Al Kooper - Easy Does It (Great Double Album US 1970)

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Easy Does It was the third solo album by New York City-based singer-songwriter Al Kooper, recorded and released in 1970 for Columbia Records.

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A double album, Easy Does It featured Kooper on an expanded number of instruments, including sitar (used to effect on the country-tinged "Sad, Sad Sunshine"), vibes and electronic effects. While mostly backed by Bretheren rhythm section Stu Woods and Rick Marotta, Kooper also utilized groups in Nashville and Los Angeles to record the tracks for the album.

Two tracks were also featured on the soundtrack to the counter-culture film The Landlord, "Brand New Day" and "Love Theme from The Landlord".

This is the third solo effort from rock & roll wunderkind Al Kooper. Originally issued as a two-LP set, Easy Does It (1970) is a diverse album that reveals the layer upon layer of musicality that has become synonymous with the artist. He draws deeply upon his skills as a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and equally engaging arranger. 

The extended run-time of the double album format likewise allows Kooper to thoroughly exhibit his wide-ranging and virtually mythical adaptability as an artist whose sheer talent defies the boundaries of genre or style. 

The set kicks off with the youthfully optimistic rocker "Brand New Day." This is the first of two tracks Kooper used in his score for Hal Ashby's directorial cinematic debut, The Landlord, a highly affable counterculture classic starring Beau Bridges. The haunting "The Landlord Love Theme" is also included, and is poignantly dovetailed with one of the disc's profoundly affective epics. "Buckskin Boy" is an uptempo rocker that lyrically offers a brutally honest assessment of the Native American situation, which was quickly becoming a national plague upon the social conscience of the country in the early '70s. 

The song is replete with Kooper's dynamic chord changes and trademark phrasing. The "morning after" fallout from a particularly potent experience with LSD is credited as the inspiration behind "Sad, Sad Sunshine." The cut features some heavily Eastern-influenced lead sitar work reminiscent of the sounds of Donovan circa Hurdy Gurdy Man (1968) and the burgeoning Canterbury-based progressive folk movement of the late '60s and early '70s. 

Al Kooper Ticket 1970

There is a decidedly Yankee contrast on the country-rocker "I Bought You the Shoes (You're Walking Away In)" as well as the cover of John Loudermilk's "A Rose and a Baby Ruth." Other well-placed cover tunes include a classy, soulfully subdued reading of Ray Charles "I Got a Woman'" as well as the spacy and well-jammed-out version of "Baby Please Don't Go." 

Throughout the 12-plus minute side there are definite recollections of the extended instrumental interaction that defined Kooper's former band, the Blues Project, as well as some of the inspirational improvisation heard on the original Super Session (1968). This performance alone is more than worth the time and effort of seeking out Easy Does It.

01. "Brand New Day" (Al Kooper) – 5:10
02. "Piano Solo Introduction to I Got a Woman" (2:00)
03. "I Got a Woman" (Ray Charles, Renald Richard) – 4:30
04. "Country Road" (James Taylor) – 4:22
05. "I Bought You The Shoes (You're Walking Away In)" (Bob Brass, Irwin Levine, Kooper) – 1:57
06. "Introduction" (0:50)
07. "Easy Does It" (Kooper) – 5:25
08. "Buckskin Boy" (Kooper, Charlie Calello) – 3:10
09. "Love Theme from The Landlord" (Kooper) – 3:12
10. "Sad, Sad Sunshine" (Kooper) – 5:04
11. "Let the Duchess No" (John Gregory, Jim Roberts) – 3:17
12. "She Gets Me Where I Live" (Kooper, Calello) – 3:34
13. "A Rose and a Baby Ruth" (J.D. Loudermilk) – 3:29
14. "Baby, Please Don't Go" (Big Joe Williams) – 12:26
15. "God Sheds His Grace on Thee" (Kooper, Calello) – 3:27

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Billboard Advertise 1970