[Quote=Leon]
When I was born I had a birth injury in my second and third vertebrae. It gave me what they called spastic paralysis, which is actually cerebral palsy. I had two parts of my body, my left side which was strong and somewhat dumb, and the other side was weak and hard to control but perhaps smarter. It gave me a very strong sense of the duality of the plane that we live in. When I was playing, I had to think about it three or four seconds ahead. I had to figure out what I was going to play and decide if I could play it or not. Then I’d play it. It was kind of like playing the pipe organ, where it doesn’t make the sound three or four seconds later. It was very much a pain in the ass actually. I think that stuff had something to do with [forming my style].
[/quote]
Explains the heavy right foot.
[Moderating]
Fixed a typo in the title.
My absolute favorite version of this song was done by Ruby Wilson, the Queen of Beale Street. I had no idea that she died earlier this fucking year. What a loss.
My other absolute favorite version (hey, sue me) is by Aretha Franklin, who is thankfully still with us.
Thank you
MAN! What a kick-ass show that would have been! Any time you get the chance to see a musician of anything approximating his talent in a small venue, don’t pass it by. Even if you’re not wild about him or her, you’re likely to be pleasantly surprised. Intimate venues + wildly talented, highly-experienced musicians = awesome.
We’ve lost a great artist this year in Merle Haggard and some decent journeymen in David Bowie and Prince Nelson. The “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” tour with Joe Cocker must have been about the most raucous tour with a large group ever.
Shit! Every time a musician my late brother took me to see dies, another little part of me dies too.
An incredible performance. I spent far too much time with that side of the Bangladesh album repeating on the turntable. Rock and Roll Heaven’s gain is our loss.
The best tribute I can offer to Leon…
There are lots of us who love songs we pretend are lame!
I believe that in addition to the injury he suffered at birth, Russell’s legs were badly damaged in a motorcycle accident in the 80s.
For various reasons involving an 8-track compilation tape and a road trip back when I was a young FtG, the first thing that comes to mind is his version with Joe Cocker (MD&E) of Cry Me a River.
If you don’t see what they did with this song, maybe you should refresh your memory of the Julie London version.
Russell could make anything rock.
This is in my top 5 favorite songs, ever, and IMO none of the covers really do it justice. I understand why people like them-- some of them are undeniably beautiful – but for me, the original cuts to the bone.
Aw, man.