Leon Russell
The Master of Space and Time's Journey Through Rock & Roll History
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4.6 • 24 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The definitive New York Times bestselling biography of legendary musician, composer, and performer Leon Russell, who profoudly influenced George Harrison, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Willie Nelson, Tom Petty, and the world of music as a whole.
Leon Russell is an icon, but somehow is still an underappreciated artist. He is spoken of in tones reserved not just for the most talented musicians, but also for the most complex and fascinating. His career is like a roadmap of music history, often intersecting with rock royalty like Bob Dylan, the Stones, and the Beatles. He started in the Fifties as a teenager touring with Jerry Lee Lewis, going on to play piano on records by such giants as Frank Sinatra, The Beach Boys, and Phil Spector, and on hundreds of classic songs with major recording artists. Leon was Elton John’s idol, and Elton inducted him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. Leon also gets credit for altering Willie Nelson’s career, giving us the long-haired, pot-friendly Willie we all know and love today.
In his prime, Leon filled stadiums on solo tours, and was an organizer/performer on both Joe Cocker’s revolutionary Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour and George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh. Leon also founded Shelter Records in 1969 with producer Denny Cordell, discovering and releasing the debut albums of Tom Petty, the Gap Band, Phoebe Snow, and J.J. Cale. Leon always assembled wildly diverse bands and performances, fostering creative and free atmospheres for musicians to live and work together. He brazenly challenged musical and social barriers. However, Russell also struggled with his demons, including substance abuse, severe depression, and a crippling stage fright that wreaked havoc on his psyche over the long haul and at times seemed to will himself into obscurity. Now, acclaimed author and founding member of Buffalo Tom, Bill Janovitz shines the spotlight on one of the most important music makers of the twentieth century.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Janovitz (Rocks Off), front man of the band Buffalo Tom, celebrates an underappreciated rocker in this sprawling but unsuccessful biography. The author charts Leon Russell's path from his Oklahoma upbringing, to stints as a studio pianist and producer, to touring with his band the Shelter People in the 1970s, zeroing in on his descent into decades-long obscurity before his 2016 death (a slump notably punctuated by a 2010 collaborative album with Elton John, who petitioned the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to induct Russell). The author credits Russell with a bluesy, gospel-inflected musical style, and a redneck-hippie persona—long hair, beard, scruffy top hat—that influenced performers such as like bassist Leon Wilkeson of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Janovitz tends to overhype Russell's music (for instance, he judges the forgettable "A Song for You" to be "perfect"), but takes an illuminating dive into the rock biz's middle stratum of session musicians and B-list acts that undergird superstars' hits. While Russell's rise is entertainingly chronicled and woven through with lively rock 'n' roll picaresque (" ‘He was always... at some party or some orgy, or with everybody going to get shots for VD,' " observes singer Rita Coolidge)—his fall is a tiresome slog through mediocre gigs, and business and alimony wrangles. Russell's oeuvre doesn't measure up to the treatment Janovitz lavishes on it.
