JJ Cale and Leon Russell At The Paradise Studios, LA – 1979
Description
**JJ Cale and Leon Russell At The Paradise Studios, Los Angeles – 1979**
Rare archival footage featuring **J.J. Cale** and **Leon Russell** recorded at **Paradise Studios in Los Angeles, California, during 1979**. This historic studio session captures two of the most influential artists associated with the **Tulsa Sound**, a musical style blending rock, blues, country rock, Americana, and roots music.
J.J. Cale was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer whose laid-back style influenced artists such as Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Leon Russell was a legendary pianist, songwriter, producer, and collaborator who worked with artists including Joe Cocker, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, and The Rolling Stones.
This recording documents an important period in the careers of both J.J. Cale and Leon Russell and serves as a historical record of their music and influence. The footage is preserved as part of the **Bohemia Visual Music Television (BVMTV) Archive**, a collection dedicated to documenting musicians, performers, interviews, concerts, and music history.
The 1976 album Troubadour includes “Cocaine,” a song that would be a major hit for Clapton the following year. In the 2004 documentary To Tulsa and Back, Cale recalled, “I wrote ‘Cocaine’, and I’m a big fan of Mose Allison … So I had written the song in a Mose Allison bag, kind of cocktail jazz kind of swing … And Audie said, ‘That’s really a good song, John, but you oughta make that a little more rock and roll, a little more commercial.’ I said, ‘Great, man.’ So I went back and recut it again as the thing you heard.”[19] The song’s meaning is ambiguous, although Clapton describes it as an anti-drug song. He has called the song “quite cleverly anti-cocaine”, noting:
It’s no good to write a deliberate anti-drug song and hope that it will catch. Because the general thing is that people will be upset by that. It would disturb them to have someone else shoving something down their throat. So the best thing to do is offer something that seems ambiguous—that on study or on reflection actually can be seen to be “anti”—which the song “Cocaine” is actually an anti-cocaine song. If you study it or look at it with a little bit of thought … from a distance … or as it goes by … it just sounds like a song about cocaine. But actually, it is quite cleverly anti-cocaine.[19]
By the time he recorded 5 in 1979, Cale had also met singer and guitarist Christine Lakeland, and the LP marks her first appearance on his albums. In the 2005 documentary To Tulsa and Back, Lakeland says they met backstage at a prison benefit show featuring B.B. King and Waylon Jennings. Cale and Lakeland would later marry. As William Ruhlmann observes in his AllMusic review of the album, “As Cale’s influence on others expanded, he just continued to turn out the occasional album of bluesy, minor-key tunes. This one was even sparer than usual, with the artist handling bass as well as guitar on many tracks. Listened to today, it sounds so much like a Dire Straits album, it’s scary.” The release of 5 coincided with a notable live session with Leon Russell recorded at Russell’s Paradise Studios in June 1979 in Los Angeles. The previously unseen footage features several tracks from 5, including “Sensitive Kind,” “Lou-Easy-Ann,” “Fate of a Fool,” “Boilin’ Pot,” and “Don’t Cry Sister.” Lakeland also performs with Cale’s band. While living in California in the late 1960s, Cale worked in Russell’s studio as an engineer. The footage was officially released in 2003 as JJ Cale featuring Leon Russell: In Session at the Paradise Studios.
**Artists:** J.J. Cale, Leon Russell
**Location:** Paradise Studios, Los Angeles, California
**Year:** 1979
**Genres:** Tulsa Sound, Rock, Blues, Country Rock, Americana, Roots Rock
**Archive Collection:** Bohemia Visual Music Television (BVMTV)
