Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time’s Journey Through Rock & Roll History
by Bill Janovitz (Hachette, $31)
“If ever there was a rock ’n’ roll tale begging to be told, the odyssey of Leon Russell would be it,” said Brad Cohan in Spin. In his sixdecade career, the “hugely influential piano visionary, bandleader, songwriter, and producer” worked with everyone from Phil Spector to Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones. The Oklahoma native toured with Jerry Lee Lewis as a teenager before moving to Los Angeles and joining the session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew. His 1970 solo debut album featured George Harrison and Eric Clapton, plus the ballad “A Song for You,” which has been covered by more than 200 artists. And then the ’70s ended and he faded away—at least until Elton John went searching for his long-haired hero, helping put him in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.
Russell, who died in 2016, was never truly a household name—“which seems to be exactly how he’d designed it,” said Santi Elijah Holley in the Los Angeles Times. Though five of his 1970s albums went gold, the so-called Master of Space and Time “had an infuriating habit of doing everything he could to torpedo his career,” and author Bill Janovitz shies away from looking too hard at Russell’s worst behavior or whether undiagnosed bipolar disorder may have been the cause. Instead, Janovitz “writes as a rock enthusiast addressing fellow rock enthusiasts,” assuming his readers will eagerly devoir 600 pages of session and tour details along with unedited reminiscences of Russell’s peers.
Still, “to say Janowitz is ideally equipped to write this book is an understatement,” said David Kirby in The Wall Street Journal.
A founding member of the ’90s alt-rock band Buffalo Tom, he writes with a musician’s authority and fills his book with tales of rock excess. A 1960 concert ends with Jerry Lee Lewis brandishing a gun while the crowd riots. During a mid-’60s recording session, Frank Sinatra was so irritated by Russell’s long hair that he stared him down and walked straight into a post. “Leon Russell didn’t just play rock ’n’ roll, in other words. He was rock ’n’ roll.”