His first musical success was as a 14-year-old guitarist in the Royal Teens, best known for their novelty blues riff, "Short Shorts". In 1960, he joined the song-writing team of Bob Brass and Irwin Levine, who wrote the hit, "This Diamond Ring", for Gary Lewis and the Playboys. When he was 21, he moved to Greenwich Village.
He performed with Bob Dylan in concert in 1965 and in the studio in 1965 and 1966, including playing Hammond organ with Dylan at the (in)famous Newport Folk Festival of 1965. He worked extensively with Mike Bloomfield for a number of years after the two met as studio musicians on Dylan's legendary Highway 61 Revisited album.
In 1965, he co-formed The Blues Project and played their most famous gig at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. He formed Blood, Sweat & Tears in the same year, leaving after the group's first album, Child is Father to the Man, in 1968.
Kooper played on hundreds of records, including The Rolling Stones, B.B. King, The Who and Cream. On occasion, he has even overdubbed on his own efforts, as on The Live Adventures Of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper album, as Roosevelt Gook. He discovered the band Lynyrd Skynyrd, and produced their first three albums, including the single Sweet Home Alabama. Kooper also wrote the score for the TV series, Crime Story, and has also written music for several made-for-television movies. Kooper also produced a now rare album by a group called Appaloosa.
Al Kooper has published a memoir, Backstage Passes: Rock 'n' Roll Life In The Sixties (1977), now available in revised form as Backstage Passes & Backstabbing Bastards: Memoirs of a Rock 'N' Roll Survivor 2007
Kooper currently teaches songwriting and production at Berklee College of Music in Boston and plays weekend concerts with his band Jimmy Vivino and The ReKooperators.
I Wish You Would
Al Kooper Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Early in the morning by the break of day
That's when my baby went away
Come back baby I wish you would
This crying and grieving won't do me no good.
Hugging and a-kissing late at night
Come back baby, what you're trying to do ?
Turning on me and some other men too.
Come back baby, give me one more chance
You know I still love you, gonna give you romance
Yeah romance, all night long, in my arms, oh yeah.
Early in the morning by the break of day
That's when my baby went away
Come back baby I wish you would
This crying and grieving won't do me no good.
Hey pretty baby I love you so
You know pretty baby it hurts me to see you go
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah ...
The lyrics of Al Kooper's "I Wish You Would" express the sense of loss and longing of the singer after his lover has left him. The song opens with the painful revelation that the woman he loves has gone away early in the morning, by the break of day. The singer pleads for her to return, hoping for a second chance to make things right, but also acknowledges that his crying and grieving won't do any good. Later in the song, he reminds his lover of their blissful past, filled with hugging and kissing late at night, and expresses his desire to love her again, to give her romance all night long, in his arms.
The lyrics of "I Wish You Would" are simple and straightforward, but they convey the raw emotions of heartbreak and the desire for reconciliation. The repetition of the central line "Come back baby I wish you would" reinforces the singer's despair and desperation, while the imagery of hugging and kissing late at night and the promise of romance evoke a sense of intimacy and passion.
Line by Line Meaning
Early in the morning by the break of day
My baby left me early in the morning, right when the day began.
That's when my baby went away
My lover left me at dawn, without any warning.
Come back baby I wish you would
I'm begging my lover to come back to me, I really hope she does.
This crying and grieving won't do me no good.
I know I should stop crying and feeling sad, it won't help me get over her.
Hugging and a-kissing late at night
We used to hold each other tight and kiss until the stars were bright.
You know pretty baby it feels just right
Being with my lover felt natural, just like it should be.
Come back baby, what you're trying to do ?
I want to know why she left me, what was she trying to do?
Turning on me and some other men too.
I think my lover might have cheated on me with other men.
Come back baby, give me one more chance
I'm willing to forgive her if she comes back, I just want one more chance.
You know I still love you, gonna give you romance
I still love her and I'm willing to be romantic with her if she comes back.
Yeah romance, all night long, in my arms, oh yeah.
I want to be romantic with her all night long, holding her in my arms.
Hey pretty baby I love you so
I really love my lover, she means everything to me.
You know pretty baby it hurts me to see you go
It hurts me a lot to see her leave and not come back.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah ...
I feel so passionately about her, I can't help but say 'oh yeah' over and over again.
Contributed by Makayla R. Suggest a correction in the comments below.