination proved to be more durable.
During the 1980s and 1990s, the popularity of bean bags declined greatly in popularity, but they were still being manufactured by several companies.
Now they are now experiencing a strong resurgence in popularity. You can get a regular bean bag or one pre-formed into a chair or couch. They are being sold for use as pet beds.
I had almost as much fun playing wiffle ball as a kid as I did little league. I was completely into playing baseball with friends or for years in leagues until I was 16. In my front yard, we would play wiffle ball until dark. If only one friend was over that was enough… we could still play. Hit it over the house, a home run…hitting a window, a double, in the creek a triple… etc.
You didn’t have to worry about breaking a window or knocking your buddy out while pitching as fast as you could. You would learn how to grip it and you could make it curve, rise, or sink a ridiculous amount. We would play for hours until night or until the ball was stuck on the roof or in a tree.
In the late 70s and 80s it was a fun alternative to playing baseball when not enough friends were around or you had to play in a neighborhood full of houses with nice big windows.
In 1953, David N. Mullany was watching his 12-year-old son and some friends playing a baseball-like game with a perforated plastic golf ball and a broomstick in their backyard. The boys tried throwing curveballs and sliders but with no success. They couldn’t use a baseball because of the trail of broken windows and upset neighbors.
Mullany, who had been a semipro pitcher himself, knew all too well what thousands of Little Leaguers have had to painfully learn. Nothing shreds a young arm quite as effectively as throwing breaking balls. Mullany set about trying to save the boys’ shoulders and elbows by creating a ball that would curve and bend on its own.
He tried a hard plastic ball that served as packaging for Coty perfume. After having the boys experiment with various designs, Mullany hit on the Wiffle Ball we now know and love.
Mullany’s son and his friends referred to strikeouts as “whiffs.” Since the new invention made knee-buckling curveballs a breeze to throw, pitchers started racking up the strikeouts. Mullany named the product the Wiffle Ball to honor its strikeout-friendly breaks.
When they started to advertise them they would use old photographs of MLB players. The Mullanys later explained in interviews that doing actual photo shoots with the players would have been too pricey, so they just negotiated with players’ agents and then used any old photograph.
The slots on one side make the ball curve and rise. Just like a real baseball…the more scuffs a ball has the more it can curve. They have Wiffle Ball leagues now where players play competitively.
I just finished the audio version of this book. I’m a huge Who fan and I was looking forward to it. It was nice to hear the book narrated by Roger himself. It’s a solid book but I have only one complaint that I will get into below.
The positive about the book is you find out more about the different personalities of the Who and the reason they fought. Pete the artist, John the dark one, Keith the lunatic, and Roger blue-collar man of the band. We all knew those descriptions before but Roger tries to explain how it worked and didn’t work as a band. If you want to know The Who’s impact on rock music and culture go to Pete Townshend. If you want to get straight to the point with just the highlights…Roger is your man.
Roger is grounded, avoided most of the pitfalls in his profession, hard-working, and loves interpreting Pete’s music to the world. He goes into how he changed his singing style with Pete’s writing. How he became Tommy and the mod in Quadrophenia. He hits the highlights of The Who and his life without the Who in the 80s and part of the 90s.
The strongest part of this book is about his childhood and his collection of relatives. Roger seems very approachable, likable, and down to earth. Roger was the one constant in the band that you didn’t have worry about his on tour activities. He does talk about the high points of the Who and his acting career.
My biggest complaint is the book is too short. You get the impression that he didn’t think that anyone would want to hear any details whatsoever. He does give you some good stories but touches a subject and quickly leaves. It’s almost a cliff notes version as he didn’t dwell in any period long.
It is a quick and enjoyable read but leaves you wanting more.
This is will be out of the norm for me and may be boring to some people so you may want to click the back button…but after talking to another blogger I wanted to write it down.
When I was a kid my mom would not let me have any pets in the house. She was a great mom but no pets at all inside. I had outside dogs but none inside. I knew when I got older I wanted a dog in my house…Not just any dog but a great big dog…I guess it was my way of rebelling against those earlier rules.
In 2009 I saw a local ad on the internet for a Saint Bernard puppy. It was the first puppy I ever had in my life. We did have one Saint Bernard before this that we got from a rescue when she was 8 months old. She passed in 2008 after 9 wonderful years.
We named this 6-week old puppy Molly and she was the runt of the litter. We took her home and she would not interact with us in the first two days at all.
On that third day…different story. She took off running through my wife’s flower garden and from then on she was ours and we were hers… She had one bad mishap. After a lengthy rain she wanted to go outside and she ran and while running caught her front right leg in a hole…it stretched her tendons…the vet put a cast on her leg for a month but her leg never looked the same but it didn’t stop her from running the rest of her life.
Molly was THE family dog and was one of us. She gave love but she wanted it also… when she thought she was being ignored… out came that giant paw pretty much making you pet her. She never hurt a living animal except for Bees…which she would catch with her mouth and quickly get them out…She didn’t like toys with squeakers because she thought she was hurting something so I had to take the squeakers out of every toy.
She grew very fast like Saints do and Molly was not a runt anymore. She looked after my son like he was her own. My son’s friends would be careful not to play too rough with him or each other…if they did they would get an earful…and Saints bark loud. Scared the hell out of some of them but she was never aggressive…just barked loud at the kids to stop. You could play but no shoving or hitting or she would referee really quick and wanted order.
She had the run of our house and many utility people were scared to come in but some braved it and were rewarded with a new friend. It was rare but once in a while, I would wake up with a snoring Molly beside my wife and me in bed. She would lay in the busiest part of the house so you would have no other choice but walk over her.
Last Thursday night my son and I went to dinner and came home to a happy Molly…she was happy because we were all at home safe and sound. She didn’t like when one of us was missing. She was demanding our attention that night and she got it.
The next morning she was breathing heavy and something seemed wrong. She would drink but would not eat. It just kept getting worse over the weekend.
I took off of work Monday to take her to the vet. She had been so lethargic that I thought we would have to get a mobile vet. To my surprise I said the magic words “car ride” and she came to life and followed me to the car…She got in the car and off we went. That was the best she looked in 3 days. We took her in and the vet said she was in poor shape but he wanted to do X-Rays and blood work. After that, he told me to go home and he would call. I foolishly let a little hope creep in.
The call came at 1:30 that Molly had cancer all over and failing kidneys. I don’t like playing God but he said that Molly had put on a brave face for us that morning and showed me the X-Rays and I knew we had to make THAT decision. He said it was a miracle she was walking around at all and she was in extreme pain. We waited for my son to get home at 3 and we traveled to the vet all together to say our goodbyes to our beloved Molly.
It was horrible to see my son hurt so bad and it wasn’t a damn thing I could do. We all hurt but we tried to make the ending happy for Molly. It will be a little while before we get another dog…but when we do we won’t be replacing Molly…it will be to add a new member to our family…Molly will always have her place.
My son will never forget his companion of nine years for the rest of his life…and neither will we.
My 9-year-old son and Molly at 6 weeks old…the day we got her in 2009
My 18-year-old son with Molly at 9 years old sitting close to him.
I had a waterbed in the early 80s as a young teen. I always liked it and thought it was comfortable. Two things I didn’t like about it was… if there was a leak you would not know until 2:30 am and on a school night…always. If the heater was either turned down or went out…you would wake up as a human popsicle at…you guessed it… 2:30 am. Nothing ever happened to it at noon on a Saturday.
in the early 1800s. Scottish physician Dr. Neil Arnott devised a water-filled bed to prevent bedsores in invalids.
In 1873, Sir James Paget, of St. Bartholomew Hospital in London, presented the waterbed designed by Dr. Arnott as a treatment and prevention of ulcers, a common condition at this time. Paget found that waterbeds allowed for even pressure distribution over the entire body. The only problem was that you could not regulate the water temperature.
In 1968 Charles Hall presented the waterbed as his Master’s Thesis project to his San Francisco State University design class. While showcasing their work, students rotated through workshops to see each other’s inventions. Once they reached Hall’s project – a vinyl mattress filled with heated water – the class never left. “Everybody just ended up frolicking on the waterbed,” Hall recalls.
Hall’s first waterbed mattress was called ‘the Pleasure Pit’ and it quickly gained popularity with the hippie culture of the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Time Magazine in 1971 about waterbeds. “Playboy Tycoon Hugh Hefner has one–king-size, of course, and covered with Tasmanian opossum. The growing number of manufacturers and distributors, with such appropriate names as Aquarius Products, the Water Works, Innerspace Environments, Joyapeutic Aqua Beds and the Wet Dream, can hardly meet the demand. They have sold more than 15,000 since August.”
Sex always sells… one ad stated. “Two things are better on a waterbed. One of them is sleep.” and “She’ll admire you for your car, she’ll respect you for your position, but she’ll love you for your waterbed.”
By the 80s waterbeds were in the suburbs and gaining in popularity. In 1987, waterbeds had achieved their peak, representing 22 percent of all U.S. mattress sales.
At the end of the 1980s waterbed sales fell off. Some say it was because they were too connected to the 70s that had fallen out of favor (the horror!)… but most think it was because of the maintenance and pain in setting them up and moving them. Also, you had to make sure your floor was braced enough to have one depending on the size and weight of it.
Today you can still buy them but most are designed thinner to hold less water in rolls instead of sleeping on a lake beneath you.
I had mine until I was 20 with plenty of patches but it still held water and me… but I left it behind when I moved.
This egg-shaped one below I would gladly take home now
The song made it to #3 in the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks in 2000. I liked the song the first time I heard it. The video for the song features Sarah Michelle Gellar who was a big fan of the band.
The song was written by Scott Weiland and Dean DeLeo. Weiland was a gifted lead singer who also sang for Velvet Revolver until 2008. He passed away in 2015 from substance abuse.
Scott Weiland wrote the lyric about his first wife, Janina Castaneda. They got married in 1994, just as Stone Temple Pilots were becoming one of the biggest bands in America. Weiland admitted that he put her through hell with his capricious behavior that stemmed from his addictions.
When he wrote the song, the couple in the midst of a divorce, which was finalized in 2000. In this song, Weiland sings about how she will soon be free of him, “a happy girl the day that she left me.” In his memoir, Weiland wrote, “She had finally rid her life of a man who had never been faithful.”
In the line, “I pay the ransom note to stop it from steaming,” the ransom note is Weiland’s divorce settlement, which he said “took forever and cost me a fortune.”
Sour Girl
She turned away, what was she looking at? She was a sour girl the day that she met me Hey, what are you looking at? She was a happy girl the day that she left me
What would you do? What would you do if I follow you? What would you do? I follow
Don’t turn away, what are you looking at? He was so happy on the day that he met her Say, what are you looking at? I was a superman, the looks are deceiving
The rollercoaster ride’s a lonely one I pay the ransom note to stop it from steaming Hey, what are you looking at? She was a teenage girl when she met me
What would you do? What would you do if I follow you? What would you do? I follow
What would you do?….
The girl got reasons They all got reasons
What would you do?….
Hey, what are you looking at? She was a happy girl the day that she left me The day that she left me The day that she left me She was a happy girl the day that she left me The day that she left me The day that she left me She was a happy girl the day that she left me
I just rediscovered this song from watching Breaking Bad recently.
The Monkees “Goin’ Down” was released as the B side to Daydream Believer and reached only #104 in the Billboard 100. It was written by all four members of the Monkees and Diane Hildebrand. Micky Dolenz has a good pop/rock voice.
From Wiki
In 2012, the composition met with controversy for its unexpected use in the television show, Breaking Bad. Dolenz, who was unaware an abridged version of “Goin’ Down” was to be featured on the show, commented, “‘Goin’ Down’ has nothing to do with drugs, obviously. And I certainly don’t condone meth — that is nasty stuff that kills a lot of people and ruins a lot of lives. … On the other hand, I like the TV show, it’s very well-made. … And no, I didn’t make a penny”.
Peter Tork says this was based on Mose Allison’s “Parchment Farm.” It’s about a drunken guy who “ends it all” by jumping into the river, and immediately regrets it as he’s “Goin’ Down.”
Drummer Micky Dolenz sang lead.
All the Monkees got writer’s credit on this song.
This was released as the B-side of “Daydream Believer.”
Goin’ Down
Sock it to me…
Floatin’ down the river, With a saturated liver, And I wish I could forgive her, But I do believe she meant it, When she told me to forget it, And I bet she will regret it, When they find me in the morning wet and drowned. And the word gets ’round. I’m goin’ down I’m goin’ down
A-comin’ up for air, It’s pretty stuffy under there, I’d like to say I didn’t care, But I forgot to leave a note, And it’s so hard to stay afloat, I’m soakin’ wet without a boat, And I knew I should have taken off my shoes. Ah, it’s front-page news. Goin’ down Goin’ down
Hep Hep Hep Hep Hep Hep Hep Hep Hep Hep Hep Hep Hep
I wish I had another drink, It wouldn’t be so hard to sink, I should have taken time to think, Besides I got the picture straight, She must have had another date, I didn’t need this extra weight, I wish that I could see the way to shore. I don’t want no more. Goin’ down I’m goin’ down
And now I see the life I led, I slept it all away in bed, I shoulda learned to swim instead, And now it’s really got me stumped, I can’t remember why I jumped, I’d like to get my tummy pumped, I can’t believe they drink this stuff in town. This dirty brown. Goin’ down Goin’ down
I’m goin’ down, hep Goin’ down Hep Hep Goin’ down Dga Goin’ down goin’ down Goin’ down goin’ down Goin’ down
I wish I’d looked before I leaped, I didn’t know it was so deep. Been down so far I don’t get wet, I haven’t touched the bottom yet. This river scene is gettin’ old, I’m hungry, sleepy, wet and cold. She told me to forget it nice, I should’ve taken her advice. I only want to go on home, I’d gladly leave that girl alone. Wha-what a way to spend the night, If I don’t drown, I’ll die of fright. My pappy taught me how to float, But I can’t swim a single note. He threw me in to teach me how, I stayed there floatin’ like a mama cow. And now I’ve floated way down stream, I know this has to be a dream. If I could find my way to shore, I’d never, never do this anymore. I’ll give you three; I’ve been down nine, I’m goin’ down just one more time. Goin’ down Ah dga, goin’ down Dga goin’ down Gah gah, goin’ down I’m goin’ down Go-go-go-goin’ down Back back back back home Back back back home Back back back back home Goin’ down Goin’ down I’m goin’ down I’m goin’ back home Back to my friends Back to the one Back to the truth I’m goin’ home Aahh
Now the sky is gettin’ light, And everything will be all right. Think I’ve finally got the knack, Just floatin’ here lazy on my back. I never really liked that town, I think I’ll ride the river down. Just movin’ slow and floatin’ free, There’s a river swingin’ under me. Waving back to the folks on shore, I should have thought of this before. I’m floatin’ on down to New Orleans, Gonna pick up on some swingin’ scenes. I’m gonna know me a better day, I’ll go down groovin’ all the way. Goin’ down A-ahh Go-go-goin’ down
I’m goin’ down Back back back to New Orleans Back back back back home I’m go-goin’ down A-hep hep hep, hep I’m goin’ on down Hep, hep, hep, hep I’m go-go-go-goin’ down I’m goin’ down Goin’ down Go go Auhh Hep, hep hep, hep Hep, hep hep Dga, dga dga, dga Dga, dga dga, dga Dga, dga dga, dga Dga, dga dga Got ta go Got ta go Got ta go back home I’m goin’ down-down-down-down-down-down the river Down-da-down-down-down the river, yeah Gotta go gotta go Gotta go gotta go Down-nh-nh-nh Hep, auh, hep, hep (Fade out)
This song was originally off the Walking Into Clarksdale album by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.
This version peaked at #20 in the U.S. Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 and #102 in the UK in 2009. I like the original version but Krauss’s harmony lifts this version up over that and turns into a great record. The arrangement to this version highlights the lyrics and enhances the song. It took a few listens but I was hooked after a while.
It won The Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 2009. The song was off of the Raising Sand album.
Both Krauss and Plant achieved their highest-ranking albums in the Billboard 200 chart under their own names with Raising Sand. It overtook Krauss’s placing for her earlier 2007 album A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection, which reached #10. Plant ‘s highest-ranking solo title had been the #4 peak of No Quarter in 1994. Ten years prior to that he’s also reached #4 with Volume One, a one-off side project by the Honeydrippers. Of course, Plant had been to the top of The Billboard 200 seven times as a member of Led Zeppelin.
This won for Record of the Year at the Grammy Awards in 2009. Accepting the award, Robert Plant said: “When we started this project together, the whole game was a mystery. We gave ourselves three days, and we said if it doesn’t work, we’ll just take lunch, and I’ll go back to Wolverhampton. But we brought this song out and it’s been given that Nashville touch and it feels pretty good.”
Please Read the Letter
Caught out running With just a little too much to hide Maybe baby Everything’s gonna turn out fine Please read the letter I mailed it to your door It’s crazy how it all turned out We needed so much more
Too late, too late A fool could read the signs Maybe baby You’d better check between the lines Please read the letter, I Wrote it in my sleep With help and consultation from The angels of the deep
Once I stood beside a well of many words My house was full of rings and Charms and pretty birds Please understand me, my Walls come falling down There’s nothing here that’s left for you But check with lost and found
Please read the letter that I wrote Please read the letter that I wrote
One more song just before we go Remember baby All the things We used to know Please read my letter And promise you’ll keep The secrets and the memories and Cherish in the deep
Ah…
Please read the letter that I wrote Please read the letter that I wrote Please read the letter that I wrote
Please read the letter that I wrote Please read the letter that I wrote Please read the letter that I wrote
I had this as a kid and would play it at family gatherings at our house. I bought an original one from 1969 from eBay a couple of years ago and still once in a while will play it. It plays like a carnival game. My son didn’t think much of it at first but when he started to play it…he liked it.
The game came out in 1969 by the Ideal Toy Company. The game was designed by Marvin Glass and Associates and created by Hank Kramer, Larry Reiner, and Walter Moe.
They still sell a version of it today.
It’s tic tac toe with bean bags…that about sums it up. Go Go Go for 3 in a row!
Now… please tell me what the little girl says after the dog drops the bag…please
I own a couple of lava lamps and I run them quite a bit. I didn’t get my first one until the 80s and I still have it. They do nothing but do their thing…and they create a mood. I have one in my office at work…it helps at times.
The lava lamp was invented in 1963 by Edward Craven Walker. He was passing the time in a pub when he noticed a homemade egg timer crafted from a cocktail shaker filled with alien-looking liquids bubbling on a stove top. Craven Walker’s company was manufacturing millions of “Astro Lamps,” as he called them, per year. In 1965, he sold the U.S. manufacturing rights to a company called Lava Lite.
Lava lamps caught on in the sixties and continued to be big to the late seventies. The sales cooled off until the Austin Power movies and the sales started to pick up again in the hundreds of thousands a year. Now Lava Lite supplies millions of lava lamps to retailers.
Oh, how this toy teased me as a kid. I would start drawing something halfway decent and then I would hit a wall because I would get so close to what I wanted and then make a wrong move…then came the shake part and start all over again. The definition of insanity would be this toy in my hands…but yet I still tried. Some people can do interesting things with it…I’m not one of those people.
In the late 50s French electrical technician André Cassagnes applied his experience with the clinging properties of an electrostatic charge to invent a drawing toy with no spare parts.
The Ohio Art Company took a look at the toy and invested $25,000. It has sold more than 175 million units worldwide since it hit stores on July 12, 1960.
They have new versions of it now with more options.
One of my favorite toys growing up. To this day I like collecting any vintage lighting fixture like soft drink clocks or signs probably because of this toy. They came with designs that you could use to create different cartoons and clowns but I never used those. I liked to create my own masterpieces.
This toy allowed you to be creative in a very different way. It brought out the artistic side in you. You could design different things and it would light up your room in the dark with colors.
Lite-Brite was invented by Joseph M. Burck, a senior designer at Chicago toy and game design company Marvin Glass and Associates.
Of course…when I got older I would make crude messages on the Lite Brite for friends.
Jack White of the White Stripes is a huge fan of Loretta Lynn. The White Stripes dedicated their 2001 album, ”White Blood Cells,” to her and invited her to share a bill with them at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan.
Jack White produced her album “Van Lear Rose” and he asked Loretta to write all 13 songs for the album. The title refers to the Van Lear Coalmines from her youth. White said he would have been happy just to play tambourine on the album as long as he got to work with her.
Country radio ignored it but the album reached #2 on the country charts and #24 in the Billboard 200. The album is great and this is the song that I liked best.
The album was released to glowing reviews and near universal acclaim. It received a rating of 97 at Metacritic.com, the joint-second highest score and the highest for a female to date
Personal Story about Loretta Lynn
I barely remember it but I actually had breakfast with Loretta Lynn. I was only 8 years old. My mom knew someone who knew her… we were at her Ranch that was just open to the public. She saw us and pointed and said “come in here” and we sat at the table and ate with her. She was very nice. She kept asking if I needed anything and if I was having a good time. Honestly its a blur to me now but I do remember that part…very classy and nice lady.
Van Lear Rose
One of my fondest memories Was sittin’ on my daddy’s knee Listenin’ to the stories that he told He’d pull out that old photograph Like a treasured memory from the past And say child This here’s the Van Lear RoseOh how it would bring a smile When he talked about her big blue eyes And how her beauty ran down to her soul She’d walk across the coal miner’s yard Them miner’s would yell loud and hard and they’d dream of who would hold The Van Lear Rose[Chorus:] She was the belle of Johnson County Ohio river to Big Sandy A beauty to behold like a diamond in the coal All the miner’s they would gather ’round Talk about the man that came to town Right under their nose Stole the heart of the Van Lear Rose
Now the Van Lear Rose could’ve had her pick And all the fellers figured rich Until this poor boy caught her eye His buddies would all laugh and say Your dreamin’ boy she’ll never look your way You’ll never ever hold the Van Lear Rose
[Chorus]
Then one night in mid July Underneath that ol’ blue Kentucky sky Well, that poor boy won that beauty’s heart Then my daddy would look at my mommy and smile As he brushed the hair back from my eyes and he’d say Your mama She’s the Van Lear Rose
[Chorus]
Right under their nose Stole the heart of the Van Lear Rose
This song came out in 1970 and was performed by Edison Lighthouse who was not a working band but an English studio group with Tony Burrows singing. This is bubblegum music but I do like it. In 1970 this song peaked at #5 on the Billboard 100, #3 in Canada and #1 in the UK.
Freedy Johnston also covered this song in 2001 and I like his version just as much or more as the original. The song didn’t chart but did get some airplay.. I have it under the original.
Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)
She ain’t got no money Her clothes are kinda funny Her hair is kinda wild and free Oh, but Love grows where my Rosemary goes And nobody knows like me
She talks kinda lazy And people say she she’s crazy And her life’s a mystery Oh, but Love grows where my Rosemary goes And nobody knows like me
There’s something about her hand holding mine It’s a feeling that’s fine And I just gotta say She’s really got a magical spell And it’s working so well That I can’t get away
I’m a lucky fella And I’ve just got to tell her That I love her endlessly Because Love grows where my Rosemary goes And nobody knows like me
There’s something about her hand holding mine It’s a feeling that’s fine And I just gotta say She’s really got a magical spell And it’s working so well That I can’t get away
I’m a lucky fella And I’ve just got to tell her That I love her endlessly Because Love grows where my Rosemary goes And nobody knows like me
Fadeout: It keeps growing every place she’s been And nobody knows like me
If you’ve met her, you’ll never forget her And nobody knows like me
La la la- believe it when you’ve seen it Nobody knows like me
This is an autobiography of Al Kooper. Al has worked with many people in the music industry. He was a songwriter, musician, producer, A&R man and everything in between.
His book is well written and Al uses humor all the way through.
A few of his career highlights are helping to form Blood, Sweat, and Tears, playing the organ on “Like a Rolling Stone” (although he didn’t know how to really play organ), organized the Super Sessions with Stephen Stills and Mike Bloomfield, found and signed a band while in Atlanta named Lynyrd Skynyrd. While in Atlanta he started a record label called “Sounds of the South” in conjunction with MCA records.
He goes over working with Lynyrd Skynyrd and how their first three albums were recorded and why they parted company. Another band that he signed was Mose Jones who was going to be his Beatles type group to counterpoint the Lynyrd Skynyrd Stones sound for his label. Mose Jones ended up being ignored my MCA.
There is so much musical history this man was involved in…he makes light of getting called Alice Cooper on many occasions.
In Al Kooper’s words
Let’s clear the air.
This is not a book by or about Vincent Furnier (né Alice Cooper.) It is a book by and about Al Kooper. If you don’t know who Al Kooper is, that’s fine. But don’t let that stop you from perusing these eye-opening accounts of encounters with Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Gene Pitney, The Royal Teens, Bill Graham, Quincy Jones, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Mike Bloomfield, The Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, George Harrison, Miles Davis, The Tubes, Nils Lofgren, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and all the other wonderful people I’ve been fortunate enough to cross paths with over the last forty years.
What was really interesting to me is he shared the same manager (Stan Polley) as Badfinger and was able to get out of his clutches with at least some of his money intact. I picked the book up cheap and I really have enjoyed it. I would recommend this to music fans. Many funny stories and he is such a talented musician.
Another quote from Kooper on the Like A Rolling Stone Session… Tom Wilson was the producer who knew Kooper didn’t normally play the organ.
Thirty seconds into the second verse of the playback, Dylan motioned toward Tom Wilson. “Turn the organ up,” he ordered. “Hey, man,” Tom said, “that cat’s not an organ player.” Thanks, Tom. But Dylan wasn’t buying it: “Hey, now don’t tell me who’s an organ player and who’s not. Just turn the organ up.” He actually liked what he heard!
Al Kooper and Bob Dylan
George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Barbara Bach, and Al Kooper
.