WHEN I LOOK OVER MY SHOULDER
WHAT DO YOU THINK I SEE ?
SOME OTHER CAT
LOOKIN' OVER HIS SHOULDER AT ME
AND HE'S STRANGE
SURE IS STRANGE
Super Session
is an album by
the singer
and
multi-instrumentalist
with the guitarists
on the first half
and
on the second half.
Released by
Columbia Records
in 1968,
it peaked at No. 12
on the Billboard 200
during a
37-week chart stay
and was
certified gold
by RIAA.
Background
Al Kooper
and
Mike Bloomfield
had worked together on
the sessions for
Bob Dylan's
ground-breaking classic
Highway 61 Revisited,
and played in
the backing band
for his
controversial performance
with electric instruments
at the
Newport Folk Festival
in July 1965.
Kooper had recently left
Blood, Sweat & Tears
after they recorded their
debut album,
and was now working
as an A&R man f
or Columbia Records.
Bloomfield
was about to leave
the Electric Flag,
and at a
loose end.
Kooper telephoned Bloomfield
to see if he was free
to come down
to the studio and jam;
Bloomfield agreed,
leaving Kooper
to handle
the arrangements.
Kooper booked
two days of studio time
at CBS Columbia Square
in Los Angeles in May 1968,
and recruited
keyboardist
Barry Goldberg
and bassist
Harvey Brooks,
both members of
the Electric Flag,
along with well-known
session drummer
"Fast" Eddie Hoh.
On the first day,
the quintet recorded
a group of mostly
blues-based instrumental tracks.
It included the modal excursion
"His Holy Modal Majesty",
which was a tribute to
modal jazz musician
John Coltrane,
who had died
the previous year,
and was also
reminiscent of
"East-West"
from the second
Butterfield Blues Band album.
On the second day,
with the tapes
ready to roll,
Bloomfield
returned to his home
in Mill Valley
in the
San Francisco Bay Area,
saying he had been
unable to sleep.
Needing to have
something to show
for the second day
of booked studio time,
Kooper called upon
Stephen Stills,
who was in the process
of leaving his band,
Buffalo Springfield,
to replace Bloomfield.
Regrouping behind Stills,
Kooper's session men
cut mostly vocal tracks,
including
"It Takes a Lot to Laugh,
It Takes a Train to Cry"
from
Highway 61
and a lengthy
and atmospheric take of
"Season of the Witch"
by Donovan.
Although Harvey Brooks's
closing
"Harvey's Tune"
includes overdubbed horns
added in
New York City
while the album
was being mixed,
the album only costed
$13,000 to complete.
The success of the album
opened the door for the
"supergroup"
concept of the late
1960s and 1970s,
as exemplified by
the likes of
Blind Faith
and
Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Despite the fact that
Bloomfield left the
recording session
after the first day,
he and Kooper
made several
concert appearances
after the album was released.
The results of one of those
became the album
The Live Adventures of
Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper.
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