''Life and Love'' is an album by singer and songwriter

Leon Russell Leon Russell (born Claude Russell Bridges; April 2, 1942 – November 13, 2016) was an American musician and songwriter who was involved with numerous bestselling records during his 60-year career that spanned multiple genres, including rock and ...

. The album was recorded in Russell's new studios,

Paradise Studios Leon Russell (born Claude Russell Bridges; April 2, 1942 – November 13, 2016) was an American musician and songwriter who was involved with numerous bestselling records during his 60-year career that spanned multiple genres, including rock and ...

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, w ...

, and produced and written by Russell. The album was first released as a

vinyl LP The LP (from "long playing" or "long play") is an analog sound storage medium, a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use of the "microgroove" groove specification; and a ...

8-track tape The 8-track tape (formally Stereo 8; commonly called eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, and eight-track) is a magnetic tape sound recording technology that was popular from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, when the compact cassette, wh ...

and

cassette tape The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens ...

by Paradise Records and

Warner Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

in 1979, and re-released on CD in 2007 and 2012. Russell used

electronic drums Electronic drums is a modern electronic musical instrument, primarily designed to serve as an alternative to an acoustic drum kit. Electronic drums consist of an electronic sound module which produces the synthesized or sampled percussion sound ...

on this album for the first time, courtesy of

Roger Linn Roger Curtis Linn is an American designer of electronic musical instruments and equipment. He is the designer of the LM-1, the first drum machine to use samples, and the MPC sampler, which had a major influence on the development of hip ho ...

who had invented the

Linn LM-1 The Linn LM-1 Drum Computer is a drum machine manufactured by Linn Electronics and released in 1980. It was the first drum machine to use samples of acoustic drums, and one of the first programmable drum machines. Its designer, the American en ...

, a pioneering version of the drum machine, making Russell an early user of this new instrument. Roger Linn started a company Moffett Electronics to sell his electronic drums at the same time as Leon's ''Life and Love'' album in 1979. Country Music: The Encyclopedia reviewed ''Life and Love'': "A new collection of Leon's came out on Paradises titled ''Life and Love'', that was consistently strong in music and performance. The Album present both sides of Leon - several fine country and country rock tracks and a number of blues rockers that harked back to his work in the early 1970." After releasing ''Life and Love'' Leon Russell went on tour with the group

New Grass Revival New Grass Revival was an American progressive bluegrass band founded in 1971, and composed of Sam Bush, Courtney Johnson, Ebo Walker, Curtis Burch, Butch Robins, John Cowan, Béla Fleck and Pat Flynn. They were active between 1971 and 1989, r ...

for two years. From that tour Leon released two live albums with New Grass Revival, ''The Live Album with The New Grass Revival'' and '' Live And Pickling Fast''.Strong, Martin C. (2000). The Great Rock Discography (5th ed.). Edinburgh: Mojo Books. pp. 838–839. .

Track listing

All songs composed by Leon Russell. Side one # "One More Love Song" – 4:01 # "You Girl" – 3:26 # "Struck by Lightning" – 2:51 # "Strange Love" – 4:06 # "Life and Love" – 3:21 Side two # "On the First Day" – 4:21 # "High Horse" – 4:41 # "Sweet Mystery" – 5:13 # "On the Borderline" – 2:15

Charts

Personnel

*Leon Russell – guitar, keyboards, piano, vocals - Producer - Written-By *Roger Linn – Co-producer - drums - Moffett Electronics - Engineer - Guitar *

Marty Grebb Marty may refer to: Names * Marty (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters, also includes stage names * Marty (surname), a list of people Places in the United States * Marty, California, a former settlement * Marty, ...

– guitar, saxophone *

Jody Payne Jody Payne (January 11, 1936 – August 10, 2013) was an American country musician and singer. He is best known as a longtime guitarist in Willie Nelson's band, '' The Family''. Early life Payne was born James L. Payne in Garrard County, Kentuck ...

, Roger Linn – guitar *

Mickey Raphael Michael Siegfried "Mickey" Raphael (born November 7, 1951) is an American harmonica player, music producer and actor best known for his work with Willie Nelson, with whom he has toured as part of The Family since 1973. He has performed or reco ...

– harmonica *Bernetta Rand - backing vocals *Frances Pye - backing vocals *

Joe Chemay Joe Chemay is an American bassist and background singer, known for his recording session work. Biography Chemay started out working as a session and touring support musician in Los Angeles, but moved to Nashville in 1989. Chemay has worked wi ...

- backing vocals * Lena Luckey- backing vocals *

Wornell Jones Wornell Jones (born November 14) is an American bassist. He has performed with many people and groups in the United States and Japan, including likes of Sly and the Family Stone, Koko Taylor, Chage and Aska, Hiromi Go, and Omega Tribe. He is ...

- backing vocals * Tom Kemp - Photography

External links

youtube.com, "Sweet Mystery" from ''Life and Love''youtube.com, Song ''Life and Love'' from the ''Life and Love'' albumLeon Russell discographyLeon Russell lyricsLeon Russell
NAMM Oral History Program Interview (2012)

References

{{Authority control 1979 albums Leon Russell albums