Yes, children, this is where that phrase originated.
Curiosity once again drew me to a title on the Fuse network. Elton John and Leon Russell. Leon Russell may be the most accomplished rock and roll musician no one ever heard of, at least in the context of Gen X, Gen Y and the new millennium. But in the day he played with everyone, everyone. From Frank Sinatra, to the Beatles, to Willie Nelson. A unique voice among so many clones he was a rock and roller I was fortunate to have discovered early. I have been aware he has a new album out, a duet with Elton John and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out how those two ever connected. So, it turns out Russell played in a studio band supporting John when no one had ever heard of him.
Leon Russell and I were born in the same year; he is six months older than I am almost to the day. It was startling to see him when he walked out on stage in this Fuse concert with Elton John. Obviously older now, he shuffled hesitantly with a cane. He had gained quite a bit of weight. I wondered if something had happened to him and did a little research. Turns out in January this year he reportedly had brain surgery though some reports had it as heart failure. Nevertheless he was back on stage by the end of that month.
I saw him in concert once in Anchorage at West High School. A woman thought she was taking me to see Leon Redbone. So it goes, I was much happier to see Leon Russell. His long, flowing white hair and beard, an icon, he played the entire concert even through an intermission he gave his band members. He has a higher range, kind of nasal voice that worked well with the songs he wrote or chose to sing, one that lends itself to the fusion of blues, rock and country he is so good at. In the new concert you can see and hear a bit of the effects of age, not as physically active, movements slow and measured, like that long. slow walk across the stage to the piano assisted by a cane. He has always had a calm visage, at least what I could see, but now seems even less animated. It all serves to take the edge off his classics. I enjoyed this televised concert but, I think I will keep my old recordings and forgo purchase of this album with Elton John. Many of those songs have been part of the background music complementing this unremarkable life.
Some songs that I have enjoyed over the years: “Delta Lady,” “Stranger in a Strange land,” “Back to the Island,” “Lady Blue,” “Out in the Woods,” “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” and a couple of covers: Bob Dylan’s “Hard Rain,” and the version of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” he did at the concert for Bangladesh. And one more: There is a version of the country classic “Big Boss Man” he did on a public television show in the early 70s but I have never found a recording of it. Funny, a guy like this has only 10,000 fans on the Myspace “I like” page and fewer than 9,000 on Facebook. He has many more fans out there, it’s just that many of them don’t know it because we aren’t always aware of where the music we love originated. Leon Russell was there playing and singing when a lot of it began.
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