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The Master of Space and Time plays.
Rock Music is alive and doing quite well at the Simmons Center last night.
From "Delta Lady" through
"We're alone now and I'm singing this song for you."
to "Great Balls of Fire!"
Leon Russell plays with no break, almost no talk. It is steady music, hardly a pause even for applause. (And there was lots of that.)
Thanks Leon. For the music and for the little story about Bob Dylan. And for digging "Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" out for a refreshing statement. And thanks for music so good it brought tears to my eyes, more than once.
Thanks Leon. |
(Note: Here are some comments from my son-in-law Jeff who is Program Director for the "Live at the Center" program series.)
Leon moves slowly because he was in two motorcycle accidents in the '80s in which both of his legs were severly injured. Plus, he is 65 and hasn't always treated his body like a temple! Something most people also don't know about him, which I noticed again when escorting him to and from the stage to his van - he was partially paralyzed on the right side at birth, which has left him with a right arm that just kind of hangs limp at his side when he walks. That affliction makes it even more amazing that he's a virtuoso on piano and guitar.
The song the organist sang is "Rosie" by Jackson Browne. The organist and lead guitarist, by the by, have only been with Leon for 2 months, but I thought overall it was the best band he's had since the early '80s.
Leon has always loved to cover Dylan songs and has done some of the most innovative remakes of Bob's songs. He's always done 1 or 2 in concerts but just hadn't done "Hard Rain" in public for a while. (He also did Dylan's "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" in Saturday's concert, which is one of his best Dylan covers.) Ironically, in the movie 'Remember the Titans," the soundtrack includes Leon's version of "Hard Rain" - it's played when the high school football players are taking an early-morning training run through the mist on the battlefield at Gettysburg.
Our crowd was nearly 690, which meant about 60-70 empty seats, all of which belonged to season ticket holders. It's the second-largest crowd we've drawn for a concert since the CTAC took over the series in 2001. We knew some season ticket holders would have no interest in Leon and we also knew we were contending with Xmas parades in 4 area towns and OU playing football on TV. But the general admission ticket buyers turned out in force.
We lost about 2 dozen people in the first half of the show because the music was too loud. And even the Leon Lifers who stayed on through the whole thing felt the music was right at the edge of being at an uncomfortable volume. What they don't know is that we spent extra money to bring in a technical experts from an OKC sound company who've worked Leon's concerts before, and they were able to control things enough that there wasn't any distortion. Leon has always loved to play loud, and after all, it is rock 'n' roll!
Talk about reclusive: Leon had played in Fayetteville, Ark. on Friday night and they drove straight through to Duncan. They arrived about 8:30 a.m. and parked in back of the Simmons Center, and Leon didn't emerge from the van until 5 minutes before it was time to go on stage, then he immediately went back to the van after leaving the stage. He did, though, sign autographs at the van for people who ventured back - they just wouldn't let us announce that he was willing to do that. Fred, it was just like in Lawton: People handed their item to the bus driver, who took it in to Leon, who signed it and the bus driver returned it!! I still swear those autographs we got that night probably belonged to the bus driver!!!!!
Aside from the 3 blues songs Leon sang, all of the other oldies were music by groups and artists with which he's been associated in the past as a touring partner, session musician, songwriter or producer.
Leon has a long history of making social and political statements, especially on his first four albums. As reference, I'd suggest listening to the following:
- 1969 album "Asylum Choir II" with Marc Benno. Cuts: "Sweet Home Chicago," "Down on the Base," "Tryin' to Stay Alive" and "Ballad for a Soldier," which is a truly biting shot at the war and military.
- 1970 album "Leon Russell." The album introduced "A Song for You," but it also contained "Shootout On the Plantation," "Prince of Peace," "Give Peace a Chance" (Not the John Lennon song, but a Leon original that was popularized by Delaney and Bonnie) and "Roll Away the Stone."
- 1971 album "Leon Russell & The Shelter People." Cuts: "Stranger in a Strange Land," "Of Thee I Sing," "Alcatraz" and a cover of George Harrison's "Beware of Darkness." Also has his versions of "Hard Rain" and "It Takes a Lot to Laugh."
- 1972 album "Carney." Mainly a lot of fun and love songs, but the album did introduce "This Masquerade" and "Tightrope," his only top 10 solo song. It also includes "If The Shoe Fits," which is a terse bit of sarcasm directed at the music media and "Magic Mirror," one of the most introspective songs ever written.
Ann, all of these cuts are still very relevant today, and if Fred doesn't have them, I do.
OK, I guess I've revealed myself to be a total Leon Russell freak! But, hey, there are a lot worse things to be. My biggest thrill at the concert was that he was in good voice (at least, as good as can be expected), that he and the musicians said they had a good time and he was also more interactive with the audience than during any of the previous six concerts of his I've attended.
Jeff
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Thanks Jeff. The "back" story is always a thrill.
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