Last night it was turning colder finally, and it had rained
for most of the day. The Festival of Friends was on and the closing act for
Saturday evening was Leon Russell! We
were amazed! It was free and it was within 15 minutes of our house.
My wife had
seen Leon Russell at the Concert for Bangladesh on Sunday, 1 August 1971, playing to 40,000 people. and not since! She loves
his music, and we spent some time yesterday with a record player and vinyl
listening to old albums.
The weather reports had scared away most of the potential
customers, so with close by parking, free buses from the city and a free
concert, it was still a small audience. We were able to stand easily within 30
feet of the stage.
It was the 70’s all over again! There were “Grateful Dead”
dancing women on my left, a lineup of elderly dancers on my right and a few
crazed women dancers in front of me, and Leon and the unnamed band did an hour
of nonstop rock and blues.
Our shoes are mud caked as are the cuffs of my jeans, but
that was hardly a price to pay. I was able to park within a five minute walk
and sit for the earlier hour in the beer garden, which looked more like a
refugee camp, but the old dirty wooden chairs did give some relief from
standing for an extra hour in the mud while the the Spin Doctors played.
Who ever thought I’d ever get a chance to see Leon Russell
again! It was a trip back in time.
Added this morning from a friend in New Jersey:
In 1971 Leon Russell was on the same bill with Elton John at Painters Mill outside of Baltimore. Elton John was the opening act. It was a great show and afterwards I went to a party at the guy’s townhouse. Leon Russell was there. A lot of drugs were going around, and at the time I was done with drugs myself. I’m walking through a doorway, like living room to kitchen, and Leon’s coming through the door at the same time. He offers me a toke on a joint he’s smoking, but I wave him off. He says, “Don’t get high?”. And like the asshole I am known to be from time to time, I said, “Only on life”.
That’s my
Leon Russell story.
Added this morning from a friend in New Jersey:
In 1971 Leon Russell was on the same bill with Elton John at Painters Mill outside of Baltimore. Elton John was the opening act. It was a great show and afterwards I went to a party at the guy’s townhouse. Leon Russell was there. A lot of drugs were going around, and at the time I was done with drugs myself. I’m walking through a doorway, like living room to kitchen, and Leon’s coming through the door at the same time. He offers me a toke on a joint he’s smoking, but I wave him off. He says, “Don’t get high?”. And like the asshole I am known to be from time to time, I said, “Only on life”.
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