Historical past tends to report the business breakthrough of Oklahoma singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and session man supreme Leon Russell arriving with 1972’s Carney. Much less consideration is afforded its predecessor of the 12 months earlier than, his second solo launch Leon Russell & The Shelter Individuals.
The LP, which adopted his visitor musician-filled, self-titled Shelter Data debut of 1970, could be memorable if for no different cause than the truth that it contained “The Ballad of Mad Dogs and Englishmen.” A quintessentially reflective and autobiographical Russell ballad, it was an early favourite of a younger Englishman who, many years later, would repay Leon’s affect on his profession by reducing the album The Union with him, Elton John.
The Shelter Individuals was Russell’s collective title for the distinguished forged of musicians who performed on the album. They included bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon (described within the above track because the “future Dominos,” who inhabited Leon’s world and went on to affix Eric Clapton in Derek and the Dominos). Others in Russell’s internal circle of the time, and on the disc, included Jim Keltner, Jim Worth, Jesse Ed Davis, and Chris Stainton.
Russell Shoals
An assured piece of labor from begin to end, the Shelter Individuals album was revamped a interval of a number of months in late 1970 and early 1971 and launched on Might 3. It was recorded in London, Los Angeles and at Muscle Shoals Studios in Alabama. The latter location solely enhanced the soulfulness of Russell’s supply and his selection of instrumentation with co-producer Denny Cordell.
Six of the unique 11 tracks have been Russell originals, and two extra co-written with one of many guitarists on the disc, Don Preston. There have been two visits to the Bob Dylan songbook, for his 1963 landmark “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” and the Freeway 61 Revisited spotlight “It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry.” The album closed with a model of Leon’s good friend George Harrison’s All Issues Should Cross observe “Beware Of Darkness.”
With slightly assist…
One of many contributors to the Muscle Shoals classes, bassist David Hood, recalled in an interview with Carl Riser: “On the album there were musicians on some tracks from Tulsa – Carl Radle and some of the guys from out there – and tracks by us. And to differentiate, [Leon] wrote down ‘The Muscle Shoals Swampers’ on the ones we did, and the Tulsa one, I don’t know what he called them, but the Tulsa people on the others. And that just kind of took.”
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Billboard’s evaluate of the album mentioned that, “with a little help from his friends, [it is] a driving, dynamite rock package and has [the potential] to fast top the sales and chart action of his initial Shelter entry.” It entered the US chart on Might 29, 1971 at a formidable No.53, paradoxically second solely to Elton John’s No.26 begin along with his stay album 11-17-70. Russell’s album reached No.17 in a 29-week chart run, and was licensed gold by the RIAA in February 1972.
Purchase or stream Leon Russell & The Shelter Individuals.
