Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time's Journey Through Rock & Roll History

by Bill Janovitz

The definitive New York Times bestselling biography of legendary musician, composer, and performer Leon Russell, who profoudly influenced George Harrison, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Willie Nelson, Tom Petty, and the world of music as a whole. 

Leon Russell is an icon, but somehow is still an underappreciated artist. He is spoken of in tones reserved not just for the most talented musicians, but also for the most complex and fascinating. His career is like a roadmap of music history, often intersecting with rock royalty like Bob Dylan, the Stones, and the Beatles. He started in the Fifties as a teenager touring with Jerry Lee Lewis, going on to play piano on records by such giants as Frank Sinatra, The Beach Boys, and Phil Spector, and on hundreds of classic songs with major recording artists. Leon was Elton John’s idol, and Elton inducted him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. Leon also gets credit for altering Willie Nelson’s career, giving us the long-haired, pot-friendly Willie we all know and love today.

In his prime, Leon filled stadiums on solo tours, and was an organizer/performer on both Joe Cocker’s revolutionary Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour and George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh. Leon also founded Shelter Records in 1969 with producer Denny Cordell, discovering and releasing the debut albums of Tom Petty, the Gap Band, Phoebe Snow, and J.J. Cale. Leon always assembled wildly diverse bands and performances, fostering creative and free atmospheres for musicians to live and work together. He brazenly challenged musical and social barriers. However, Russell also struggled with his demons, including substance abuse, severe depression, and a crippling stage fright that wreaked havoc on his psyche over the long haul and at times seemed to will himself into obscurity. Now, acclaimed author and founding member of Buffalo Tom, Bill Janovitz shines the spotlight on one of the most important music makers of the twentieth century.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, Memoir, Cultural, Audiobook

593 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 14, 2023

Reviews

[Julie]

Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time's Journey Through Rock & Roll History by Bill Janovitz is a 2023 Hachette Books publication.

I honestly have no idea how to even begin here.

This is a very comprehensive biography. The author has done an incredible job here with organizing all this material on Leon’s life. Of all the biographies I’ve ever read, this one might have been the most complicated- because Leon was complicated.

A musical genius misdiagnosed most of his life with a variety of mental health issues, he was great at music- but bad at relationships, bad with money, bad with his health. After helping so many other artists in his life, he was often forgotten about in his later years…(despite a resurgance in 2010- and his induction into the RHoF)- but in his prime…

Leon was a mystery, a bit spooky, a little intimidating. He was wild, but introverted, living in his head and in his music. He worked with so many people in his life- just an incredible list of people who wafted in and out of his orbit.

It is no wonder that he made such an impression, made such an impact on music- for others and himself. It was crazy reading about all the work he did, his methods, the way his mind worked all while he moved around a world of musical innovation. Fascinating, really.

Now when it comes to Leon’s personal life things could get sticky and Leon was not always easy to like or understand. He was, to say the very least, eccentric- not always the warmest person on earth and didn’t have a filter, either. But he also liked having all his people surrounding him despite his tendency to be absent-either physically or emotionally.

I’m really not sure how Janovitz managed to get through all the family drama portions of the book as it was often confusing and convoluted, but he did an amazing job on this herculean task.

That said, if you aren’t as familiar, as the author is, with Leon Russell, or if you aren’t a child or prodigy of Leon’s generation, some of this material could be tedious. I knew many people spoken of in this book, but there were just as many I did not know. Sometimes the process of creating the music went straight over my head and I admit to occasionally skimming some sections as this book is extremely long for a biography. In fact, it might have been a good idea to have broken this book up into two sections as is the current trend for some memoirists these days. I was tempted to put the book aside for a while, actually, as it was definitely dense at times, and I have been so busy it was hard to stay focused on some sections of it- and with the length of it I'd started to crave a little fiction. But- this didn’t diminish my absolute respect for what the author has put together here and the obvious labor of love that it was is beyond impressive.

4+ stars

[*TUDOR^QUEEN*]

Five Stars

A passion of mine is reading rock biographies, particularly about The Beatles and other classic rock figures. An intriguing musical artist kept popping up in the background during these reads: Leon Russell. Mysterious (and a bit scary) in his mirrored aviator shades, long, early gray hair, and audacious top hat. In pictures he rarely smiles, but absolutely commands on concert stages. I had to know more.

A son of Tulsa Oklahoma, born in 1942 with a birth injury that weakened his right side causing a slight limp and the need to over-compensate on piano with his left hand, Leon took the music industry by storm. A lot of people don't know this guy, yet he was a part of so much- playing on major hit records along with The Wrecking Crew, a masterful arranger of songs and musical director/participant of concerts such as the "Mad Dogs & Englishmen" with Joe Cocker. He also performed at George Harrison's "Concert for Bangladesh". He is the composer of huge classic hits made famous by other people such as "This Masquerade", "A Song for You" and "Superstar"...all these recorded by The Carpenters. I nearly cried when I read that he wrote the song "Lost Inside of You' with Barbra Streisand for her 70s version of the movie "A Star is Born". This movie in which she starred with Kris Kristofferson was one of the movies of my life that made a big impression on me as a teenager, and that song has always been my favorite/buried treasure song from that soundtrack.

This almost 600-page biography is certainly lengthy, but it needed to be. Leon Russell was a multi-faceted talent who was driven totally by musical force and lived it that way. He had a penchant for buying homes in his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, California and Tennessee, but would instantly build a new recording studio in each one. These homes became a quasi-commune as he would encourage his musical mates to be live-ins. He also was on the cutting edge of new recording technologies, owning the first drum machine, mellotron, 40-track recording console and mobile video recording unit. As a result he was often in debt, another reason for his relentless touring until the end of his life. Leon was also a suspected bipolar/manic depressive/autistic, an assessment by many close to him. While his talent and innate kindness was undeniable, his social graces were awkward. He had a tendency to trust certain people to do things for him rather than hire more reliable people, and also a penchant for running all things himself. He created Shelter Records in 1969.

A great many icons of the music and entertainment industry graciously participated in interviews for this book. There are also many direct quotes from Leon Russell himself, culled from his writings that made a very short book called Leon Russell In His Own Words. As far as I know, there isn't another mammoth Leon Russell tome out there that covers the breadth of his amazing life so completely as this. I highly recommend this wonderful book to all classic rock fans.

Thank you to the publisher Hachette Books for providing an advance reader copy via NetGalley.

[Brian]

I am too young to have been an original fan of Leon Russell's. In fact, his star was already quickly fading before I was even born. Mr. Russell came to my attention in the early 2000s when Elton John started really pushing him, eventually releasing an album with him. Since then, I've noticed Russell's music a little more, and fell in love with a couple of his songs. When I saw this biography of him, I thought “why not? I don't know anything about the guy.”

Now…I know a lot about the guy. This is a very thorough (too long) book.
LEON RUSSELL: THE MASTER OF SPACE AND TIME’S JOURNEY THROUGH ROCK & ROLL HISTORY is an interesting read. But it will only be very interesting to those who are really into rock and roll history, and things like the minutia of what it takes to produce a tour/ concert, songwriting royalties, and other such items. That part of the book was not that interesting to me and therefore I feel it could have been cut. As mentioned, this is a long biography, almost 600 pages. And that's before the notes, etc.
What I did like about this book was that Leon Russell seems to have been a thread woven through some of the most important aspects of rock and roll history. The dude performed with (or wrote for) everybody! Or at least it seems that way. That aspect was interesting, seeing how Leon Russell's life intersected with so much of rock and roll history. In fact, this book has convinced me that it would be easy to play “Six Degrees of Leon Russell” with almost any musician from 1955 to 1990.

On a personal level, Mr. Russell's life was not one that was all that appealing to me. I don't think he was a decent human being, he clearly had a lot of issues. That being said, don't we all?

Will I keep a copy of this book on my shelf? No.
But having read it will I think of Leon Russell and his music a little more? Yes.
And as a result, occasionally, I'll pull up some of his albums. And I’ll listen to them.
And that ain't bad at all.

[Colleen]

There is so much info in this book about the music industry, Leon Russell, his influences, fellow musicians, music tours, recording studios, creative brilliance and eccentricities, you’ll feel like you’re back in the day hanging with him and his music-making commune/family.
Before I go any further, I have to say that the number of people in this book describing Leon as a creative genius is extraordinary. I’ve read a ton of bios about musicians and none of them were lauded by their peers like this.
Because the info is encyclopedic in scope, I made a quick glossary of who’s who about 150 pages into the book. I’m really glad I did because it is a dense web that gets bigger and more intricate as the book progresses. If you blow past people with names you don’t recognize, you’ll get confused later on and miss some of the magic. Making connections between bands, albums and sessions, and discovering how musicians, producers and music morph, intertwine and grow is the whole gist of the book.
Before I end I have to say Leon was a wicked cool musician & person. A prodigy, a talented arranger who could play any style of music, countless instruments, compose, lead a band, and on and on and on, despite growing up with paralysis in his right hand and being bipolar. Leon was also a pioneer in audio equipment, design and acoustics and was one of the first musicians to have a racially integrated band. He married a black woman in 1973, which was a pretty radical thing back then, especially for a guy from Tulsa.
This is an engrossing book. Everybody and their brother is in it. Grab a copy.

[Jeffrey Powanda]

Comprehensive and thoroughly-researched biography of legendary musician, songwriter, and bandleader Leon Russell (born Claude Russell Bridges). It's not a smooth, slick read, but Janovitz makes up for his somewhat clumsy writing by supplying intimate details of a complicated artist and his six-decade career. It's a tender-hearted yet uncompromising portrait with a genuine love for its subject.

A few weeks ago, I chanced upon the Joe Cocker version of "The Letter" from the Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour (1970), and I was astonished at how good it sounded. The band was surprisingly large—22 pieces!—with multiple drummers, keyboardists, a horn section, and 10 backup singers (male and female, including Rita Coolidge and Claudia Lennear). Leon Russell, in his top hat, long hair and beard, hippy clothing, and demonic stare, was clearly the musical director and bandleader, the "Master of Space and Time." I vaguely knew of Russell in college, but had over the years completely forgotten about him. I was determined to learn more. Given his many achievements that I knew of, I couldn't understand why he wasn't more famous and successful.

This biography certainly explains Russell's brief hold on fame in the 1970s, but it also covers his slow decline caused by his mental and physical health problems, marital problems, poor business decisions, financial mismanagement, stubbornness, and insecurity. Since more than half the book documents Russell's downturn, the book seems more suited to his die-hard fans (of which there are many), but I stuck with it waiting for redemption. And I'm glad I did. It's a very satisfying journey.

Russell had an incomparable life in music. He was born in Oklahoma in 1942 and grew up in Tulsa. He was born with spastic paralysis, a form of cerebral palsy. Despite slight paralysis and damaged nerve endings on his right side, he learned how to play piano and other instruments. When he was only fourteen, he began playing in nightclubs. He toured with Jerry Lee Lewis as a teenager, and then moved to Los Angeles in 1959 and became one of the legendary session musicians in the Wrecking Crew, becoming their most sought-after pianist. He played on countless hits for Phil Spector, Jan and Dean, The Byrds, The Carpenters, The Beach Boys, and Frank Sinatra. He also produced hits for Gary Lewis and the Playboys, including "This Diamond Ring." He continued doing session work for nearly a decade before transitioning into a solo artist. After touring with Joe Cocker on the innovative and chaotic Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour, he recorded several successful solo albums, ushering in a new funky rock ’n’ roll blend of gospel, soul, country, and blues. By 1970, he was a bona fide rock star. In 1971, he helped his friend and former Beatle George Harrison arrange and perform in the Concert for Bangladesh in Madison Square Garden, which became a hit live album and concert movie. In 1973, Billboard listed Leon Russell as the “top concert attraction in the world.” Then came a drop off in quality and productivity. He never stopped touring, but the venues got smaller and smaller. Toward the end of his life, Elton John collaborated on an album with Russell and toured with him, giving his career a late boost. John also lobbied heavily to get Russell inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.

Russell was always a quirky performer with limited vocal range. (Despite his poor voice, Russell was a wonderfully inventive singer.) He was extremely introverted and plagued by stage fright, writer's block, and imposter's syndrome. The book suggests many times that Russell exhibited symptoms of bipolar disorder (previously called manic-depressive illness) or that he was on the autism spectrum, but that's just speculation. Over the years, Russell moved several times, bouncing from Oklahoma to California and back before settling finally in Nashville. He wasted a fortune on sophisticated recording studios and electronic music synthesizers. Later in life, he became a compulsive eater and an obsessive shopper. He was a quiet individual with a bigger stage presence, which is true of many great performers.

Though Russell didn't enjoy the lucrative touring success of other aging rock 'n' roll stars, such as The Rolling Stones and The Eagles, he kept making impactful music. He collaborated with B.B. King, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Bruce Hornsby, and Elton John, and he influenced many other artists, including Tom Petty, J.J. Cale, and Bruce Springsteen. Russell died in 2016 at age 74 while recovering from heart bypass surgery.

The book includes 23 photos across the years, showing the transformation of Leon Russell from a young, thin, clean-cut musician in the Fifties to a chubby, silver-haired, bearded hippy in his later years.

Janovitz wrote this mammoth biography in 2020-2021 during the COVID pandemic. He interviewed approximately 137 people, some of them multiple times. The list of people he talked with about Leon Russell is a veritable Who's Who of the music industry.

While reading this excellent biography, I sampled a lot of Leon's music on Pandora, as well as the following music videos:
- Leon Russell (1970) (album playlist)
- Leon Russell Homewood Session, December 5, 1970
- Joe Cocker: Mad Dogs and Englishmen (1971)
- Jumpin' Jack Flash / Young Blood - Leon Russell (Concert for Bangladesh, August 1st, 1971)
- Carney (1972) (album playlist)
- Leon Russell on David Letterman, June 19, 1984
- Leon Russell and Elton John on David Letterman, February 9, 2011
- Leon Russell Induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, March 14, 2011 (with Elton John and John Mayor)
- A Poem is a Naked Person (DVD, 2016)

I was happy to learn that 17 of Leon Russell's albums are available today from Dark Horse Music, the label founded by George Harrison and run by his son, Dhani.

It took me more than six decades to discover Leon Russell's music, and the older I get the more I enjoy listening to him.

[J Earl]

Leon Russell, by Bill Janovitz, is the type of biography I love: informative, well-written, and one long trip down memory lane. Admittedly the nostalgia part only pertains to people from the last sixty years or so, but this book is right in that area.

I knew a little about Russell's career before 1970 or so but not much. What an amazing life and career even before hitting the pop and country charts. I think Tight Rope was probably when I first really paid attention to his music. From Phil Spector, the Wrecking Crew, through Willie Nelson and so many behind the scenes roles, this is almost a who's who of music, multi-genre, of the period.

Learning about his personal trials and tribulations gives a lot more depth to some of his lyrics and certainly illustrates just how much we don't know about our stars, even in the age of social media. It may be harder for them to keep their personal lives out of the public eye, but they all have things that would surprise us.

I would recommend this to anyone with an interest in music history, particularly during the "rock era." Fans of Russell's will learn a lot and take a wonderful stroll down memory lane, while those only partly familiar with him will get some great suggestions for songs and musicians to listen to.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Jeff]

A must read for all Leon Russell fans. A must read for all who have heard of Leon Russell. A must read for all who do not know everything that Leon Russell has accomplished.

This biography has a ton of information about the "Master of Space and Time". Some of this I had read or heard before. Some of this was new. Some of this explained the confusion on the inconsistency of information. It is amazing what all he did and who he worked with. It is not amazing that he has the admiration of those who are in the business.

[Jackie]

Leon Russell was one of the seminal musical influences of the 60's and 70's. He was from Tulsa OK, and started playing the piano at a very young age.in the 60's he moved to California and made his mark with his bluesy, country rock vibe. This book brings Leon Russell's fascinating life to the page, and will be a delight to his many fans

[Martin Maenza]

Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time's Journey Through Rock & Roll History will be published on March 14, 2023. Hachette Books provided an early galley for review.

This one of those names in music history I recognize, but it is a story about which I know very little. Ask me to name some of his songs and all I can give you is "Tight Rope" from 1972. But as a huge music nerd, I realized that this a biography I needed to check out.

Janovitz is very thorough in his documenting Russell's life. As a musician himself, he provides an accurate account of studio and tour activities in a very understandable, reader-friendly way. He makes sure that every known detail is told.

A couple facts from Russell's life jumped out at me that I really appreciated. He had his hand in the Gary Lewis and the Playboys' hit "This Diamond Ring" which happened to be number 1 on the US Billboard charts the day I was born. He was very much the "Kevin Bacon" of the music world in the 60's and 70's; so many artists and industry folks can be connected to Russell by a few if not one degree of separation. For example, I did not know about his relationship with Rita Collidge, a singer whose songs I enjoyed in the 70's. Also, the Carpenters had major hits covering songs he wrote or co-wrote.

In the end, this is a stark look at the life of someone had major impact on the world of popular music and who, tragically, ended up in a very real, very relatable way. This book will serve well to remind people of his legacy.

[Mary]

As a huge Leon Russell fan who saw him play live both during his years of fame and in his waning years, I of course enjoyed this book. Although he is an icon to classic rock musicians and many devotees, his extensive contributions to music history are largely unknown. Hailing from Tulsa, OK, he toured in the fifties with Jerry Lee Lewis (often subbing for him on piano when Lee was too inebriated) and went on in the sixties as a member of the much-revered "Wrecking Crew" to record with Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys and Phil Spector. Leon also played with Bob Dylan, the Stones, George Harrison, Elton John and Tom Petty among many others. Some of his most famous & successful productions were his orchestration of Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour and Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh.

Russell was not only a superb musician but a great songwriter, as evidenced by tunes such as This Masquerade, Hummingbird, Roll Away the Stone, Magic Mirror, Alcatraz, Queen of the Roller Derby, Home Sweet Oklahoma, Lady Blue, Tightrope, and of course his signature song, A Song for You.

Leon had his demons such as severe stage fright, substance abuse, depression and a crippling disability of his right side as a result of a difficult birth. He could be erratic, even unkind, but at other times gracious and generous. His old friend Elton John helped resurrect his career when age and health issues had sidelined him and persuaded him to do an album together. Elton is largely responsible for getting him into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which he richly deserved.

Like many authors, Bill Janovitz went a little overboard in including every bit of detailed information that he researched about Russell's life in this 580 page book, but overall it was very good and informative for fans of Leon Russell.

[Kerry Pickens]

I had a huge stack of books to read and I dropped them all when I received the advance review copy from Netgalley. Leon Russell was at the height of his career on the early 1970s, while I was still in high school and I spent my first earnings on his albums. I was fortunate to see him play with Willie Nelson at some of the "picnic" outdoor concerts in Texas. Russell was a gifted songwriter and piano player, with almost evangelical style of performing. He was a musical protégé from Tulsa, OK who started his career touring with Jerry Lee Lewis, who I am sure greatly informed Russell's style. He worked in California record studios as a session musician in a group informally called the Wrecking Crew. Russell was a session musician on many albums recorded during that era including everyone from the Beach Boys to Frank Sinatra. He learned to arrange music and built his own music studio. He recorded and published other artists as well as his own music. Russell had a strange presence and swagger that many emulated and few matched.. The pentacle of his career came during the Concert for Bangladesh where he joined George Harrison singing "Beware of Darkness" and the crowd went crazy. He had many musical partners including Joe Crocker, Willie Nelson, Ray Charles and Elton John. Russell overcame neurological difficulties from a birth injury, but he succumbed to poor health and passed away in 2016. He left a rich legacy to his fans and fellow musicians including "A Song for You" which was recorded more than 40 times. Many thanks to author for the meticulous research on this extremely talented performer.

[Steve]

When I was 13, I saw The Concert for Bangla-Desh film and excitedly went home, found a picture of Leon Russell, and scared the living daylights out of my mom by telling her that was what I wanted to look like when I got older. He comes out of that movie with the most charisma of a bunch of really charismatic and talented rock stars.

As I grew older, my desire to ape his look faded, but I loved his music, especially those first three solo albums. Then I learned of his role as a session musician on all those Phil Spector records and many more. When I saw Bill Janovitz, former member of Jordan Catalano's favorite band Buffalo Tom and author of my favorite 33 1/3 book, Exile on Main Street, had written a book on Leon Russell, I had to snap it up.

Janovitz did a heavy amount of research, reading almost every interview Russell ever gave, talking to as many family and band members as he could round up (which was virtually all of them), and listening to all of the music he could find, including the many lesser records Russell made during his very long career. The book is clearly written, endlessly entertaining, and full of tidbits about the ways Russell created strokes of genius and the ways he shot himself in the foot. Speculation that Russell was bipolar and/or autistic seems believable, considering the times he was not so perfectly connected to people around him. Music was his best method of communication, and Janovitz provides all the context needed to further appreciate Leon Russell's contributions to pop music history

[Thomas DeWolf]

This is one of the most captivating books I've read in a very long time. Like many folks, I knew Leon Russell from Mad Dogs & Englishmen and the Concert for Bangladesh. We saw him in concert on a solo tour a couple decades ago... front row seats... autographed CD after the show... loved it. What I didn't know before reading this book is just how many musicians he played with throughout his career: from folks like Johnny Mathis, Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra, through the Ventures, the Everly Brothers, Del Shannon, Bobby Vee, Connie Francis, and Jan & Dean, and The Byrds, Delany & Bonnie, The Beach Boys, Harry Nilssen, BB King, New Grass Revival, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan (one of my personal faves and wish I'd caught that tour!), Joe Cocker and George Harrison, of course, and was the inspiration for, and played with, Elton John. Simply amazing. And what a life story, battling mental and physical health issues, and kept on making music his way until the end of his life. He was scheduled to play at the Tower Theater in our town in May 2016. That show was postponed due to "transportation issues" they said. The show was rescheduled for December of that year, but Leon passed in November. We're blessed to have his music and I'm listening to a lot more of it these days... and "Singin' My Song For You" can be stuck in my head anytime...

[Jen Hyatt]

This is the most thorough and encyclopedic rock biography that I have ever read-- so thorough, in fact, that it took me months to wade through the heavy tome.

Janovitz conducted hundreds of interviews, gleaned countless resources, and obviously listened to (and took notes on) just about every song Russell ever recorded. He takes the reader through Russell's professional career as a songwriter, composer, producer and studio director, one that was incredibly diverse and involved collaborations with just about every famous musician in the business. Janovitz starts chronologically, with Russell's humble beginnings in Tulsa, then on to studio gigs, the glory days of Mad Dogs and Englishmen, and on into Russell's eclectic array of ensuing recordings and financial mismanagement that kept him gigging to the very end.

Janovitz also explores Russell's mercurial temperament, health challenges, personal relationships, tumultuous marriages, and more. It's a comprehensive text that pays tribute to an incredibly talented and complex man, one whom I am lucky to have seen perform, and whom I appreciate even more after reading this comprehensive biography.

[Jeff]

I love Leon Russell's music and it was interesting to see how some of my favorite songs were made. I did catch Leon live well past his famous days and it was a bit depressing seeing him come in on an electric scooter. But after reading about his health issues you do understand a bit better.
Beware, the book is long and a bit repetitive. But if you want to know all, and I mean all, the folks that contributed to Leon's music and life this book is for you. It has inspired me to go back and checkout some of his videos mentioned in the book. So I am not sorry a read the whole book.

[Keith Owens]

A true masterpiece

Without question this is one of the best musical biographies I have ever read and I have read quite a few. Exhaustively researched and beautifully written, this is a must-read for any true fan/lover of rock and roll. But really for any fan of great music period. Because this isn’t just a rock biography; this is a portrait of one f America’s great musical composers.

[Bill Easton]

Great book! Gave it 4 stars because of a big error (page 192)...Altamont happened in December of 1969...not 1970 and it was metioned to make a supporting point to the narrative, so I hope there are not other errors in the book... but a great book on Leon Russell...always a huge fan and I still learned a lot more on his work and influence in the music world...amazing!

[Yimmy]

This book is worth reading until completion. I am quite pleased that Bill Janovitz included as much detail as he did because with Leon you either love him or you don't know who he is. I was included in the former, with this book only increasing my love for Leon and his music. I hung on every line, every melody.

[Steve]

If you want to know EVERYTHING there is to know about Leon, this is your book. Too detailed for me, but I certainly did learn a lot. I always liked him, but I had no idea how important he was to pop music in the 60s and 70s. Also I had no idea how sad many parts of his life were.

[Celia Giltinan-Kneip]

Be prepared to be taken down the rabitt hole of space and time! You'll be chasing down documentaries, books, albums, as you rediscover your love of Leon Russell. Any student of classic rock will want to read this book.

[Gary Anderson]

Leon Russell could be considered a rock and roll Zelig figure, except for the fact that he was a musical genius and, in his prime, a superstar. From his ubiquitous presence on pop and rock records as a member of the vaunted Wrecking Crew of studio musicians, to his contributions to two of the most important live albums of all time (Mad Dogs and Englishmen and The Concert for Bangladesh), then to his own stellar career as a songwriter and performer, Leon Russell did everything his way by leveraging inarguable talent as a producer, arranger, and musician.

Bill Janovitz’s exhaustive biography tells pretty much everything that can be known about Leon Russell based on research, interviews, and firsthand knowledge of Russell’s family and professional life. Janovitz is especially insightful about the “lost years” when Russell played small venues and sold only “merch” albums at his shows that he produced himself in small batches. Then Elton John stepped in and almost singlehandedly gave Leon Russell a late-life resurgence with their excellent duet album The Union and his lobbying for Russell’s election to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Janovitz conveys the belief of some friends and family members that Leon Russell had undiagnosed autism, which explains some of his prowess as a musical savant, as well as his difficulties with planning, finances, and maintaining relationships. Leon Russell would have been a difficult person to know, but this book helps readers understand him and his lofty place in rock and roll history.

[Don Fischer]

This book is a real slog. I had to give up around page 300. I'll give credit to Janovitz for doing his research but he can't seem to decide if he 's a music critic or a biographer and the conflict makes for cumbersome reading. I gained a lot of insight into Russell's character and persona early on in the book but eventually ennui replaced fascination and finally gave way to dread. Hopefully you have better results.

[Paul Sand]

[Imported automatically from my blog. Some formatting there may not have translated here.]

One of the major, and unrectifiable, disappointments of my life: I never saw Leon Russell in concert. I had tickets to see him at Jonathan's Ogunquit, first scheduled for October 2016. Due to "unforeseen health complications", the date was pushed back to February 2017. And then cancelled, due to him passing away on November 13, 2016, age 74.

I was kind of a fan back in the 1970s, spurred by seeing his performances in the movies, Mad Dogs & Englishmen and The Concert for Bangladesh. I started buying his records (vinyl in those days)… and after a few years, I tapered off. I bought one more album, CD this time, Will O' the Wisp. (This book informs me that I was not alone in doing that.)

Not that it matters, but his A Song For You might have had Major Influence on my life path.

So I picked up this massive, definitive biography by Bill Janowitz from the Portsmouth Public Library. It's nearly 600 pages, not a weekend read. It goes into voluminous detail on Leon's music, business dealings, career trajectory (many ups and downs), romances, friendships, drug use, health problems.

And on that last bit: probably that notice mentioned above about the postponed concert should not have called the health issues as "unforeseen". They were not. Leon had a long history of problems. Many of them physical: a birth defect gave him a lifelong limp, and a left-right strength asymmetry. (This might have influenced his signature piano style.) There were multiple heart attacks, and brain cavity issues caused leakage of cerebrospinal fluid, occasionally coming out of his nose. (I hear you saying ewwwww. I did too.)

And there were probably mental issues too, although apparently none that were professionally diagnosed. Friends and family offered their own descriptions: manic-depressive, bipolar, Asperger's, autism. Definitely a few sigma off the mean on any number of traits.

His musical career started early in Oklahoma. Memorably, his high school band got a gig backing up Jerry Lee Lewis. Their warm-up playing caused Lewis to come out and exclaim to the audience, "I'm not gonna set down at that piano. He plays a lot better piano than I do!"

And things progressed from there. He moved out to LA, where he became an "overnight success" as a session musician, working both with wall-of-sound Phil Spector and the famed Wrecking Crew. And then…

Well, I could go on. Leon knew, roughly, everybody.

A story about the piano Leon plays on A Song For You: bought by Herb Alpert for his studio, it was also "very likely" the same one you'll hear on Carole King's Tapestry and Joni Mitchell's Blue. (Dude, that piano should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.)

Were you wondering if the song "Stranger in a Strange Land" was inspired by the Heinlein novel? Yes it was! Although Janowitz claims the book "has not held up well over the intervening decades." Humph! … well, OK, I kind of see his point there.

And I mentioned drug use. Yeesh, you'll be wondering how Leon could play "Chopsticks", let alone anything more complicated. (Angel dust!?) And that extended to his family and retinue. One telling example: On the way to the hospital to deliver Leon's first (illegitimate) daughter, Blue, the mother Carla McHenry shot up heroin.

If you read this book: we live in the future now, so I strongly suggest you have YouTube and a decent music streaming service at hand. "Alexa, play 'Christmas' by Darlene Love", and listen for the piano at the end. Magic.

[Louise Foerster]

I listened to the remarkable music of Leon Russell never knowing the price he paid to forever change music, a seminal influence on music and creativity. In LEON Russell, Bill Janovitz shares the story of this multi-talented musician who contributed, shaped, and influenced the music we listened to then, resonating to our current time. While parts of Russell's life were difficult to read, Janovitz shares the events and the outcomes with an even-handed focus on the artist he was and the inspiration he provided. I received a copy of this book and these opinions are my own, unbiased thoughts.

[David Ward]

Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time’s Journey Through Rock & Roll History by Bill Janovitz (Hachette Books 2023) (780.92) (3904).

Leon Russell was a legendary rock and roll piano player, bandleader, and songwriter who rose to fame in the 1970s. I have loved Leon Russell’s music since the first time I heard his newly-released concert album Leon Live in 1973 when I was fourteen years old. I had never heard anything like it! That recording (along with The Grateful Dead’s Europe ‘72, the Allman Brothers At Fillmore East, and Little Feat’s Waiting for Columbus) is one of the very few albums which I’ve worn out and replaced multiple times with new copies in various formats over the intervening years.

I also loved (and owned) several of Leon’s other recordings including Hank Wilson’s Back (Vol. 1), Will O’the Wisp, and One For the Road (with Willie Nelson)

So I’ve considered myself a huge Leon Russell fan for over fifty years. When I saw that Bill Janovitz had written a book about Leon, it went straight to the top of my reading material.

When I opened this book, I realized that while I knew quite a bit about Leon Russell the musical artist (aka “The Master of Space and Time”), I actually knew very little about Leon Russell the human being. Author Bill Janovitz has done his best to fill the gaps in my knowledge, for his book recites every fact known and every rumor ever concocted about Leon Russell. I believe that Bill Janovitz loves Leon’s music as much as I do.

Prior to reading this, I knew that Leon Russell had been born Claude Russell Bridges in Oklahoma. I also knew that Leon had become a legend during the “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” tour with Joe Cocker and the Asylum Choir. Here’s the best of the new info I gleaned from this book:

Leon Russell and future Miss America Anita Bryant were high school classmates in Oklahoma.

Leon was born with a physical handicap that left him with a lifetime limp and a weak right hand.

He was apparently bipolar.

Leon was a prickly Type A personality with an uncanny (and unhealthy) ability to hold a grudge.

Leon and Gram Parsons were once running buddies. Leon hung out with Gram at the Joshua Tree Inn - a location which figured prominently in the events surrounding Parsons’ death. Gram and Leon shared a taste for the deliriant PCP (“Angel Dust”).

Leon once shared PCP with Willie Nelson. Leon liked the drug so much that for a time he was thought to be a PCP addict.

Actor Gary Busey was once a close friend and bandmate of Leon’s. Busey actually played drums on Leon’s album Will O’ the Wisp. Busey is credited on the album cover as “Teddy Jack Eddy.” He and Leon brought out the worst of each other’s tastes in drugs, according to the author.

This was a densely-packed book of information about a legendary bandleader and songwriter. I’m glad to have read it; I recommend this to old hippies and to others with an interest in rock and roll's history.

My rating: 7.25/10, finished 01/02/24 (3904).

[Barbara Rice]

A more accurate title would be "The Rise and Fall of Leon Russell." The grandiose spiritual title doesn't reflect the contents.

Russell was kind of a tragic figure: he worked extremely hard to overcome his numerous physical problems and was apparently also bipolar and on the spectrum, but so very gifted musically. He played on, wrote, and/or produced hundreds of records in the 1960s that we all thought were being performed by the Byrds, the Beach Boys, Gary Lewis & the Playboys, or the Monkees, and made a lot of money. He went on to make records under his own name and at first he was very successful. But through a series of bad choices, musically and in his business and personal life, he peaked by his mid-30s and began a slow slide into near-obscurity and debt.

You can't say the author didn't do his research. He apparently interviewed everyone Leon Russell ever met who would talk to him and quoted all of them, or at least it felt like it. It is impossible to keep track of all the characters and after a while, I stopped caring whether the person being quoted was an ex-drummer or ex-bass player or the guy who lived across the street. I keep thinking of Dylan Jones's biography of David Bowie, which is composed entirely of quotes and the speaker clearly identified, and how smoothly that narrative flowed. This is not like that.

I'll give the author credit: everything you could possibly want to know about Leon Russell is covered here. This is also the main flaw in the book: there is a lot about his personal life and that of others I did not wish to know.

The making of Mad Dogs & Englishmen (tour, record, and film) as well as the Concert for Bangladesh are described in great detail. The endless spending on houses, buses, soon-to-be-obsolete recording equipment, ex-wives, antiques, cars, and general squandering of his money is also recorded on the pages. As Russell ages, the author likes to point out (many times) that he put on weight. For every person who just loved Leon, there was an equal number who didn't have kind words about him.

I don't know if anyone could have written a biography of Russell in wholly sympathetic terms and the author didn't make that his mission. There's some clumsy writing in here - lines that should have been footnotes and difficult-to-follow narratives - and a certain amount of personal opinion injected.

This is a long slog of reading and not all of it is riveting. For those who want to know absolutely everything about Leon Russell.

[Joelove9]

Huge book (592 pages -24 hour audio book!) but so interesting. Russell had a hand in so many classic records and played with everybody in the music biz. I was constantly having to take notes to look up a recording that was mentioned or to listen to him playing on a song. A piano prodigy, he opened for and backed up Jerry Lee Lewis when he was 14! He played with Freddy King on "Going Down", had to look that up. He played with the session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew on the Ronettes "Be my Baby" - had to relisten to that. His collaboration with Joe Cocker and Mad Dogs and Englishmen - had to watch those videos. Between reading and referencing, it took me a long time to finish, but it was a joy of discovery. Leon backed up the Byrds, the Beach Boys and the Monkees, he wrote hits for Gary Lewis and the Playboys, played with Joe Cocker, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Frank Sinatra, Elton John, Herb Albert, Barbara Streisand, George Harrison and the Flying Burrito Brothers. He also had a solo career with great songs like "Tightrope", "This Masquerade" (a top ten hit for George Benson), "Delta Lady", "A Song for You" and "Superstar" (a #2 hit for the Carpenters). He went to the same high school in Tulsa with David Gates of Bread and later, Elvin Bishop. In his later years, he had a crazy partnership with Gary Bussey, also from Tulsa. He was a crazy, local actor and a drummer who became friends with Leon. The book is also a chronicle of the crazy 60s with lots of communal living, free love and drugs. Excellent biography and a pretty good book, albeit about 100 pages too long. I loved Russell's music before listening the book, now after, I see that he had his flaws and lots of insecurities and was not always a nice guy, but what an innovator, a pioneer, a grand musician and fascinating character he was.

[Joefrohlinger]

I loved, loved, loved this book!! It was a breeze to read at times, and at the end it got a little bit long-winded but all in all it was a great tone of important rock history. Authentic, raw …it reveals all of Leon’s flaws but also the genius and physical hardships he overcame. I savored lines and paragraphs …rereading them over and over again …sometimes because the stories were either so hilarious or so incredibly important to rock ‘n’ roll, minutia it blew my mind. For folks who aren’t familiar with Leon Russell …he was one of the seminal musician/songwriters/arrangers in rock ‘n’ roll. He played with everybody and played on perhaps thousands of sessions. He played with the Wrecking Crew (look them up). He played piano on Mr. Tambourine Man by the Byrds (which turned Bob Dylan into an electric guitar musician). He founded the back up band for Shindig (the TV show that was a must watch when I was a kid). He did back ups for Frank Sinatra. Ian Hunter said most rockers run around the tree but Leon was the core. His influence spans across Delaney & Bonnie, Joe Cocker, Rolling Stones, Byrds, Bob Dylan and many others. The author does an incredible job pasting pictures of a magical history from hundreds of songs, sessions and singers, including Elton John (who called Leon Russell, his favorite musician) all the members from Muscle Shoals, The Beach Boys the Byrds… pretty much everyone who is someone in rock ‘n’ roll history. The book has its worts with run-on sentences & needed a good copy editor to smooth out parts, but I couldn’t put it down and loved reading it. I preferred reading the incredible history and background which gave me such joy…and brought back so many great memories.

[Peter]

Loved this story - knew so little of it and found the yin/yang of Russell's genius and blind spots fascinating. Musically brilliant, Russell was always a stand out performer at recording sessions and on stage with so many of the top artists of his era. He was incapable of maintaining relationships in every aspect of his life, yet was a magnet for people; those who crossed his path usually come to be eager to work with him or live with him. Until they didn't.

His influence on pop music is both profound and still evident. Bill Janovitz unravels why that is and how, in so many instances, Russell was his own worst enemy.

Not always an easy read (Russell behaved as if he had no interest in what people thought of him, and gives the reader plenty of reasons to doubt that), but a tremendous undertaking. Long overdue, this biography successfully captures all of Leon Russell for readers who never knew much at all about him.

[Rick Clark]

The level of research and conveyance of what happened, often with great stories and observations told by many important artists and movers and shakers interviewed for this book, is astonishing. This isn’t merely a biography; it is a fascinating overview of every scene that involved Russell. The insights made it hard to stop reading this book. I also got the audio book for listening in my car, because the read was such an entertaining experience. It inspired me to revisit many recordings familiar to me and many I didn’t. In every case, I felt like I was rediscovering music or artists and producers whose work I knew well, but not on this level. It was like falling in love with the music all over again. I’ve got library full of music books, but this was one of the most entertaining and informative books I’ve come across in quite a while.