note sul disco
In 2008 I was on the first episode of Spectacle, a music program with
Elvis Costello that I produce with my partner David Furnish. I talked
about three singer/songwriters that I thought had been forgotten; Leon
Russell was one of them. The other two were Laura Nyro and David Ackles,
who have both passed away. During that show I made up a kind of Leon
Russell song at the end and thought no more about it. David, because he
didn’t know about Leon Russell’s music or Laura Nyro or David Ackles,
bought their CDs and put them on his iPod. Fast forward to January 2009
in South Africa on safari: David and I are getting ready for lunch, he’s
playing his iPod, and he’s playing Leon Russell’s “Retrospective” and
I’m sitting there listening to it and suddenly I burst into tears and I
start sobbing uncontrollably. David said, ‘What the hell is the matter?’
and I said, ‘His music takes me back to one of the most beautiful and
fantastic times of my life. It’s not fair that people have forgotten
about how wonderful this man’s music was and that makes me angry.’
Leon
Russell was my biggest influence in the late 60s and early 70s, from a
piano-playing point-of-view and from a vocal point-of-view. I’ve been
influenced by a lot of other piano players too, but Leon was my man; he
was the master as far as I was concerned. And I got to meet him. He was
in the Troubadour club on the second night I played there in 1970. I saw
him sitting in the audience and I was petrified because he was my idol.
You couldn’t miss him; he was such an incredible looking man with his
silver hair and his dark glasses. He was so kind to me from the word
‘go’ and we did concerts together. We did the Fillmore East. We did
other dates together and for me that was a dream come true to actually
play with him, and for him to be so nice to me.
We were two
people happening at the same time, being successful at the same time. He
was the greatest bandleader of his era. He did Delaney & Bonnie and
Joe Cocker with Mad Dogs and Englishmen and then his own records and
then, of course, the Concert for Bangladesh, which was one of the best
live concerts ever and probably the first charity record ever made from a
charity concert.
Anyway, then I lost touch with Leon and our
paths kind of went different ways. And until I did the Spectacle
program, I never really thought about getting in touch with him even
though I listened to his records constantly throughout the years that
we’d been apart... I think 37 years. I phoned Johnny Barbis who is my
U.S. manager and who has been working with me for about 30 years. He
used to work with Leon Russell in the days of Shelter Records. I told
him the story and I said, ‘You know, I’ve got to talk to Leon.’ So, he
got a number for me for Leon, who was living in Columbia outside of
Nashville in Tennessee. And I phoned Leon up and he was very sweet. He
said, ‘Thank you for the Elvis Costello show, bless your heart,’ and I
said, ‘What have you been doing?’ and he said, ‘I’ve just been writing,
riding in my bus, playing shows, doing this and that, making my records
and selling them on the Internet.’ I said, ‘When I come to America, I’d
love to see you and catch up and have dinner,’ and he said, ‘Well, I’d
like that too.’ So, I put the phone down and I said to David, ‘You know,
that’s not the reason I called him.’ So I phoned Johnny Barbis back and
I said, ‘Johnny, can you get me a number for T Bone Burnett?’
Now,
T Bone Burnett is one of my favorite producers, but I’d never spoken to
him. I called him and I told him the story, like I’m telling you now,
about how I broke down and how he was my idol and I said, ‘Would you
ever consider making a record with the two of us?’ And he said, ‘Well
having heard that story, I’d love to.’ So that kind of got the ball
rolling and then I phoned Leon back and I said, ‘Would you like to do a
record?’ and he said, ‘Well do you think I can?’ and I said, ‘Of course
you can.’ I said T Bone would do it and Leon said, ‘Let’s do it!’ So he
was very excited and I was very excited.
He came to Las Vegas
while I was finishing up the Red Piano show and we met and we talked and
it was great to see him. And then Bernie Taupin and Johnny Barbis went
to Austin to see him. And suddenly the seeds were being planted to make
this record. We were originally going to make the record in January 2010
and start writing then as well, but in October of last year, Billy Joel
got sick and canceled the northwestern part of the American tour, so I
thought, I’m going to go to Los Angeles and go into the studio with T
Bone, Bernie and Leon and start seeing if we could write some songs.
Bernie had some lyrics ready and we came into the studio – The Village
Recorder in Los Angeles – and we sat in the control room talking about music,
and it wasn’t until T Bone played a video of Mahalia Jackson singing
“Didn’t It Rain” at the Newport Jazz Festival that the ice was broken.
Leon and I have a deep love of gospel music. I went out to the piano and
started writing a song called “A Dream Come True,” and then Leon came
and started playing with me and then the two pianos sounded so great, so
we knew that would work. And then we sang together and all of a sudden,
the ice really was broken. Not that it was ice in a bad way, but it was
awkwardness. And suddenly the album was definitely on and it was just
gung-ho from that point on.
During those four days, ten songs
were written. Leon had already written one song with Bernie called “I
Should Have Sent Roses.” Leon and I wrote a couple of songs together, so
in that period of time we had ten songs written before we convened in
January of 2010.
We came to Los Angeles to record but Leon had to
have a major operation a week before we made the record; the operation
lasted 51⁄2 hours and was very debilitating for him. He came into the
studio a week later and would stay for two or three hours playing his
part, singing his part, maybe writing a song here and there. And a week
later, he was doing the Grammys with Zac Brown and we were doing the
MusiCares concert for Neil Young and gradually people came into the
studio and found out that Leon was in town. Ringo, Sharon Stone, Stevie
Nicks, Grace Jones and LeAnn Rimes came by the studio. Brian Wilson came
and sang on the record because Leon had played on a lot of The Beach
Boys records. All of a sudden, this man who was very frail, because of
his illness, and who had been forgotten about, suddenly got his
confidence again and started to play the grand piano instead of the
electric piano, and all his great piano playing came flooding back and
we made this incredible record. When I say incredible, it’s incredible
because the music I think is pretty fantastic, but more so, it’s the
most poignant journey of someone who had been lost in the consciousness
of American music and who is going to come back now into the forefront
of American music; someone who was a giant, who had written so many
beautiful songs, was a great composer, a great arranger and had played
on so many people’s records, including all the Phil Spector records.
You
know, his CV (curriculum vitae) is amazing and I’m here making a record
with my idol and, to be honest with you, what happened was it brought
someone back to life. It gave him the confidence and love from his
people who were his peers (for instance, Jim Keltner, who played drums
on the record used to be in Leon’s band). So, with the quality of
musicians he was playing with on this record, he finally got the
confidence and the love that he should have had for a long time. And I
can honestly say, of all the records I’ve made – and I’ve made so many
records with so many wonderful memories – this one stands out because
not only was I making a record with my idol, I was also working with T
Bone Burnett, who is also an idol of mine and my dear partner Bernie’s.
And what ensued was probably one of the most personal and wonderful
stories that you’re ever going to hear in music: someone coming back
from not the dead, but more or less the dead, to become someone who is
claiming his rightful place in American music, and I’m so proud of him
for doing that. I just got to know and love this man so much and this
album is the result of what went on.
And in March 2010, I’m
sitting in the same room on safari, 12-to-14 months later, and I have
the album recorded and it’s one of these things that was meant to be.
From Spectacle and David playing his iPod, to me having the courage to
go ask for his phone number and phoning Leon up, then T Bone, then Billy
canceling; all these things lined up with the stars to make this
record. I’m so proud of it, but most of all, I’m proud of Leon for
coming back and proving to us all what a wonderful and incredible artist
he is.
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