Leon Russell has passed away

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37dw2r45Xzg&list=RD37dw2r45Xzg#t=32]

Leon Russell, Hit Maker and Musician's Musician, Dies at 74" Jon Pareles, NY Times 11/13/16

Leon Russell, the longhaired, scratchy-voiced pianist, guitarist, songwriter and bandleader who moved from playing countless recording sessions to making hits on his own, died on Saturday in Nashville, Tenn. He was 74.

His death was announced on his website, which said that he had died in his sleep but gave no specific cause.

Mr. Russell had significant health difficulties over the past five years. In 2010, he underwent surgery for a brain fluid leak and was treated for heart failure. In July of this year, Mr. Russell suffered a heart attack, and was scheduled for further surgery, according to a news release from the historical society of Oklahoma, his home state.

With a top hat on his head, hair well past his shoulders, a long beard, an Oklahoma drawl in his voice and his fingers splashing two-fisted barrelhouse piano chords, Mr. Russell cut a flamboyant figure in the early 1970s. He led Joe Cocker’s band Mad Dogs & Englishmen, appeared at George Harrison’s 1971 Concert for Bangladesh and had hits of his own, including “Tight Rope.” His songs also became hits for others, among them “Superstar” (written with Bonnie Bramlett) for the Carpenters, “Delta Lady” for Joe Cocker and “This Masquerade” for George Benson. More than 100 acts have recorded “A Song for You,” a song Mr. Russell said he wrote in 10 minutes…

...

...The music Mr. Russell made on his own put a scruffy, casual surface on rich musical hybrids, interweaving soul, country, blues, jazz, gospel, pop and classical music. Like Willie Nelson, who would collaborate with him, and Ray Charles, whose 1993 recording of “A Song for You” won a Grammy Award, Mr. Russell made a broad, sophisticated palette of American music sound down-home and natural….

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ChemBob's picture

I actually remember some times at a friend's apartment when his music was playing. He was their favorite and his tunes were always on the radio during those days. It is a bit terrifying to see so many of my musical (and other) heroes die who are only a few years older than me. It almost seems impossible that so many are gone, actually.

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solublefish's picture

who played music mainly in the '60s and '70s, whose love mainly of black American music - largely blues - transformed our taste and understanding in so many ways. And half a century later we are still listening to music little different from what that generation created. Or so it seems to me.

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The last revolution in America (and the world) happened 1968-1972.

Then people started saying "you have to work through the system!". We were totally co-opted in so many ways.

Which led to the "greed is good" 80's.

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without quotes one day soon. But you beat me to it.

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Lookout's picture

hank wilson's back.jpg

Here's one from the LP - one six pack to go
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gZ_qPr1aCg]

RIP Leon!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

PriceRip's picture

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[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7LNPOrNuu0 width:420 height:315]

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With their hearts they turned to each others heart for refuge
In troubled years that came before the deluge
*Jackson Browne, 1974, Before the Deluge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SX-HFcSIoU

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQbk2C4ZmsE width:420 height:315]

It's been a very sad week at my house this week.

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With their hearts they turned to each others heart for refuge
In troubled years that came before the deluge
*Jackson Browne, 1974, Before the Deluge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SX-HFcSIoU

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

Used to sing this with my mother when I was a little girl:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7MoZuP3JBo]

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

playing outside in a downpour. damn that dude was cool. Now that I reflect, he was playing with Johnny Winter. Seemed like everyone was tripping on mescaline. A lightening bolt came down and shot thru the amps, GAZINGO, and he just kept playing...

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Man, the moon is bright tonight!

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The moon hasn't been this close to earth since 1943 or something like that.

Great that Leon went out with the super moon.

Damn, he will be missed.

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

Cachola's picture

I clicked on the mention of the moon being tonight instead of tomorrow when it's my birthday and made an idiot comment, then realized it was on a Leon Russell essay. Oops.

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Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

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Cachola's picture

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Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

Yes 3

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PriceRip's picture

          for more than one night. The radial component of the relative velocities . . . yea I will leave quietly . . .

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PriceRip's picture

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From his days with The Wrecking Crew onward, it's impossible to count how many hit songs he played on, helped write and arranged.

From his many years in the studio setting, he was a brilliant music director. I was just marveling the other day at how he pretty much arranged and directed George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh. Once George and Bob Dylan chose the songs, he put them in the proper order, then added his own section to the middle. That concert had a great ebb and flow of music and musicians.

As someone said, George, Bob and the others created the banquet, Leon provided the setting and the table.

Here's one song where he happened to drop in at a studio to visit George Harrison and was asked to contribute to a song. He listened through the song twice, then sat down and did the piano accompaniment in one take. Very fast, excellent work that provided a great foundation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XonFZjuyc6E

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

the one leading the anguished whooping as Layla rocks out into its final extended chorus.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

But I'm pretty sure Leon played with Duane Allman at some time or another. I recently read the book Duane's daughter wrote in which she discussed those sessions in detail. I'll have to check.

Duane was also a journeyman arranger and producer from his years in the studio. He pretty much took the various bits that Clapton had written for Layla, then beefed them up and merged them together with a piano song from Jim Gordon to create the final song. IIRC, it was actually 2 or 3 unfinished songs.

Leon and Duane did play together quite a bit with Delaney and Bonnie. Both were good friends of D & B.

Leon was supposed to play at the Concert for George on the anniversary of George's death, but was in ill health and couldn't travel to London. That would have been fantastic though.

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"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."

gulfgal98's picture

I was at a family reunion for my husband's family when I heard the news. When I said how upset I was that Leon Russell had died, they all said "who?" Then someone said he was a rock and roll guy from the 70's and that really upset me that they had no idea of just how influential Leon Russell has been upon music.

Leon Russell spanned so many genres of music, but most of it was rooted deep within the black blues tradition. Leon Russell was a great musician whose career spanned from Jerry Lee Lewis to Elton John and beyond. His influence upon music for many decades was not well known by the public, but definitely had a huge impact upon and was acknowledged by many musicians over the last several decades.

Many folks saw Leon Russell only as the long haired guy in the top hats who epitomized the stereotypical hippies of the era when he first became known. But his influence upon music and musicians was way beyond the stereotype and will live on.

Thank you Leon! Your place in musical history has been extremely important and will grow over the years.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

enhydra lutris's picture

SoCal for a couple of decades that he wasn't on.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --