Leon Russell Learns How to Boogie
Buffalo Tom Guitarist Tackles Classic Rock Pianist
Listen to this interview:
Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time's Journey Through Rock & Roll History by Bill Janovitz (Hachette Books, 2023)
Buffalo Tom guitarist Bill Janovitz has written a couple books on the Rolling Stones, and his new book talks to over a hundred sources to tell the Leon Russell story, which overlaps with the Stones in some telling ways. Here’s an excerpt from our interview:
TR: So, and this is something I learned from your book and it’s that Leon plays a second piano on "Live With Me," tell us that story.
BJ: Yeah, so he went over to do his first record — Leon, and this was right before the Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour — he had been a session guy all these years and he became extremely well known I should say among especially the British rock illuminati for his work with Delaney and Bonnie on the Accept No Substitute record. And I talked to you know, Clapton and Elton John, all these people that turned on to this record and piano playing and hearing somebody do this sort of Gospel style. And so he hooks up with producer Denny Cordell who has produced Procol Harum and Moody Blues and Joe Cocker, and he worked with Joe closely, and Denny takes this guy over to London to work with Glyn Johns at Olympic, and record his first debut record as a solo artist. And the band basically is Clapton, George Harrison, Ringo, Steve Winwood, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts… I mean, it's madness, right? Like all these guys had kind of heard about this guy, and Keith and Mick were there for a bit, and they in fact run through an early version of "Shine a Light," which later appeared on Exile. And you can kind of hear Mick feeling his way through the song and you could hear Leon really steering this gospel style that Nicky picked up on. Nicky had already been doing this stuff, but he really picked up on what Leon was doing there. And so they're taking the plane back, and at this point, Leon had connected with Chris O’Dell — who has got a wonderful book out called Ms. O’Dell, I could just talk about her for a long time — but anyway she was working at Apple for The Beatles, and she came back as Leon’s new lady friend. So they were flying back to LA and they couldn't get first class tickets because the first class tickets were all booked up by the Stones and their entourage, so Charlie and Bill came back to coach and said hello in coach, and once they got back to LA, The Stones said “Hey, let's get Leon on a track or two.” And in fact, Leon arranged the whole horns section for "Live with Me," that got jettisoned and they left on Bobby Keys’ sax…
Excerpt from “Dylan at A Gallop,” Buffalo Tom at the Rat, Boston Phoenix, 1988
AS LEAD SINGER and guitarist for Buffalo Tom, Bill Janovitz’s heavy-fuzz bombast seems to sprout its own rhythm section. On their homonymous debut for SST, the band finds ample new ground to chart in hard rock trio diagrams that other bands have long since worn out. Songs rise out of the opening tremor of Janovitz’s guitar and quickly cascade into tidal waves, then oceans of sound—it seems impossible that there are only three instruments responsible for all the noise. As the local debut of the season, it shoots straight through the “debut” qualifier, making you think this band has a longer past.
monthly mixer
Each month I dump scraps into a dog’s breakfast playlist, often from notable readings, tweet mentions, or random TV Shazams. This month finds a stack of new country-pop singles and stray tracks mentioned in the Leon Russell book… if you want to listen on another client, try Soundiiz.
newsletters
Caryn Rose reports from Springsteen’s Detroit show in her Jukebox Graduate Newsletter:
“Would I still feel like I belonged, like this was home? Did I still believe Bruce Springsteen and trust him as an artist? What would it be like to be in a Springsteen audience again? Who were these people who could afford $1000 to be in the pit? This was a man who has made every European promoter tear their hair out because he insisted that his fans be allowed to queue outside the stadiums. Would he not see the difference in the audience and worse, would he just not care? I haven’t really written about this in depth because it’s been such a hard thing to figure out…”
Pegged to the tortured reissue of De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising, Dilla Time author Dan Charnas argues for new licensing policies in “It’s Time to Legalize Sampling,” in Slate:
Over the past four decades, even as hip-hop’s method of sonic collage became a basic mode of music making across genres, the legal conception of what music is, and what constitutes authorship, remains rooted in our pre-digital past. As we move into the second half of the hip-hop century, it’s high time to change that. And there is a way to do it, if we have the will…
music journalism insider, sizzling interview explodes next week
Charles Taylor’s new movie newsletter, Crackers in Bed
noises off
substack archive: Loretta Lynn, Maria Yudina, Chuck Berry
more links at the riley rock index: obits, bylines, youtube finds, reference sites
@timrileyauthor: ooh Dylan scribe Michael Gray (@1michaelgray1) makes the Arthur Alexander covers pinada spill “by Beatles, Stones *and* Bob Dylan ("Sally Sue Brown”)
twitter likes: the Nicky Hopkins doc (The Session Man) launches a fundraiser to help cover song licensing costs. Give generously.
Petra Haden dances to Mike Posts’s Columbo’s TV theme{CHECK THIS PLZ}
beacons.ai: crawling through the wreckage
