Re-Skyhill Studios

Some more tidbits in this listing: www.leonrussellhouse.com

Specifically about its use as a studio. Love the bit about the reverb chamber...

Arttu Tolonen

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Home studios became the norm on the San Francisco scene by about 1972. Jerry Garcia, Paul Kantner, Graham Nash, Mickie Hart, and Carlos Santana all had multi-track tape machines at home...usually sixteen track machines. Add in Banana and Jesse Colin Young by '76 who both started with eight track machines; my oldest son now has Jesse's ridge top studio which started as an eight track place and is now either ProTools or analog 24 track.

For one thing, in the Bay Area there was never the major studio musician, musician's union commercial scene. There were a few major studios, but a lot of the musicians felt comfortable learning how to record themselves and their friends. And that is part of what made it difficult for my company at the time, Alembic, to make it as a commercial recording studio. The advantages that we did have, a big room, two live echo chambers, and great gear was just not enough to attract enough business away from the rise of the home studios.

Best,

Rick Turner

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I think Mad Dogs & Englishmen is not only Joe Cocker's best album, but one of the best live albums ever. Like you said - thanks in a great part to Leon Russell, who was seemingly everywhere around that time - like the Concert for Bangladesh! If you want to see Leon Russell and the Shelter People do their thing for real, check out the fantastic Homewood Session.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bwMqliLXZQ

This is where the Leon Russell and the Shelter People album cover photo came from, and I suspect some of the album itself. It's Leon riding the crest of the his wave. It's an hour you'll never forget.

Mark Helfrich

_________________________________

If I was to write a book, it'd be called "6 Degrees of Leon Russell" because without that studio and the work he and Denny did we wouldn't have SO many things: JJ Cale, Derek & the Dominoes, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Delaney & Bonnie's peak, Phoebe Snow's first album, Joe Cocker, "All Things Must Pass" (after all, that's just George working with that same crew), "Songs for Beginners" (Graham and the same crew), Elton John (ask him). Even "Let it Bleed" would be a different album. I'd say that's the core of most of the music of the early 70s that I like. One common denominator: Shelter Records

Jesse Lundy

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Being a Tulsa boy & running with an older crowd this was my world. The triple live LP captured the Leon shows I was seeing him play around Tulsa. The beginning of the end for Leon's declining career I thought. I did see him on stage with George Harrison in Tulsa though.

Shelter Records was in a church building! I knew Denny Cordell, Gap Band, Clapton's Tulsa band, but only as acquaintances...I met those cats at parties & bars, but I was a kid. I just ran with my cousins & their friends who were older & in with that crowd. I had a terrific crush on Marcy Levey.

When I first met Carl Radle I was sitting on the couch at a party, I turned to shake his hand & knocked my drink on his shoes. He was kind and took a step back then shook my hand and said it was a pleasure to meet me.

I think you're discounting Cocker's music by his radio success. He made some really terrific records later on in the 80s & 90's, but he didn't enjoy the radio success that he had before.

Thanks Bob for the trip down memory lane.

Lavon Pagan

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Thanks Bob,I really expected more of a ranch/estate instead of suburbia.I loved Joe Cocker's Darlin Be Home Soon,and Leon's Manhattan Island Serenade.When Leon played,no breaks between songs.Great shows too.Stay well Bob.Thanks,Ted Keane

_________________________________

On the first Asylum Choir album with Leon R. and Marc Benno, they show a picture on the back cover that shows Leon and Marc working in Leon's tiny control room in his studio, showing tape recorders, console, artists working. If you want to see what his control room was like, there it is.

Like you, we played records over and over, this one looking at that picture and imagining what it must have been like for them in that studio. As you have said about us kids back then, no real idea about how so much worked but wildly wondering.

So much so a 3M rep came to our Boston college apartment from our letter inquiring about recording, us being quite surprised, if not a little freaked out when two men in suits showed up knocking to give these glazed eyed long hairs a sales pitch in our smokey living room We were taken aback, to say the least. They left brochures. 1971.

However, both the music but especially the Asylum Chior studio pictures stimulated my imagination such that I eventually built my own studio, owned several 3M multitracks and went on to a life of recording and producing.

A lot coalesced from that pic on the back of that album. I still have the record, scratched up as it is. Their fuzz guitars are surpurb.

Best,

Jeffrey Bauman
Wendell, MA

_________________________________

I always thought it was a home studio, based on the conversation on one of the albums where Rita Coolidge says something like, "What do you wanna eat? We were thinking of making a lasagna or something ... ." You even hear her footsteps. They talk about two different intros. (I looked it up. It's "Intro to Rita" on the Asylum Choir II album. Ecstasy in audio.)

To me, he never went into decline, except the duet album with Elton John. There his voice sounded ravaged and the songs weren't compelling.

One of the last albums to be released was "Angel in Disguise." Maybe it was outtakes from earlier times, dunno, but it was full of why I loved his music.

Sometime you should mention the "Motel Shot" album (Delaney and Bonnie, LR on piano and vocals), one of the earliest "unplugged" albums, recorded in motels while on tour, and so full of feeling and lived experience. Shake your tambourine!

Robert Hollady

_________________________________

Really enjoyed this piece - I wasn't aware that he was using a home studio. One of my favourite songwriters.
He was one of the few people to tie the pre and post 60's music paradigms together successfully singlehandedly.
My Guess is that George Benson's success with "This Masquerade" wouldn't have hurt him financially.
Just a question. Do you think Tom Petty would have had traction in the mainstream rock world without J J Cale and Leon Russell?

Steve Bell

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Love Leon Russell!!!
Try to play Space Captain: his unique style can not copy. Russell made it sound so easy, but when you try to play it, you understand how difficult it is. His timing is so brilliant.

The Black Crowes had a huge photo of Leon Russell (I think the one that is also on the cover of Leon Live) during their shows in the '90's. I remember Chris talkin' 'bout Leon Russell and Allman Brothers Band in interviews. Thanks to him I discover those giants in music.
Something special as a young kid in Bergen NH in the Netherlands!

You are right regarding Leon Live: too long. But when Russell is on ,man, he is on fire. A unique blend of soul, rock, blues, gospel en folk. Never heard something like that before.
He is one of the greatest piano players. Also a great songwriter and let's not forget: he was able to make a cover like his own.

I always wonder what happened to him in late '70's, begin '80's. Maybe someone can tell the story of Leon Russell after his big success.

Thanks to Elton John, Leon had a great comeback.

Leon Russell; one on the greatest piano players ever!

Kris Keijser
The A-List
Eindhoven, The Netherlands

_________________________________

Bob, Leon Russell's percussive keyboard work is at the core of Phil Spector's early Goldstar productions, the ones sung by Darlene Love. The pumping piano shuffle on "He's Sure the Boy I Love" is a good example.
Paul Lanning

_________________________________

One serious omission though ala Leon: "A Song For You" from his debut solo album. Lyrically and melodically one of the most poignant love ballads ever recorded...particularly Mr. Russell's original version, despite no less than 200 artist covers!!!
-Skinny

_________________________________

Port Chester is my hometown and I was at that show. Still have the lobby card, as I was friends with Howard Stein and worked a bunch of the shows. Saw Delaney and Bonnie, with the Allman Brothers warming up for them, Janis Joplin, The Band, Derek and the dominoes, everybody. All right down the street from my home.

You probably already know but a girl who was a tour photographer on the MD&E tour, Linda Wolf, put out an amazing book earlier this year documenting the tour. It's pretty amazing. Tons of photos and interviews with surviving participants from that tour. I'm attaching a photo of the book.

As always, thank you for the wonderful piece. You're one of the high points of the week, every week.

Peace & Music,
Scott Sobol

_________________________________

I saw his sixth to last concert in June 2016 at Bojangles, a dive bar in the outskirts of New Waterford Ohio down the road from me, 15 miles south of Youngstown. He played outside on a rickety stage that looked like it was going to collapse, especially with his grand piano on it. I couldn't believe a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (and an acknowledged member of the Wrecking Crew) would play there. A friend of mine that worked for Clear Channel got us free tickets. He played tons of covers, a very eclectic set, including some Beatles' tunes. It was an excellent show. Probably only 200-300 people there. So glad I got to see him. An amazing talent.

RSS

_________________________________

Loved Mad Dogs. Went and saw the movie in Macon, GA twice. But Leon's "Young Blood" on The Concert for Bangladesh really blew my mind. Sadly not on the DSPs. What a voice!!

Don VanCleave

_________________________________

Leon Russell, together with Marc Benno, also created two albums under the title Asylum Choir (1 & 2) in the same studio space I believe.

No hits but there's plenty to take in across both albums. Being an avid sleeve credits reader I noted Benno also played bass on The Doors LA Woman album.

Thanks

Philip Mortlock
Creative Director
ORiGiN Music

_________________________________

This is a lovely piece. It brings back so many explosive memories of that period. One has to harken back to the two Asylum Choir records with Marc Benno along with some help from a young Rita Coolidge. I seem to recall an audio out take of the three of them discussing Straight Brother. I'm sure it exists online somewhere. Vinyl copies of those records are among my greatest treasures. Thanks so much for reminding me.
Cheers,
D.L. Byron

_________________________________

All we listened to that year were Leon and Elton...over and over and over:)

Jimmy Wachtel

_________________________________

Thank the good Lord that my dad managed to obtain Leon Russell and The Shelter People on 8 track during my youth in secluded Southern Utah!

Kurt Lambeth

_________________________________

Bob, One exception to post Mad Dogs is his second self titled Joe Cocker album from 1972 with Black-eyed Blues, Midnight Rider, and…WOMAN TO WOMAN! What a fucking groove! I agree that after that the albums were spotty, until Across From Midnight in 1997 and Hymn For My Soul in 2007. Both well worth an entire listen.

As for Leon, such a shame that he went from filling stadiums to playing small clubs solo with an electric keyboard for the last years of his life. Hey, here is a FUNKY YT clip of him and the Gap Band doing Ain't That Peculiar live in his Tulsa Studio.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-juchOyWKE

Kevin Kiley

_________________________________

Leon lived his last years in Mt Juliet Tn not too far from my lake house on Old Hickory Lake outside of Nashville. When Leon passed his name was on the sign outside the funeral home with two other names. When I drove by and noticed Leon's name second I called the funeral director and told him about Leon and his icon in stature in Rock History. He immediately moved Leon's name to the top of the sign. Love that about Nashville!

Regards
Don Cook




Interesting timing, this article. "Of Thee I Sing," from the "Shelter People" LP, has been in my head for weeks. Also saw Mad Dogs Spring Weekend '70 at SUNY New Paltz. Leon -- top hat, black Les Paul. Rita Coolidge singing "Superstar." Don't forget their involvement in "Concert for Bangla Dash," either.

Matthew Auerbach

_________________________________

Denny Cordell ... the best... he got Joe through the bathroom window and more... shame you can't ask Tom Petty...
Best, Andrew Loog Oldham
PS they rehearsed Mad Dogs in Westport CT. Nigel Thomas brought Joe around one night to my house in Wilton ( is this a 4 ply weepie for you yet, or not ? ) . Joe sat in my living room behaving, they all did.then he said, " so this is what's between new york and boston ..." he was right ...

_________________________________

I remember sneaking into the Westport Country Playhouse - around 1970 - Joe Cocker was there rehearsing with some configuration of Mad Dogs & Englishmen. You may remember a band from Westport called GoodHill - Joe taped the trumpet player Ricky Alfonso, and the saxophonist Bill Barron for MD&E! Magical night hiding in the last rows listening to Joe and the band...

My buddies and I had similar adventures at Fairfield University around the
same time - we'd get there around 2 in the afternoon on a Saturday when a concert was scheduled and offered to help unload the equipment from the trucks - that usually ended with a free ticket for that night's show - we saw artists like like Poco - Spirit - Miles Davis plus...

Lastly, you mentioned the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester! Best shows I saw there was Edger Winter's White Trash and the Mahavishnu Orchestra!

Steve Krentzman

_________________________________

We also went to the Capitol Theatre to see Mad Dogs & Englishmen.
The background singers included Rita Coolidge (who sang "Superstar")
and Claudia Lennear who was an Ikette! When Joe introduced Leon
Russell, out walked this freak with long salt and pepper hair and a big top hat on his head. He took over the piano, the stage and every single person in the audience.

It still remains one of the best live shows I've ever seen. And yes - no big
production - just a wall of singers, horns, musicians and songs.

Leon's first solo album included "A Song for You", still one of the most profound love songs ever written.

I still have the buttons the Capitol Theatre handed out (?) sold (?) the night
of the Mad Dogs show. Or was that the night The Kinks headlined and Ray Davies told everyone to go see "Deep Throat"?

Regardless, more moves than I can count on both hands/coast to coast and back again and for many reasons, that theatre remains in my memory like it was yesterday and after all those years and miles, that button remains in a glass jar in a cabinet in my desk.

Janie Hoffman

_________________________________

huge leon russell fan here. huge. have every record. saw all the la shows back in the day. once even queezed up to the front only to have leon put his tophat on my friend linda's head. one of my favorite concert memories... of all the 'rock' deaths, his hit me the hardest. my best friend cheryl's grandma lived right next to leon russell but we never knew it until he left the area. cheryl's grandma then told cheryl she thought the person she (cheryl) and her best friend (me) liked so much is my neighbor but he just moved out! well, we went to cheryl's grandmas house and somehow (i can't remember if we hopped the fence or what) we got into the deserted studio. the door was open and we just went inside. we needed souvenirs! i got an empty reel to reel tape box, a lonely guitar string and a spoon. cheryl found a christmas ornament. she still has her treasure. somewhere along the road mine disappeared. haven't thought about that until your article today... aaahhh, the days of youth, fandom and righteous music. thanks bob!

Denise Mello

_________________________________

My dad picked me up from football practice and played Mad Dogs for like a month. I was 8 and knew that record like the back of my hand. Thanks dad! What a great album to raise a musician on, along with Beatles blue greatest hits, Neil Diamond greatest hits, Who's Next and lots of Grand Funk and Foghat. Led me right into the kingdom of Led Zeppelin!! Drumming until I die!!
Bob, I love your passion for music and culture. You're my Rolling Stone! Keep on Truckin baby, got to keep on truckin!!
Jonathan Kutz

_________________________________

Drinking and drugs during the tour and after the tour killed Joe's early career. He arrived back in the UK after the tour dead broke. Less than a couple hundred dollars in his pocket. The entourage on the tour was massive with drugs and wild sex ongoing. Rita Coolidge told me years later that so many of the performers were treated at VD clinics multiple times on the tour. Joe retreated to Sheffield and slowly tried to build but he was a wreck. I interviewed him on his first tour in North America and was was almost comatose. How he got onstage I'm not sure but he was quite good. Wasted as he was he wasn't brilliant onstage but he was better than you'd expect. Most journalists loved Joe. He was a sweet guy. But Leon the the ringmaster of Mad Dogs. Out from his shadow as a studio session player and producer. You are wrong. Mad Dog tour didn't make Leon a star it made him a rock and roll legend.

Larry LeBlanc

_________________________________

Bob, really happy you mentioned Willis Alan Ramsey in this newsletter. He is one of the most prolific songwriters and certainly an unbeknownst founder of Americana. Early in his career he would perform with his back to the audience because he was so shy. I wrote for a southeast music pub Hittin' the Note put of Atlanta in college. I drove across the country in 1975 with a buddy who was a photographer stopping in Austin to interview him at his studio Hound Sound studio. Unfortunately he never put out another record and never toured nationally remaining one of the best artists you've never heard of but know his songs. He keeps threatening to release a new one which has been recorded. We continue to wait.

Dan Lipson

_________________________________

So it's the late 60's early 70's and I'm at my girlfriend's house watching tv with her and on whatever program we were watching all of a sudden Leon Russell comes on. I can still picture it today with him sitting at a grand piano and a single spot on him. He starts to sing "A Song for You". All of a sudden, my girlfriend starts singing along and I look at her like, when did you get hip to Leon Russell???? My mind is blown until she tells me that the Carpenters sing it which is what she listened back then. I thought to myself, my god, please tell me that Leon not Karen wrote it! My faith was then restored in Leon.

Keep up with the letters. Long time fan.

Paul Colombo

_________________________________

Bob - I was privlaged to see Leon Russell in Seattle at Bumbershoot about 10 years ago. He wasn't on the main stage but rather played one of the outliers on the edge of the festival grounds. There was less than a thousand people watching, with many more casually strolling by during his show like he was some corner street musician. I wanted to grab them as they walked by and shout "Don't you know who this is?" But I knew it would be lost on them.
He was dressed in an all white suit with long, white hair flowing past his shoulders. He walked painfully slowly onto the stage using a cane, but when he sat down at that piano and started to play, look out! The man still had the juice.
When he finished his set the audience was demanding more. Rather than exit and return he just sat there, smiling. "I'm too old to get up and come back for an encore. So I'll just stay here." The audience laughed and erupted in applause. It was a poignant but memorable moment.

tvnews

_________________________________

Thank you for this! You are probably already aware but Leon also built a studio in an old church back home in Tulsa. After Leon it was owned by Steve Ripley (The Tractors, Bob Dylan). Anyhow, sounds like some nice folks have acquired the Church Studio and are bringing it back to life.

thechurchstudio.com

They are on twitter as well, @TheChurchStudio

Nicolas Bernardine

_________________________________


Did you know Leon's Church Studio here in Tulsa is being refurbished? Teresa Knox, who is an entrepreneur here and a historic preservationist, is working on it. She owns the studio and is working to restore it to its former glory as a studio as well as make it a landmark in tribute to Leon. He owned it from around 1970 to 76. instagram.com/thechurchstudio?igshid=1xb1amkkok66t

Best,

Greg Renoff

_________________________________

Loved your piece on Skyhill. When we started Lost Highway in 2000 I wanted to call it Shelter Records, but couldn't get the rights. Russell and Cordell had a short, but brilliant run with the label. Tulsa roots. They had a studio in a church there as well as LA
Willis Allen Ramsey wrote "Muskrat Love" too. Not my favorite but nice copyright.
Cale, Petty, Gap Band and the first American single by Marley. Brilliant roster. "Hank Wilson's Back" turned me on to Hank Williams. Shelter People is a desert island disc. Formative stuff for this fan. A bunch of amazing players came out of that scene. A Native American named Jesse Ed Davis is one who you have heard more than you know.
Thanks for the memories.

Luke Lewis

_________________________________

The very first assignment I worked on when I relocated to L.A. in 1975, was the breakup of Shelter Records and its affiliated publishing company that owned 100% of the publishing on all the artists. (Tom Petty, JJ. Cale, Phoebe Snow, Dwight Twilley, Phil Seymour, and, of course, Leon Russell).
Leon was the proverbial gift that kept giving: "All songwriters steal, I do it scientific".

Once Leon wrote a song for Barbra Streisand's A Star is Born". She asked for changes and he refused, saying, " Barbra, I kind of like it the way I wrote it, but I'll write another if you want". (How many of today's writers would have the balls to say this to a gigantic star on a project this big)?

Anyway, in a small world story, even for the incestuous music biz, our law firm and Denny's law firm shared a floor in BH. As the papers were ready to be signed, Cordell (the other firm's client) walked into my office, closed the door, and asked me, "Is this a good deal for me?" What a moment!

Anyway, Leon signed a huge deal with Mo at WB Records, but it was never the same for him. Didn't stop his spending. His much put-upon business manager once told me that Leon's mother must have dropped him on his head when he was a baby which had a bizarre side effect: he was unable to grasp the concept of leasing, and, as a result, he had to own everything (tour bus, plane, recording studio, etc.). While common today, this "own everything" philosophy was rare then and, unfortunately, not sustainable without big revenue flow.

A great character in another time and place.

Lance Grode

_________________________________

Jay Jay French re: Leon Russell and MD&E

As I too lived almost weekly at the Fillmore East and to a lesser degree the Capitol Theater in Portchester and the Capitol Theater in Passaic and the Shaeffer Festival concert series in Central Park, I'm always asked
"What is the best show I've ever seen?"

My top 10 make most folks terribly envious but when it comes down to the best of the best. When it comes to the single most transformative, the kind of show that, as it was happening, I could only keep telling myself that history needs to write this down.... Well read on

Not the 27 Dead shows with Pigpen
Not Zeps for ever Fillmore show Jan 1969 when they systematically dismantled the headliner Iron Butterfly
Not Zep at the Shaeffer festival
Not Zep at the Pavilion in Flushing Meadow
Not Zep heading with Jazz legend Woody Herman
Not the Thanksgiving weekend 1969 Rolling Stones shows including the riot at the Friday matinee.
Not the Stones amazing 1972 Exile show at MSG
Not Jimi and the band of Gypsies, New Years 1969.A showcase of guitar playing for the ages and never surpassed by anyone
Not the week of The Who doing Tommy
Not the week of CSN
Not Chicago with Terry Kath when they were still the Chicago Transit Authority.
Not Johnny Winter's debut with BB King Headlining.
Not Canned Heat and the Youngbloods
NOT Zappa and the Mothers
Not Moby Grape
Not Traffic
Not the Airplane
Not John Mayall recording Turning Point
Not the Band recording Rock of Ages at the Palladium.
Not James Taylor first at Carnegie Hal
Not Stevie Wonders first at Carnegie Hall

All of the above and dozens more amazing, incredible oerformances were the shows that fed my dreams.

But The single absolutely incredible performance of all was:

Leon Russell and MD&E at the Fillmore East

I could cry even now thinking about it.

If music is a religion then Leon and MD&E's performance that night was God's Rock n Roll deliverence to me.

I rest my F*cking case!!

_________________________________

After a few world tours, probably 40x countries worth as his musical director and keyboardist, after having played on half a dozen of his records and produced one I'm very proud of (Heart & Soul), I probably know a side of Joe Cocker that many do not know. A sweeter man you could never meet, but also an expert on Zulu history, the annexation of Australia, a huge political junkie and don't even get me started on his knowledge of growing tomatoes and nurturing dogs.

Never did I see Joe do anything but deliver 100% of what he had, every note, every moment. That was his secret, that's what fascinated people, there were seeing a man at the extreme edge of his capability, ten toes off the end of the surfboard. Oh, and somehow, nobody ever taught Joe how to sing out of tune. NEVER. Astonishing.

Night after night I would see him hit the high note on our encore of "You Are So Beautiful," a small little falsetto that I let him have a cappella as the two of us closed the show together, the encore, just piano and vocal. How many artists do you know that can pull that off? Joe did it every night, even if the note was barely there. It just made it more touching-this beast of a man vulnerable enough in front of thousands to let the chips fall as they may. NO FEAR.

Contrast that with "the scream" in "Little Help From My Friends," where, after drinking 5 or 6 LARGE bottles of Evian to keep hydrated during the show(?!), I would see, from my point of view, a cloud of water vapor backlit by the spotlight that was the size of a Volkswagen. A sight to behold. And hear. The Pavarotti of Rock. Or maybe Luciano was the Cocker of Opera…

We'd finish each night by meeting in his dressing room together while the meet & greet people waited, sweaty, talking about the show, our tomatoes, politics, and our dogs, over a Shepherd's pie. This went on all over the world, night after night. Zurich…Vienna…Capetown…Moscow...

When we'd work up songs, just the two of us in my studio, he'd sing as I played piano off to my left shoulder. My ears would ring for a day or two afterwards. I remember him recording a vocal at my studio, and afterwards I was taking the mic down and saw a foreign object on the pop filter. I said to myself "that's either chicken or lung tissue." I threw it into the dishwasher. That's the thing with Joe, that MIGHT have been lung tissue. That's how much he gave ALWAYS.

Years later, after not seeing Joe for a long time, I went to see him at the Nokia here in LA, as an audience member. Not enjoyable to be honest, not being able to send my energy through him, and to not feel his through me screaming out of the monitors (NO IN EARS!).
Afterwards, I surprised him in the dressing room and we hugged and he gave me his "oh CJ, how do you stay so impossibly thin" line. He was then whisked away for a photo with some A-list celebrity.
The room was eventually cleared, and now I was one of the ones waiting OUTSIDE the dressing room. Strange feeling. I remember I was chatting with Edgar Winter.

Then Ray Neapolitan, Joe's most trusted best friend, tour manager, handler, everything, came up to me and said "what are you doing out here-Joe wanted everyone out so he could spend some time with you."
I went back into the dressing room, and Joe gave me a sweaty hug, and sat down and cut his Shepherd's pie in half and pushed it over to me.
We then talked about dogs and tomatoes and politics and whatever…until I knew when it was time to go and gave Joe a tearful hug.

That was the last time I ever saw him.

He left us well before his time, he still had so much to give. A huge loss to the world and to me personally at only 70.

A beautiful beautiful man, a reluctant genius, a true force of nature. What a lucky guy I was to spend so much with this man. I could go on and on.

CJ Vanston


PS Joe loved Leon

_________________________________

A friend's photo of Leon Russell's headstone: bit.ly/2MErF8j

Katie Bradford
Portland, OR

_________________________________

I still remember the first time we met many years ago and sang this refrain in the middle of a party somewhere because of our love of Leon. This sure stands up pretty good today.

Well, I don't exactly know what's going on in the world today
Don't know what there is to say about the way the people are treating each other - not like brothers
Leaders take us far away from ecology with mythology and astrology
I've got some words to say about the way we live today - why can't we learn to love each other

It's time to learn a new face to the whole world wide human race
Stop the money chase - lay back, relax and get back on the human track
Stop racing toward oblivion - oh, such a sad, sad state we're in
And that's the thing - do you recognize the bells of truth when you hear them ring

Won't you stop and listen
To the children sing
Won't you sing it children
Won't you come on and sing it children


Best to you always pal!!!!

Tommy Nast

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