AL KOOPER COULDN’T TURN ON THE ORGAN — THEN DYLAN ASKED FOR IT LOUDER

AL KOOPER COULDN’T TURN ON THE ORGAN — THEN DYLAN ASKED FOR IT LOUDER

One of the defining sounds on Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited was played by a guitarist who had only been invited to watch the session — and couldn’t even switch on the instrument. 🎹

In June 1965, producer Tom Wilson invited Al Kooper to observe Dylan at work. Kooper had other plans. He stayed up practicing guitar, arrived carrying his instrument and hoped to join in.

Then Dylan’s guitarist began warming up.

It was Mike Bloomfield, and Kooper immediately decided that his own playing was outclassed. He quietly packed away his guitar and retreated to the control room. 🎸

But when session keyboardist Paul Griffin moved from Hammond organ to piano, an empty bench appeared.

Kooper told Wilson he had a great organ part ready. He later admitted that he didn’t: it was “90 percent ambition.” When Wilson was called away to the telephone, Kooper slipped into the studio and sat down. 📞

There was one enormous practical problem.

Kooper didn’t know how to start a Hammond B3. Griffin had left it switched on, so he could play without revealing that detail. He had no written music, and the baffled Leslie speaker made his own part difficult to hear over the band. 🎛️

So Kooper followed by ear, entering just after the other musicians because he was waiting to hear each chord before playing it.

During playback, Dylan told Wilson to turn up the organ. Wilson pointed out that Kooper wasn’t an organ player.

Dylan wanted it louder anyway. 🔊

That hesitant, slightly delayed part remained on “Like a Rolling Stone,” the song that opens Highway 61 Revisited. Kooper later said that was how he became an organ player.

Sometimes the right sound comes from being just uncertain enough to listen. ✨

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