Tag Archives: Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin With Leon Russell

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Was there anyone Leon did NOT work with? I think not. This time it was Aretha Franklin.

Check out this treasure from 1964 when Leon Russell was the featured house pianist for the TV show, Shindig.

This time, he’s right there with Aretha Franklin, and once again, this is Leon with short hair, no beard, and no sunglasses, but he’s still and always the Master of Space and TIme.

The two shared a mutual professional history: Leon Russell played piano on early sessions for Franklin at Columbia Records (including a string arrangement of “Am I Blue?”), and Franklin later recorded a renowned cover of Russell’s classic ballad, “A Song for You”.

Before the collaboration with Aretha on Shindig, word got around about the skinny kid from Oklahoma who played the piano like nobody else, and producers and arrangers booked him for their sessions as soon as he turned twenty-one and was able to join the union. Among them was Robert Mersey who had Russell on several, including this pair of songs for Aretha Franklin in 1963. Thanks to Leon Russell Superstar in a Masquerade

Word Of The Day: Shindig

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I hope nobody watched or streamed that demented orange POSs speech yesterday. There are other, more pressing matters to occupy ourselves with, like why can't we eat salads or fresh salsa with cilantro? Why is our food contaminated with cyclospora? Why did that POS remove the FDA  “Food Traceability Rule” and place us at risk?

ANYWAY, back to my form of reality (and therapy)…

Does anybody even know what “shindig” means?

The word originated in the United States in the mid-19th century. It’s believed to be a playful alteration of the older slang word shindy, which originally referred to a rowdy commotion or a street game similar to field hockey.

In modern, everyday use, it’s synonymous with words like “bash,” “blowout,” or “hoedown”. For example, you might say, “Are you going to the big neighborhood shindig this weekend?”

In the mid-60s, there was a TV show broadcast from Los Angeles called Shindig! It was a musical variety series hosted by DJ Jimmy O’Neill. I never watched it, maybe it wasn’t shown in my area, I dunno.

Most exciting for all of us who love him is that Leon Russell, the house band’s pianist, was often featured in solo performances.

(Learn more about Shindig! at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shindig)

I never get tired of wondering exactly how Leon went from THIS to the uber cool long-haired sunglass-wearing exuberant Master of Space and Time that filled stadiums. The butterfly definitely broke out of the chrysalis!

Photo credit from Pinterest

Check out Leon on the first song with Donna Loren (you can hear him before you see him, it’s unmistakably LEON) and something I’ve never seen before, Leon on organ with Bobby Sherman at 10:02.