The session organist whose Hammond riff drove Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" and who later founded Blood, Sweat & Tears.
Lookin' for a Home
Al Kooper
MOODS · bluesy · soulful organ-driven · classic rock era · session-musician grit · jazz-inflected · reflective · vintage Americana · understated
Al Kooper, born Alan Peter Kuperschmidt in Brooklyn in 1944 and raised in Queens, began his career as a teenage guitarist with the Royal Teens before turning to songwriting and session work. He is best known for improvising the organ part on Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" and for his keyboard work across Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde, as well as French horn and piano on the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want."
Kooper's career threads through some of the most consequential rock recordings of the 1960s and 70s: he joined the Blues Project, founded Blood, Sweat & Tears before departing after its debut album, and went on to produce Lynyrd Skynyrd's first three records. One critic placed him among the giants of '60s rock alongside Bob Dylan and Paul Simon in importance, and he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023.
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