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The great Levon Helm passed today. What a musician he was. Not to mention he was a great guy. I met him several times, and I got a chance to share some beers with him, Rick Danko, and Garth Hudson back in 1993 in Miami. I was MCing their show that year, and was very fortunate to do so. All of them were such great guys. Now only one of them is left. He will be missed greatly. Tonight I shall be listening to Music From Big Pink, and other Band music.

RIP Levon. Your memory remains.

Riffy

Rest in peace, Levon.

Oh, man, this one HURTS. Levon was an American treasure.

On the way down to Mississippi last week we talked about attending one of Levon's Rambles someday soon. But on the way back we heard the news that it was only a matter of time. And now he's gone.

I got to see Levon 3 times, twice with Hubert Sumlin (RIP) and once with the latter-day version of the Band, singing "When I Paint My Masterpiece" at the MSG Dylan tribute in '92 with his soul brother Rick Danko (RIP). Now they're all gone.

They don't make voices like that anymore. And I'm not sure they make souls that big anymore either.

At least he went out on a high note. His last three albums are all great and well-received.

It's easy to focus entirely on his voice, but he was an AWESOME drummer, too. Not in the Neil Peart way, but in an entirely Charlie Watts way. His soul came across in his drumming. I also loved his occasional forays into acting; hell, even his narration was genius (he narrated "Elvis '56" - I can still hear him saying "Elvis was downight DAAAANGEROUS".)

Rest in Peace, Levon.

Rest in peace, Levon.

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down was the very first song I knew all of the words to thanks to my great grandma playing it over and over when I was four. She loved The Band and I did too thanks to her.

RIP Levon.

R.I.P. Levon.

Levon Helm, Drummer and Singer of the Band, Dead at 71
Battled throat cancer since the Nineties
Comment 18
By David Browne
April 19, 2012 3:10 PM ET

Levon Helm performs at the Life is Good Festival at the Prowse Farm in Canton, Massachusetts.
Douglas Mason/Getty Images

Levon Helm, singer and drummer for the Band, died on April 19th in New York of throat cancer. He was 71.

"He passed away peacefully at 1:30 this afternoon surrounded by his friends and bandmates," Helm's longtime guitarist Larry Campbell tells Rolling Stone. "All his friends were there, and it seemed like Levon was waiting for them. Ten minutes after they left we sat there and he just faded away. He did it with dignity. It was even two days ago they thought it would happen within hours, but he held on. It seems like he was Levon up to the end, doing it the way he wanted to do it. He loved us, we loved him."

Photos: Levon Helm Through the Years

In the late Nineties, Helm – whose singing anchored Band classics like "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," "Up on Cripple Creek," "Rag Mama Rag," and "The Weight" – was diagnosed with throat cancer and underwent 28 radiation treatments, eventually recovering his voice. In recent weeks, however, Helm had canceled a number of shows, including one at the New Orleans Jazz Fest on April 27th and another in Montclair, New Jersey. A note posted to his website on Tuesday from his daughter Amy and wife Sandy said that Helm was in the "final stages of his battle with cancer. Please send your prayers and love to him as he makes his way through this part of his journey. Thank you fans and music lovers who have made his life so filled with joy and celebration...he has loved nothing more than to play, to fill the room up with music, lay down the back beat, and make the people dance! He did it every time he took the stage."

Born May 26, 1940 in Arkansas, Helm was literally a witness to the birth of rock & roll; as a teenager, he saw Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis in concert and was inspired to play drums after seeing Lewis' drummer, Jimmy Van Eaton. (Helm went on to play mandolin and other stringed instruments as well). In 1960, Helm joined the backup band of rockabilly wildman Ronnie Hawkins – a group that would eventually include Robbie Robertson, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko and Garth Hudson, all future members of the Band.

The musicians broke from Hawkins to form their own group – their names included the Crackers and Levon and the Hawks – but it was their association with Bob Dylan that cemented their reputation. After Dylan saw the group in a club (either in Canada or New Jersey, depending on the source), he invited Helm and guitarist Robertson to join his electric band. "Bob Dylan was unknown to us," Helm wrote in his 1993 memoir This Wheel's on Fire. "I knew he was a folksinger and songwriter whose hero was Woody Guthrie. And that's it." Robertson and Helm were in Dylan's electric band for his controversial, frequently booed show at New York's Forest Hills Tennis Stadium. Afterward, various members of the Band played on Dylan's Blonde on Blonde and toured with him in 1966. (Helm left temporary in 1965, tired of the ongoing hostility from Dylan's folk fans.)

Recuperating in Woodstock after his 1966 motorcycle accident, Dylan again hooked up with the band that would soon be the Band. Before Helm rejoined them, they recorded the landmark Basement Tapes, and the Band's crackling, homespun take on American roots music began to take shape. Rechristening themselves the Band, they signed to Capitol Records and released two classic albums, Music From Big Pink (1968) and The Band (1969). Although Robertson was the Band's principal songwriter, it was Helm's beautifully gruff and ornery voice that brought the Canadian Robertson's mythic Americana songs to life. He was also one of rock's earliest singing drummers.

In 1976, at Robertson's urging, the Band broke up after its farewell concert, known as "The Last Waltz." In meetings before the concert and as recounted in This Wheel's on Fire, Helm was adamantly opposed to the group disbanding. "I didn't want any part of it," he wrote. "I didn't want to break up the band." He begrudgingly went along, but his relationship with Robertson was never the same. After the show, Helm formed his own band, Levon Helm and the RCO All Stars, featuring fellow legends Dr. John, Steve Cropper, and Booker T. Jones, and recorded several solo albums. Helm also ventured into acting with an acclaimed role in 1980's Coal Miner's Daughter, playing Loretta Lynn (Sissy Spacek's) father. But he couldn't leave the Band behind, and with Danko, Manuel, and Hudson, he formed a new version of the Band in the early Eighties, recording three new studio albums with them.

The Band continued for a while after Manuel's suicide by hanging in 1986, but Danko's death in 1999 of heart failure ended the Band once and for all. By then, Helm was dealing with throat cancer. After his recovery, he began holding intimate concerts in his combination barn and studio in Woodstock, called the "Midnight Ramble," in part to pay his medical bills. The low-key, woodsy performances became must-see shows and attracted a rock who's who; Elvis Costello, Natalie Merchant, the Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh and Donald Fagen were among the many who joined Helm and his band. The Ramble shows led to two acclaimed Helm solo albums – one of which, 2007's Dirt Farmer, won a Grammy in the Best Traditional Folk category. "This go-round has been a lot more fun," Helm told Rolling Stone in 2009. "Now I know I've got enough voice to do it."

When the Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, Helm didn't attend, revealing that his feud with Robertson was still on. "I thought Levon was going to show," Robertson told Rolling Stone a few years later. "Then that evening they said he changed his mind and wasn't going to come. And I thought, 'Oh, God, it would have been better if he was here.'"

Helm's throat cancer had taken a toll on his singing voice. On stage and in recent interviews, his voice was sometimes strong but other times was reduced to a low rasp. But at one his last shows, in Ann Arbor on March 19th with a 13-piece band, the audience roared when he sang the Band classic "Ophelia." "I'm not the poster boy of good health," he said in an interview last year. "But I'm not doing too bad. I still got the energy to make music. As long as I can do that, I'm great."

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/levon-helm-drummer-and-singer-of-the-band-dies-at-71-20120419#ixzz1sWLmjaeb

A true American treasure. I loved how in the Last Waltz when talking about NYC he said "its an adult portion". Very sad day. Fucking cigarettes.

Tomorrow we're gonna do a special radio programme in his honor @ http://movil.ibero909.fm/ 14:00 EST (US)

Another alltime wonder gone..RIP nad thanks for all the memories and great tunes.....Deuce and a Quarter?....Keef's last great tune????...playing and vocal wise inmho

Very few white guys could hold a candle to him as a singer IMO.

Sad news.

He will be dearly missed. RIP Levon!

http://youtu.be/hdSkXMnYH9I

Such a tragic loss to the music world...:( So many rockers dying WAY before their time.... :( We lost a legend this time... :'(

This song has a lot of resonance today.

http://youtu.be/pEf-YAaBalE

Thanks for the memories Levon. RIP...

never got back up to woodstock to him play at his place. clapped last for him at the electric factory a few years back, didnt see the last show there. regret that. only saw him once with his soul brother. his voice will echo in my house my mind and along the waves of eternity. rest in peace mr helm

Rejoice all you who were blessed to live in the time of Levon Helm. Give thanks those of you who saw him while he lived. His great joy, we are told, was the joy his music bestowed on us. His joy endures. So it goes.

Fuck. This one really does hurt. The biggest tragedy of all is that the three voices of the Band - those three glorious voices - are gone.

I'd been rooting for and pulling for Levon to get through this... and to hear he didn't make it just cuts to the core. The Band, man... that music's rooted in my DNA. It's been there since I can remember. And the sound of Levon's voice - and, as others have rightfully mentioned, his wonderfully funky, syncopated drum style - is right there at the forefront.

Take care on your journey, Levon. We'll all see you eventually.

As fans of the Band continue to mourn the death of singer-drummer
Levon Helm, not surprisingly, so are those who worked directly with him.

Among them: Bob Dylan and Martin Scorsese.

For Dylan, his friendship with Helm began in the mid-1960s when the Band
(known as the Hawks at the time) served as the music icon's backing band.

"He was my bosom buddy friend to the end, one of the last true great spirits of my or any other generation. This is just
so sad to talk about," Dylan wrote on his website in response to Helm's passing. "I still can remember the first day I met him
and the last day I saw him. We go back pretty far and had been through some trials together. I'm going to miss him, as I'm
sure a whole lot of others will too."

Scorsese, meanwhile, was on hand for the Band's final performance in 1976 and
documented the San Francisco show in his concert film, The Last Waltz.

http://timeentertainment.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/levon-helm-the-last-waltz-concert.jpg?w=600&h=400&crop=1

"The late Jim Carroll once said that Levon Helm was the only drummer who could
make you cry, and he was absolutely right," the Oscar-winning director said in a
statement to E! News. "Levon's touch was so delicate, so deft, that he gave you
more than just a beat—he gave the music a pulse. And his high, ringing voice was
just as soulful. His bandmate Robbie Robertson wrote "The Night They Drove Old
Dixie Down" for Levon to sing, and I'll never forget how moving it was to watch
him sing it during their final performance at Winterland, which is one of the high
points of the movie we made from that wonderful show...I consider myself
fortunate to have worked with Levon, and I am one among many, many
people who will miss him."

Helm passed way on Thursday, just two days after his family announced he was
losing a fight to cancer. He was 71.

Read more: http://www.eonline.com/news/bob_dylan_martin_scorsese_remember/310342#ixzz1sb8feENw

A Great Voice A Great Drummer .....RIP Levon...............

I'll take Jack his dog. RIP

72Tele wrote on Apr 19^th, 2012 at 4:01pm:

A true American treasure. I loved how in the Last Waltz when talking about NYC he said "its an adult portion". Very sad day. Fucking cigarettes.

Actually he was Canadian but he moved to Woodstock, NY later on after The Band split up. Still, a treasure! RIP Levon. He was good.

Bitch wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2012 at 5:41pm:

72Tele wrote on Apr 19^th, 2012 at 4:01pm:

A true American treasure. I loved how in the Last Waltz when talking about NYC he said "its an adult portion". Very sad day. Fucking cigarettes.

Actually he was Canadian but he moved to Woodstock, NY later on after The Band split up. Still, a treasure! RIP Levon. He was good.

Actually born American in Arkansas......I'm Canadian by birth and we would have loved to count him as one of ours......Music transcends borders no?.......

Bitch wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2012 at 5:41pm:

72Tele wrote on Apr 19^th, 2012 at 4:01pm:

A true American treasure. I loved how in the Last Waltz when talking about NYC he said "its an adult portion". Very sad day. Fucking cigarettes.

Actually he was Canadian but he moved to Woodstock, NY later on after The Band split up. Still, a treasure! RIP Levon. He was good.

He was the only American in the Canadian group "The Band" Bitch, he was born in Marvell, Arkansas

Voodoo Chile in Wonderland wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2012 at 7:14pm:

Bitch wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2012 at 5:41pm:

72Tele wrote on Apr 19^th, 2012 at 4:01pm:

A true American treasure. I loved how in the Last Waltz when talking about NYC he said "its an adult portion". Very sad day. Fucking cigarettes.

Actually he was Canadian but he moved to Woodstock, NY later on after The Band split up. Still, a treasure! RIP Levon. He was good.

He was the only American in the Canadian group "The Band" Bitch, he was born in Marvell, Arkansas

Oops sorry ~ got my facts mixed up!

A beautiful tribute from Tom Petty to Levon the other night with a very rare performance of this wonderful old Petty gem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzT1_dzjTH0

Levon Helm fans band together to remember musician at his Woodstock home
By The Associated Press

Busloads of friends and fans of Levon Helm traveled to his home Thursday to say goodbye to the influential singer and drummer for The Band, who died of cancer last week.

AP FILE PHOTO

Friends and fans of Helm are gathering at his Woodstock home Thursday, April 26, to say farewell to the legendary singer and drummer for The Band, who died of cancer on April 19.
The public memorial was held at the Woodstock barn where Helm held his Saturday night Midnight Ramble concerts in New York’s Hudson Valley. His closed casket, on the second floor of the barn, was surrounded by flowers and flanked by his drum kit and a piano.

Hundreds of friends, neighbors and fans filed silently past the coffin, set against a backdrop of a family photo slideshow. Nearby, family members greeted visitors.

Mourners — a crowd of mostly middle-aged people with a smattering of aging hippies and a few young people — were quietly encouraged to keep the line moving. Some carried flowers, and a few pressed handkerchiefs to their faces.

“He was an icon but also the guy next door,” said Al Caron of Woodstock as he waited outside the Woodstock Playhouse for one of the yellow school buses ferrying people to Helm’s nearby home-studio.

“He played music on the village green,” Caron said. “The Rambles were like a revival meeting. There was just a sense of euphoria from the minute you arrived at his home and he will be missed.”

After a private funeral Friday, April 26, Helm will be buried in Woodstock Cemetery next to Rick Danko, The Band’s singer and bassist who died in 1999.

Helm, Danko, Garth Hudson, Robbie Robertson and Richard Manuel’s first album as The Band was 1968’s “Music From Big Pink.” That album and its follow-up, “The Band,” remain landmark albums of the era, and songs such as “The Weight,” “Dixie Down” and “Cripple Creek” have become rock standards.

“He was my idol,” said Dan McCabe, a college student pursuing a career in music production who played in a jazz band at one of Helm’s Rambles.

Helm was found to have throat cancer in 1998. He died April 19 at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

AP FILE PHOTO
Beth Hendrickson of Glenford, N.Y., waits to board a bus to go to a wake for musician Levon Helm at his home in Woodstock, N.Y., on Thursday, April 26.
Early on, The Band backed Bob Dylan on his electric tours of 1965-66 and collaborated with him on the legendary “Basement Tapes.” On his website last week, Dylan called Helm “one of the last true great spirits of my or any other generation.”

“He was so down to earth,” said Roland Mousaa, whose long gray hair, sequined sunglasses and tie-dye shirt under a funereal black topcoat signaled a personal history going back to the ’60s generation that also belonged to Helm. “The greatness of Levon Helm was the impact he had on people. He stood up for people.”

The son of an Arkansas cotton farmer, Helm was just out of high school when he joined rocker Ronnie Hawkins in 1957 as the drummer for the Hawks. That band eventually recruited a group of Canadian musicians who, along with Helm, would split from Hawkins, join Dylan and ultimately become The Band.

The Band bid farewell to live shows with “The Last Waltz” concert in 1976. Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Dylan were among the stars who played the show, filmed by Martin Scorsese. “The Last Waltz” is regarded by many as the greatest of concert films, but it also helped lead to a bitter split between Robertson and Helm, once the best of friends.

The Band reunited without Robertson in the 1980s but never approached its early success.

In 2004, Helm began a series of free-wheeling Midnight Ramble shows in his barn. He recorded “Dirt Farmer” in 2007 and “Electric Dirt” in 2009. Both albums won Grammys. He won another this year for “Ramble at the Ryman.”

“He used his fame for good,” said Pat McCabe, Dan’s father. “He took time to give benefits for schools all over the area. He had a level of humanity over and above a mere rock star. Plus, he was a hell of a musician.”

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2012/04/levon_helm_fans_band_together.html

RIP

The self titled Band album is a gift towards humanity.

RIP Levon Helm. Thank you for the great music.

Can you recommmend some of his cds...solo and with the Band? I have Last Waltz.

The Band: Music From Big Pink and the self-titled second album are indispensable.

Solo: all 4 of his last albums are great. Dirt Farmer and Electric Dirt are both fantastic. I don't have the live ones but I'm sure they're fabulous too.

Nice to see you, FG! How ya been?

HI FPM!

Nice to "see" you also. Check your PM.

Hugsies,

FG!

I would add

"Levon Helm & The RCO All Stars Live At The Palladium" recorded live during New Year's Eve 1977 with Dr. John, Paul Butterfield and Steve Cropper between some other

"The Midnight Ramble Sessions" is also great

Thanks to Music From Big Pink and self titled second the album Stage Fright is overlooked. It is a great one though..

Teiz wrote on Apr 27^th, 2012 at 5:29pm:

Thanks to Music From Big Pink and self titled second the album Stage Fright is overlooked. It is a great one though..

stage fright is terrific and the rest all have some great material on them. rock of ages the live set with the bonus cd which has dylan on onnit. also recommend the dvd festival express which has some great footage innit. basically just get im all!!!

Fans bid peace and farewell to Levon Helm
12:55 AM, Apr. 27, 2012
http://www.lohud.com/article/20120427/NEWS05/120427004/Fans-bid-peace-farewell-Levon-Helm

WOODSTOCK -- The crowds turned out one final time for Levon Helm.

More than 2,000 people made their way here Thursday for a memorial for Helm, a Grammy-winning member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame who lived for more than four decades in the community known as a haven for artists and musicians.

Helm died April 19 of cancer. He was 71.

According to the Associated Press, he will be buried today in the Woodstock Cemetery next to bass player Rick Danko, one of his closest friends, with whom he performed in the rock group The Band.

Town of Woodstock police Chief Clayton Keefe said the influx of thousands of fans didn’t cause any problems. “It was very well organized,” he said.

The memorial was held at Levon Helm Studios, his home-recording studio, which over the years has hosted Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, My Morning Jacket and the Black Crowes for recording sessions.

It was also where Helm charted new territory for the music business with his Midnight Ramble house concerts, which fueled a comeback that resulted in three consecutive Grammy wins. Helm, a drummer and mandolin player, will be remembered by many for his aching, authentic, signature singing style.

Helm, who performed with Bob Dylan and Ringo Starr, was praised, lauded, mourned and remembered with a smile by fans as they returned from the memorial on shuttle buses to a parking lot at Andy Lee Field. Parking was also available at the Woodstock Playhouse and Cucina Woodstock, a restaurant a few minutes drive from the studio.

The sky was gray. The air was cold. And the mood at Andy Lee Field and the Woodstock Playhouse was subdued. People who had never met Helm spoke of him as a friend. Many said they felt like they had gotten to know him through his records and his live performances.

The media were not permitted to attend the memorial. But reflections from fans sketched a picture of Helm, who grew up on his family’s cotton farm in Turkey Scratch, Ark., performed at Madison Square Garden and will be remembered as a rock star who was proud of his small-town roots.

'Peaceful'
Elaine Grega, 62, of Woodstock said the casket, Helm’s drum kit and flowers set the tone for a “peaceful atmosphere” inside Levon Helm Studios.

“It was very quiet. It was just peaceful. The whole thing was peaceful. I said a prayer for him,” she said.

Grega said Helm will be missed by the community. “He did a lot of concerts for people, not just the ones he charged for, but he did ones for free — and his music was great. He was like an icon of Woodstock.”

'Awe-inspiring'
Bruce Hoehn, 65, of Chichester said the memorial to Helm was “awe-inspiring.”
Hoehn, who attended the memorial with his wife, Carol, also 65, said pictures of Helm were projected on a large screen.

“It was done very tastefully,” Hoehn said, “and very respectfully.”

As with many of Helm’s fans, Hoehn felt like he knew him, despite never meeting him.
“He was down-to-earth, friendly,” he said.

Hoehn thinks Helm will be remembered as “one heck of a talent, a great musician, a great artist.”

Asked why he attended the memorial, Hoehn responded, “Just respecting a person’s talent. It’s nice to be able to honor it.”

'His smile'
Christina Byron-Steen of Chichester, who was crying after she attended the memorial, said she is going to miss “his smile.”

She also was touched by the invitation extended to the public to attend the memorial.
“We’re all honored. It was very nice,” she said.

'Part of Catskills'
Her husband, Carl Steen of Chichester, said Helm will be remembered for his style of drumming.

“He was just so unique. I’ll never forget the way he played drums,” he said.
Steen also said that Helm was an integral part of the region he called home.
“He was part of the Catskills — and we’re part of the Catskills.”

'Down home'
Hoppy Quick of Samsonville said, “He was down home, and I really appreciate that. He was a star, but he kept it down home, he kept it local. He’s a big part of the mountains here — and that’s important to me.

“I’m just really going to miss him. But we still have his music. So we can still always check in with that. Whenever we want to check in with Levon, we can listen to his music.”

'A gentleman'
Wade Lawrence is director of the Museum at Bethel Woods, which sits on the site where the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was held in Bethel, Sullivan County. The festival, held in August 1969, featured dozens of rock groups, including The Band.

“Levon Helm was a gentleman, a great musician and he represents a lot of what the Museum at Bethel Woods is all about: creativity, commitment to your craft,” Lawrence said after getting off one of the buses that shuttled fans to the memorial. “He was a great.”

History will remember Helm, Lawrence said, “as a founding member of one of the best American bands to ever exist, and as a great human being.”

Lawrence called the Midnight Ramble “a true musical experience — musicians getting together out of the joy of the music. … It wasn’t about him, it was about the music. It was never about stardom for Levon Helm.”

Lawrence said The Band represented the Town of Woodstock at the Woodstock festival.

“A whole generation looked at The Band, they epitomized their musical experience,” he said.

As a teenager at that time, said Lawrence, 57, “I know that the music meant something to me. The music was truly American, truly non-gimmicky, the music was heartfelt, soulful and reflected a lot of what we went through, we as a generation. It was our music and so, it was our band. … There was an affinity that our generation had with The Band.”

'Naturally good guy'
Duke Devlin, 69, of Bethel attended the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in 1969, saw The Band perform and works as a site interpreter at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts.

“I came here to pay respect to one of the greatest musicians who ever was,” Devlin said. “I will always remember Levon for that wonderful, broad smile. He would smile to you the way he would smile to a vast crowd. He was just a naturally good guy. I’ll remember him as one of the best smiling, good guys that I’ve ever met.”

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http://rocksoff.org/cgi-bin/messageboard/YaBB.pl GENERAL >> MAIN BOARD >> RIP Levon http://rocksoff.org/cgi-bin/messageboard/YaBB.pl?num=1334863033 Message started by Riffhard on Apr 19^th, 2012 at 2:17pm