The list of music stars who attended Dylan and The Band’s comeback tour is long. Joni Mitchell, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Cher, Miles Davis, Carlos Santana, Joan Baez, and on and on. But only one musician actually sat in. Not in New York or Los Angeles, but in St. Louis. And that musician was…
… I don’t know why I’m building to a big reveal, it’s literally in the headline …
Leon Russell!
Russell and his band had recorded with Bob a few years earlier for the Greatest Hits II sessions. I spoke with one of those players, drummer Jim Keltner, about it. He told me:
My memories of that session, they're like a dream really. I was sitting at the drums and Leon was playing and we all joined in. I looked over and I saw Bob standing facing the wall. I could see his lips moving. He was writing on a tablet, I think. I thought, "Wow, he's writing the lyrics as we're playing." He might have been adjusting some of the lyrics, rearranging some things to fit the groove. That blew my mind.
“Sit in” is maybe a strong word for what Leon Russell did at the late show in St. Louis. “Wandered onstage with a beer” would be more precise. Even though his musical contributions were limited to singing along on the chorus of “Like a Rolling Stone” when Bob pulled him to the mic, he seems to have brought a jolt of energy to the proceedings—and this just one show after I was writing about how Bob and The Band seemed exhausted.
Listen to the crowd explosion when Russell wanders onstage near the end of “Rainy Day Women.” Dylan shouts “Leon Russell!” but it’s almost drowned out by the audience, who clearly needs no introduction. Then listen to the “It Ain’t Me Babe” that follows. With Leon just chilling onstage, Bob brings more bite to the song than it’s had in ages, slicing through even the murky recording.
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