Chords for LEGENDS | Rita Coolidge: Monkeying Around with Leon Russell - Exclusive Interview

_ [F] _ _ [G] _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ I lived with Leon in [G] Sky Hill for nine or ten months.
I don't think it was a whole year, but it was, it felt like ten.
There were so many people in and out of that house when I was living with Leon.
I was [D] basically the housekeeper and the cook.
I wasn't doing a lot of singing or doing anything else.
I was [Fm] making gallons of tea.
[Dm] Rita, where's the [D] tea?
Where's the f'n tea?
And then I'm making beans and cornbread and collard grains and cooking everything.
Because there were [G] always people coming through.
And they were [F] always hungry and thirsty.
[C] And then, _ _ there's the story about Leon and his [G] monkeys.
Leon decided, because I was not, well, I wasn't ready to get married.
[F] And so I think that somewhere in Leon's heart he thought if we had a,
the way some people would get a [F] puppy, he wanted a monkey.
So [Em] we went to a pet store in Los Angeles and bought this [Fm] monkey,
who they told us was a stump-tailed rhesus macaque, which he wasn't.
And they said he was a baby, [F] he was full grown, and was having none of [Ab] us.
So we took him home.
His name was Harry.
That monkey was [C] so crazy.
Leon would go into one of the bathrooms, take the shower curtain down,
take everything out, it was on the counters or towels or anything,
[F] take his clothes off and get in the shower with Harry to give him a bath.
I [Ab] would stand outside the bathroom and just hear the monkey screaming,
and hear him [F] screaming,
_ Harry, [C] hear something hit the door?
[F] There would be water coming off the ceiling.
And Leon [Fm] would be drenched and so frustrated.
And there's Harry, I [C] won.
It was so funny.
One night Harry got out of his cage, and I go down in the morning,
and he's been in the pantry, there's flour [G] from one end of that kitchen to the other,
[Fm] cornmeal, everything was all over the floor and all over the counters,
and there's one [C] [Dm] monkey in there.
And he's like, what are you going to do [C] about it?
[F] _ _ _
Leon, your [Dm] monkey messed up the kitchen.
[Gm] So what did we do?
We got another [C] one.
We got Salvador, [A] who wore a little diaper and clothes,
and Leon [F] kept Salvador on his shoulder.
[C] So we had monkeys, we didn't have children.
Aren't you glad you asked?
[F] They were so fast.
I don't know if [Ab] it was possible to take a [F] picture of them.
[C] _ _ _ _
_ Leon was mysterious in so many ways.
And you know the fact that he drove across country with his long hair and his beard,
we got to California, he walked in and shaved the beard.
I mean, that's not normal.
At that time [Dm] in [C] the history of our beautiful country,
people were not accepting of long hair and beards everywhere,
as a matter of fact, nowhere except maybe [Gm] San Francisco.
Once, after we got back to California, Leon had [D] grown his beard back out again,
and we were at a hamburger joint in [C] the valley one day,
[Dm] and this guy pulled up, [Em] got out of the car with his kids,
and when Leon and [G] I got there, this guy saw Leon and goes,
get in [Em] the car, get in the car, get in the car,
and started [F] rustling his kids into the car.
He was [G] terrified [C] of Leon.
So I think if it didn't go well in L.A.,. it would have been horrible in Texas. I mean, I'm not sure it wouldn't be horrible in Texas now. You know, but Leon was kind of either over the top with his top hat and his bell bottoms and just flamboyant, or he was almost a recluse. So there were those two sides of [F] Leon, and [C] he was the only one that knew, I guess, when it was going to change. I never knew who I was going to get when I woke [C] up in the morning, but it would be for a period of time, and then he would go into the other Leon. [Dm] So it was kind [C] of unnerving and unpredictable, to say the least. I never knew if we were going to have one monkey or two. Leon and I broke up, and it was years later. [G] Connie Nelson and I went to [Dm] see Leon [C] play the, I think it was the belly up in San Diego, and that's probably been 25, [Dm] 30 years. [Em] And he was on his bus, and [F] we got there late and had to [G] sit behind, on the side behind Leon's [Em] wall of monitors because he was almost deaf [F] by then. And the wedges [G] were so loud coming off of that [C] keyboard that my eyes were bleeding. So we went out to the bus after the show was over, and I sat down with Leon, sat down next to him, and we're talking. I would say, So, Leon, do you have grandchildren? And he'd go, What? And I'd ask him another question, What? _ Couldn't hear anything. Finally he got up like a horn thing and put it to his ear. He said, Now, [Dm] what? And I don't [G] think he was wearing hearing aid. I don't know [Em] if he did toward the end [D] because he didn't have that problem. When we did the Mad Dogs [Em] Management reunion, [F] he could hear everybody. [C] _ _ _ [G] _ _ We only had two days [Am] to rehearse for the Tedeschi Trucks [D] reunion. I missed the first day of rehearsal [G] because I was working, so I came in the second day, and he was tired. I asked somebody, I said, Oh, my [Am] gosh, is Leon feeling okay? And they said, Yesterday he was [G] so up, so energetic, and today he's just worn out. I had the opportunity to tell him, I think it's in [Am] the film, I love you, Leon. [D] For Leon, anything [C] was possible. And [Bm] I've known writers that [Am] [G] sit down, and [Em] it's like [G] it's just coming through. It's happened to me a couple of times where I'd just go to this one spot in my house [Am] when I was feeling [D] something [Am] coming in, and I would just [C] get my notepad out, and I would just start going [Bm] like this. Now, [G] nothing like a song for you, but I know that it's possible just for these things to [Am] come through when you're really gifted [G] with chord changes, with melody, [Bm] and with [Am] lyrics, and understand the marriage [G] of those three things and how [Bm] perfect it has to be [D] to be a good song. [G] And when it comes through, you're not [Bm] really trying to [C] control that at all, [G] letting it come through. And then [Bm] there are people like Leonard Cohen that would spend [D] a year on one song, [G] every word and everything, and he thought about it so much. And [C] then there's Leon, [G] who just [Am] trusted the process and let it come through, [C] and it's the most beautiful song [G] ever written. I'll cry. [Bm] I [C] will. [G] When you're on this side of life, [Am] when you're toward [C] the end part of your life, not the beginning, emotionally things resonate [D] in such a different way. [G] And I appreciate that song [Em] so very much. [Am] I do think it's the most [G] beautiful love song ever written. [C] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _