Al Kooper's Brilliant Book....

If you read one book about music this year then this should be it. How many books about music have you read that make you laugh out loud? Well Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards will.

To say Al Kooper is legend is putting it to simply, then again the man is quite simply one of the most interesting people to have been around the music business for longer than anyone would thought it possible to be around it. It's been said that when rock history was being made then Al was in the vicinity. Whether it was playing organ on Like a Rolling Stone with Dylan, doing sessions for the Who, Simon & Garfunkel, Hendrix, Taj Mahal and The Stones (to name just a few); creating ground breaking music with Blood Sweat and Tears or doing incredibly interesting things with Mike Bloomfield and Steve Stills, it's as though Al has just been there when it counts. I wrote a couple of months back about Al's great album, 'New York City You're a Woman', for me the best of his solo LPs, but that's not to put the rest of his solo stuff down, it's just that NYCYAW is a gem amongst jewels.

The book first came out years ago and I devoured it at one sitting, the phrase unputdownable is over used, but for me this really was. Well the revised and updated version is out in the UK next week and is available at Amazon and of course elsewhere. It's a sort-of-a life story that's exotic, sometimes sad, almost unbelievable and what makes it better than most books of a similar style is Al's eye for detail.

BUY IT!