Leon Russell is easily one of the most underrated and underappreciated artists of all time.  This, his first solo album (although when listing his albums in chronological order, I list the earlier recorded but later  released "Asylum Choir 2" as his first) is the one that people  should get into to become familiar with Leon's interesting musical mix.  Blues, country, rock and gospel all fuse together into something some  people have called Okie-Swamp music.  Whatever you call it, it is  incredibly infectious.  And the Gold Disc is the way to go on this release  because not only do you get the original order of the album (which places  Russell's odd cover of Dylan's "Master of War" into proper  context), you get the original cover art (with the famous Shelter egg in  the top left hand corner of the sleeve), and a great number of bonus tracks  including a sped up version of his Asylum-era "Sweet Home  Chicago," (now called "The New Sweet Home Chicago") an  awesome jam between Leon and Eric Clapton, an alternate version of  "Shootout on the Plantation," a great unreleased track  ("Indian Girl") and "Shine a Light" which features Leon  on piano, Ringo Starr on drums and Mick Jagger singing (oddly enough, this  song is credited to Leon Russell here but when it turned up later on  "Exile on Main Street," it was credited to Jagger and  Richards...truth be told, it sounds more Jagger and Richards to me).  Aside  from the bonus tracks, the album has been remastered back to its original  mix (the album version of "Shootout on the Plantation" sounds  more piano laden) and all of the studio banter and stops and starts have  survived.  And on top of all of this, "Delta Lady," "A Song  For You," "Hummingbird," "Roll Away the Stone" and  "Pieces Apple Lady" have never sounded better. This is the first  time Leon put out so many great tracks on one album.  Later, he would make  more profound albums, more personal albums, more diverse albums and more  complex albums but he never made a more fun album.