Joe Cocker- Mad Dogs & Englishmen 55th- with Leon Russell

Here are the first-person accounts by Joe Cocker and Leon Russell of a remarkable multi-media event, the Joe Cocker Mad Dogs and Englishmen  1970 US tour, concert film, and soundtrack double album. The backstory is classic lemons-to-lemonade: hot off of his Woodstock Festival and film US debut, Cocker’s English manager had booked a US tour before Joe’s Grease Band split. When Cocker’s management attempted to cancel the tour, the American musicians/stagehands union threatened to prevent Cocker from ever working in the States if he no-showed.

Enter Tulsa-via-Los Angeles “Wrecking Crew” pianist/arranger/songwriter Leon Russell to snatch the young, inexperienced Joe Cocker from oblivion, with the subsequent double live album Mad Dogs and Englishmen going all the way to #2 on Billboard‘s album sales chart! We have the in-depth tale from both men before Joe’s passing in December 2014 as well as  Russell’s death two years later, making these priceless classic rock interviews, plus one of the best live bands and recordings in rock history. Here Joe Cocker and Leon Russell recalling the Beatles’ “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window”, Julie London’s torch ballad “Cry Me a River” on steroids, Dave Mason’s “Feelin’ Alright”, The Boxtops hit “The Letter”,Leon Russell’s “Delta Lady”, and Joe Cocker’s signature cover of another Fab Four chestnut, “With a Little Help from My Friends”. –Redbeard