Got this through SV on Facebook: one of the greatest in modern music is about to leave us. I'm spinning some of his stuff in his honour..


http://www.levonhelm.com/

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/levon-helm-in-final-stages-of-his-battle-with-cancer-20120417

Feared the worst when I heard he was ill a few days ago. Sad news. One of the greatest voices out there.

This is so incredibly sad....:( My prayers are with him and his family, friends, and legion of fans...

OMG...one of my faves of alltime.....saw the Band in so many venues....600,000 people at Watkins Glen....75,000 with Clapton at Rich Stadium Buffalo (blew drunk Eric off the stage)...2500 people in our local music theater..and 450 people in a small venue in Western Ontario....what memories....hoping for the best,....fearing the worst.

This is so sad, Levon goes back a long way with me, in the 60's (before Dylan) The Band was Ronnie Hawkins band, played in Toronto bars all over, Cancer sucks big time!

damn the man just gave us so much for more than fifty years. thank you sir for all your magic. god bless

@gimmekeef and Heart Of Stone. I would love to hear some more stories about those gigs.  Being born in 1973 on the other side of the pool, I never got to see the Band or Levon with his fantastic band. I love all that stuff on disc though.  

Very Very sad.  Levon Helm is amazing.  My prayers go out to his family.

FG

Teiz wrote on Apr 18^th, 2012 at 6:20am:

@gimmekeef and Heart Of Stone. I would love to hear some more stories about those gigs.  Being born in 1973 on the other side of the pool, I never got to see the Band or Levon with his fantastic band. I love all that stuff on disc though.

Well I was too young to see Ronnie Hawkins in bars in the late 60's, that's where they started, he was the front man & The Hawks were his backing band, so the emphasis was on Ronnie, but the band really shined on some singles that were released "40 Days/Bo Diddley/Who Do You Love" Robbie's guitar especially, being a guitar player that's what stood out, then they became Levon & The Hawks, then Dylan's back up band when he went electric, & then in about '69 they became The Band, could be '68, but it was with Ronnie Hawkins where they really learned their trade sort of speak, by playing years in bars, I don't even know if they have that nowdays or not, I don't go to bars, I hear the entertainment is playing piped in music, & there's not that many bands in bars anymore, there's also Karaoke that's popular, bands are on the way out.

Here's a site that has a documentary on the Toronto scene in the 60's.
http://www.bravo.ca/events/yongestreet/index.asp

Keith Richards, Scotty Moore, Levon Helm,  D. J. Fontana & The Band: Deuce & A Quarter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0jpqF1uolk&feature=share

So sad!  Another one from our era losing his battle with the deadly CANCER!!