Bob Dylan went electric in 1965, turning the Newport Folk Festival into the Newport Rock Festival. Playing the organ on “Like a Rolling Stone” was Al Kooper, the same guy who played it in the studio.
Kooper is now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Much to my surprise, for some 30 years he’s been living in Somerville, MA.
Al Kooper got Columbia Records subsidiary Date Records to release “Odessey and Oracle” by the Zombies in America, with “Time of the Season” becoming a surprise Top Ten hit in 1969. The band had already broken up by then, due to the lackluster response to the album in England.
“Odessey and Oracle” is now regarded as one of the finest albums of all time, and the Zombies were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. Without Al Kooper’s influence, it’s uncertain what the album’s fate would have been.
When my life was turned upside down by my father’s stroke, leading me to finalize my retirement, I listened to “Odessey and Oracle” every day. I did that, often more than once daily, through his death and my recovery from melanoma surgery.
