Combs Spouts Off

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Archive for April, 2018

Leon Russell and Eric Clapton

Posted by Richard on April 30, 2018

So, the other day I posted a video of Leon Russell and New Grass Revival. Here’s a different side of Leon. Oh yeah, and this guy named Clapton plays some nice guitar, too. Expand the description (click Show More).

Supposedly, this was recorded in either Leon’s apartment or apartment basement in Tulsa, OK, in 1974. But someone in the comments claims it was in some church instead. I’m thinking the acoustics sound more like an apartment, or maybe a basement, than a church (unless it’s one of those strip mall churches with the acoustic tile ceiling).

Anyway, you need to turn up the volume; it’s on the low side, the price you pay for good dynamic range.


[YouTube link]

UPDATE: OK, here’s a bonus. As I was writing this post, I thought I’d listen to some more Leon Russell. I ran across this version of “A Song for You,” which I think is in the running for best love song written in the past century. I still prefer the spare, atmospheric album version I posted here, but this is the best live version I’ve heard.


[YouTube video]

UPDATE 2: One more. This video is from Leon’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2011. If Leon’s thanks to Elton John don’t bring a tear to your eye, you have a heart of stone. This version of “A Song for You,” with John Mayer on guitar, is pretty great, too.


[YouTube video]

UPDATE 3: Have to share this one too. It’s another performance with New Grass Revival, and it’s a better version of “Wild Horses” than the Stones’. Fantastic piano, banjo, and mandolin.


[YouTube video]

Yeah, I’m thinking of renaming this blog “Remembering Leon Russell.” Someone’s got to do it.

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Leon Russell and New Grass Revival 1980 live concert

Posted by Richard on April 29, 2018

A friend recently shared with a bunch of us a YouTube link to a fine album by the Dillards with Byron Berline, and that got me looking for some tasty bluegrass by New Grass Revival (with the incomparable Sam Bush) to share back. I happened upon this amazing hour-long concert video.

It starts with Leon solo doing Judy Garland as only Leon can. And then he and New Grass Revival proceed to romp through about every genre you can think of: Beatles, bluegrass, country, gospel, rock, pop… They do “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” like you’ve never heard it before. The set is fantastic, and the encores are even better. Enjoy!


[YouTube link]

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Kanye give West a Chance to be free?

Posted by Richard on April 27, 2018

I’m told that there’s no truth to the rumor that Steny Hoyer is going to introduce a bill called the “Fugitive Negro Act” to ensure that runaways like Kanye West and Chance the Rapper are returned to the Democratic Plantation and “re-educated.”

The Democratic leadership apparently considered and rejected the idea after realizing that the Party of Lincoln would never allow it to pass.

Wasn’t it Kanye who rapped “Free at last, free at last. Up yours, mo-fos, I’m free at last!”?

The editors at The Weekly Standard had some interesting thoughts about this matter. But to find that, you have to go through six pages of Google search results (search string: kanye west trump) without a single link to a non-left-of-center site.

I guess sites like Red State, Fox News, The Daily CallerReasonNational ReviewTownhall, The Washington TimesWashington ExaminerThe Blaze, Power Line, et al, just didn’t have anything to say about Kanye’s apostasy that the entirely objective Google algorithms deemed worthy of sharing with Google’s product… I mean users.

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