The Band — The “Real” Last Waltz
Head over to Hidden Track and check out the complete SBD 241 minute real last show of The Band (11/25/1976).
Al Kooper — “Like A Rolling Stone”
From Wiki:
As chronicled in the 2005 Martin Scorsese documentary film, No Direction Home: Bob Dylan for the PBS American Masters Series, Kooper’s most notable playing with Dylan is the striking organ parts on Like a Rolling Stone.
Kooper had been invited to the session as an observer, and hoped to be allowed to sit in on guitar, his primary instrument. Kooper uncased his guitar and began tuning it. After hearing Mike Bloomfield, the hired guitarist for the sessions, warming up in the room, Kooper concluded that Bloomfield was a much better guitarist, so Kooper put his guitar aside, and retreated into the control room.
As the recording sessions for the single Like a Rolling Stone progressed, keyboardist Paul Griffin was moved from the Hammond organ to piano. The young Kooper (being Kooper) saw his opening. Kooper quickly suggested to producer Tom Wilson that he had a “great organ part” for the song (which he later confessed was just a ruse to play in the session), and Wilson responded “Al, you’re not an organ player, you’re a guitar player”, but Kooper didn’t retreat this time. Before Wilson could explicitly reject Kooper’s suggestion, Wilson was interrupted by a phone call in the control room. Kooper immediately went into the studio and sat down at the organ, though he had rarely played organ before the session. Wilson soon returned, and was shocked to find Kooper in the studio. By this time, Kooper had been playing along with Dylan and crew, his organ can be heard coming in an eighth-note just behind the other members of the band, as Kooper followed to make sure he was playing the right chords. During a playback of tracks in the control room, when asked about the organ track, Dylan was emphatic: “Turn the organ up!”, and Kooper’s classic rock organ riff became a part of rock recording history. While the combination of piano and organ was common in gospel church settings, Kooper’s riff was relatively new to rock music and attracted considerable attention.
