But Leon being Leon, he followed those commercial successes with a country-tinged studio effort. Many fans weren't ready to cross that particular bridge. People tended to take him as a deep-fried, Southern-sounding rock act - though Russell is actually from Oklahoma - and were disappointed when he didn't play along.

But Russell's was clearly a spirit forged on variety, on not just the spice of life but the entire spice rack. He made his bones working across the spectrum, from arranging Ike and Tina Turner's towering single "River Deep, Mountain High" to playing a key role in the Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man," Gary Lewis and the Playboys' "This Diamond Ring" and Herb Alpert's "A Taste of Honey."

His career began to slow, and for a while it looked like 1975's Will O' the Wisp — which produced the single "Lady Blue" - would be Russell's last great side. He was silent for much of the period from 1979-92.

But with Anything Can Happen (produced by the then-hot Bruce Hornsby), he finally reemerged both as a recording artist - famously collaborating later with Willie Nelson — but more particularly as a tireless touring act, even well into his '60s. His hair, and his ever-whitening beard, grew longer - but so did Leon Russell's legend as the consummate musician and never-ebbing rebel.

His records, and his concerts, are a strange mixture, this gospelly get-down groove coupled with a strange and strained vocal. It's down-home, happy and bedraggled - like a middle-aged hound dog. Leon can howl like that, too, his voice and his music so unadulterated and unique.

The difference now is, we accept that. Russell is the square peg finally, blessedly, crammed into the round hole.

He is what he is. A guy who crosses these bridges as he comes to them.