| rdfs:comment
| - Russell is politically inactive. In his own words: "I'm not an ecology freak... nor Women's Liberation. I'm almost totally politically inactive. I don't play benefits or any kind of fund-raisers. I prefer to play at hospitals, for people who otherwise can't see us. But I can't see playing for causes, unless it's specifically -- for instance, if it's my cause or some poor people's, I'll try to help. But you won't find me playing for any peace candidates -- or any candidates. Both economics and politics are false sciences. They're based on poor communication. In other words, the reason people don't like to trade -- the reason they prefer to have money is because they don't trust their own judgement of what something's worth. If they have an outside arbitor, who fixes the value for the time c
- Peel would have played many records featuring Leon Russell during the mid-1960s, as Russell had a prolific career as a session musician and played on many hits which were in the playlists of the US radio stations where Peel (or John Raven(s)croft) worked . But the first record to feature Leon Russell under his own name was the 1968 LP Look Inside The Asylum Choir, which featured a group led by Russell and fellow singer-songwriter Marc Benno. It was not a commercial success but gained some attention and a UK release. It was reviewed in International Times and Peel played a few tracks on Top Gear, and more by the group when Russell and Benno reunited for a second Asylum Choir album in the early 1970s.
|
| abstract
| - Peel would have played many records featuring Leon Russell during the mid-1960s, as Russell had a prolific career as a session musician and played on many hits which were in the playlists of the US radio stations where Peel (or John Raven(s)croft) worked . But the first record to feature Leon Russell under his own name was the 1968 LP Look Inside The Asylum Choir, which featured a group led by Russell and fellow singer-songwriter Marc Benno. It was not a commercial success but gained some attention and a UK release. It was reviewed in International Times and Peel played a few tracks on Top Gear, and more by the group when Russell and Benno reunited for a second Asylum Choir album in the early 1970s. Leon Russell also became known for his collaborations with Joe Cocker, supplying Cocker with the hit song "Delta Lady", which the singer recorded for his 1969 Peel session. Russell was Cocker's musical director during the singer's 1970 Mad Dogs And Englishmen tour of the US, and Peel played tracks from the ensuing live double LP. In the same year Leon Russell issued his first solo album, and soon became a very fashionable artist, performing live and collaborating with many big names of the era. His records were often featured on Sounds Of The Seventies radio shows, including Peel's. Having lived in Texas and Oklahoma, Peel liked the rootsy, southern country-rock-blues-soul style of Russell and other artists of that time, like J.J. Cale, Delaney and Bonnie and the Allman Brothers Band. But Leon Russell didn't seem to be a lasting Peel favourite, and existing playlists show as many plays for his records with the Asylum Choir as for his better-known solo work. The DJ spoke about a piece Russell wrote with Eric Clapton, the track 'Blues Power', on the 16 August 1976 show, when he described the song as one of the best from Eric's early solo period: "Obviously, doing a programme on Cream, there are dozens of records which we'd like to play which we can't but we thought we'd play something from Eric's period when he was trying to lose himself in a travelling circus of American groovers, and this is just about the best from that period, a song he co-wrote with Leon Russell."
- Russell is politically inactive. In his own words: "I'm not an ecology freak... nor Women's Liberation. I'm almost totally politically inactive. I don't play benefits or any kind of fund-raisers. I prefer to play at hospitals, for people who otherwise can't see us. But I can't see playing for causes, unless it's specifically -- for instance, if it's my cause or some poor people's, I'll try to help. But you won't find me playing for any peace candidates -- or any candidates. Both economics and politics are false sciences. They're based on poor communication. In other words, the reason people don't like to trade -- the reason they prefer to have money is because they don't trust their own judgement of what something's worth. If they have an outside arbitor, who fixes the value for the time certificates -- which is what the dollars actually are -- money just buys time -- it's the same thing with politics, it's based on poor communications. Capitalism itself in itself is a bit of a rip-off, as far as I'm concerned, but what are you going to do? I'm certainly not going to be a politician and change it, in or out of the system. I'm just going to sing my songs, because that's what I do. Some Oriental philosopher -- Tao -- once said that people that want to be political leaders are the least qualified to do it, and that's true. The people who really are qualified won't mess with it. So we always get the second best." He has done two duet albums. One with Willie Nelson called "One for the Road" in 1978 and "The Union" with Elton John in 2010. Of course, John wanted him to be in the spotlight as he talked about crying while listening to Russell's music and says he is angry that people having forgotten about Russell. In 2011 he was inducted into the 2011 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)