A Poem Is a Naked Person (1974)

Leon Russell: Self

Quotes 

• Leon Russell : It's awful hard to sing when George Jones is in the booth.

• Leon Russell : Right now, I'd like to sing a song from the Hank Williams catalog. You all know who Hank Williams is, don't you?

  [singing] 

  Leon Russell : A good-bye Joe, we gotta go, down the bayou, Me gotta go, pole the pirogue, down the bayou, My Yvonne the sweetest one, oh me oh my oh, Son of a gun, we're gonna have a big fun on the bayou...

• Leon Russell : [singing]  Why do some people have to hurt somebody? The firewater's not the villain...

• Leon Russell : [singing]  Farther along we'll know all about it, Farther along we'll understand why, Cheer up my brother live in the sunshine, We'll understand it all by and by...

• Leon Russell : The way I see it, it's just, the money is just time certificates and time is only a term that we use in relation to how long we have to live on the is plane, you know.

• Leon Russell : If I stop and worry about it, I'll stop doin' anything. Because I don't know what I'm doin'. But, if I - if I feel like I know what I'm doin', then I - then I know what I'm doin'.

• Leon Russell : I'm supposed to be myself - and trust that that's - you know - that it's not ugly.

• Eric Andersen : How can you say to me when I walk in a room, you know, "Who are you, man?" You know, it's my session and there's a cameraman holding me back from walkin' in on my session and I'm wonderin' what's goin' on, you know. And they say - you say - "Oh, did I meet you, man?"

  Leon Russell : So, you're a historian, then? You think that there's anything happening right now that is more important than what was happening when somebody grabbed you by the collar and asked you who you were? Do you think that this might be more important than that? Or, do you want to dwell on that for awhile?

  Eric Andersen : Well, I - it wasn't more important. A conversation about filmmaking was not more important than what I was into. That's how I felt. Anyway, but, the introduction, I didn't feel was very - real, you know. That's what I'm saying.

  Leon Russell : Well, it was. You write - you write some very beautiful...

  Eric Andersen : You're jivin'.

  Leon Russell : God damn songs.

• Eric Andersen : You're 42 or, I don't know, 38? Whatever you are. You got famous, man.

  Leon Russell : Your - your daddy's a punk too. Shit, I ain't that old. You don't know me that well to say that shit. 48?

  Eric Andersen : 42, I don't know. How old are you?

  Leon Russell : I'm barely 30 years old. 48?

  Eric Andersen : I don't know how old you are, man.

  Leon Russell : What the fuck difference does it make how old I am? I'm very sensitive about that. I wish we can't talk about it any more.

• Eric Andersen : Being around - so long, you know, that people go through changes - and change, you know.

  Leon Russell : Don't you think its better to go through it at full throttle than rather to hold back?

• Leon Russell : Do you have a regular job out here?

  David Briggs : No. No, I just work when guys can't play the piano on their own songs. They only call me me when a guy can't do his own fuckin' piano work.

  [Leon pours a beer over his head] 

  David Briggs : Hey George! Hey Ringo! Here I am, in Tennessee!

• Eric Andersen : It's power, you know. It's power when you're a headliner, man, and you have a band.

  Leon Russell : That's right.

  Eric Andersen : But the precision, you know, power has certain precision. The precision that it was at, I couldn't tell whether it was - whether you were a revivalist, man, you know, tryin' to put somethin' over. Or, whether - where it was - where it was comin' from. I didn't know where it was comin' from.

  Leon Russell : Right.

  Eric Andersen : To this day, I don't know where it's comin' from.

  Leon Russell : That's my illusion, you see. Don't get throwed too far off by that.

• Leon Russell : [singing]  I know your image of me is what I hope to be, I've treated you unkindly but can't you see, No one more important to me, Darling can you please see through me, 'Cause we're alone now and I'm singin' this song with you...

• Leon Russell : [singing]  I've been a so many places in my life and time, I've sung a lot of songs, I've made some bad rhymes, I've acted out my love in stages, With ten thousand people watching, Oh, but we're alone now and I am singing this song with you...

• Leon Russell : [singing]  Sometimes I live up in Tulsa, I take a little trip down to Nashville too, If there's only one thing I get through to you in this life, Is just that I want to make love to you, Yes, yes, Irene Goodnight, Goodnight Irene, goodnight...

• Leon Russell : [singing]  In just a few seconds I began to realize, I gotta believe myself and every word I say, And I gotta try and live in a more perfect way, Yes I do, Oh, the beat keeps going on...

• Leon Russell : So, then, there's the balance between paranoia and trust - that gets the illusion going, you know.

• Leon Russell : The principal of the mind is sort of predicated on comparing new information to known information.

• Leon Russell : Just keep going. Keep going on and on and on and on - until it stops.

• Leon Russell : I get subconscious if I have to do it more than once.

• Leon Russell : [singing]  But for one thing for certain, When it comes to my time, I'll leave this old world, With a satisfied mind, I'm gonna leave this old world, With a satisfied mind.

  [speaks] 

  Leon Russell : Give me a tag.

  [sings] 

  Leon Russell : I'll leave this old world, With a satisfied mind.

  [speaks] 

  Leon Russell : I believe that.