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We're about to lose Levon


Flemtone

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The Band singer and drummer Levon Helm is in the final stages of cancer, according to a note posted on his website Tuesday by his wife, Sandy, and daughter, Amy.

 

Please send your prayers and love to him as he makes his way through this part of his journey, the note said. 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.

 

 

 

 

LA Times

 

 

 

Damn.

Play. Just play.
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I heard he and Mavis Staples were supposed to appear together at the NO Jazz Fest. Can you imagine their duet on "The Weight"? What a loss.

Queen of the Quarter Note

"Think like a drummer, not like a singer, and play much less." -- Michele C.

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I had the privelege to see Levon perform with The Band in the mid 1990's. It was one of the most amazing performances I've ever witnessed. Levon's groove and the soulfulness of his singing were amazing. And having spent so many of the summers of my youth in Woodstock, NY, I came to recognize just how much of an important and cherished presence Levon is in that town. Much love to him and his family.

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Ah crap. My late brother Eric loved The Band and got me into them at an early age. The Weight remains one of my favorites songs from any genre by any artist.

 

Prayers for Levon.

Push the button Frank.
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Some very nice words about Levon from Jeff Tweedy of Wilco:

 

"Levon was the glue, not just in The Band, but in all of what people think of when they think of North American music. He was a great unifier; a great glue. He unified blues and country, rural and city, and even North and South. Luckily he showed us all the way to keep it together and let it swing."

- Jeff Tweedy

 

 

For me, this is an incredibly sad day. But knowing that Levon was surrounded by family & friends eases that. And his music will be with us always.

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":A real shame"....

 

I've posted this elsewhere.

Prolly will have no more effect here than other jack-ass forums./

 

HERE":S WWHAT LH HAD TO SAY ABT HIS OWN DEMIISE

SEVERAL YRS AGO

!!!!!

 

 

 

 

of these obits have more to do

w/ what we wanna rescribe

than what we OWE

to the rpevious musos

THE PREVIOUS MUSOS

!~!!!!@!@!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

GET F'IN"

REAL!!!!!!

 

 

 

d=halfnote
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Yes Levon doesn't want us to be sad - he sang so himself!

 

As dnote posted

 

[video:youtube]

 

"I don't want no crying Only tears of joy I'm gonna see my mother Gonna see my father And I'll be bound for glory In the morning When I go away" "See that storm over yonder It's gonna rain all day But then the sun's gonna shine Through the shadows When I go away"

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Last night I just had to watch The Last Waltz. Amazingly enough, my girlfriend had never seen it before, so she watched it with me. Parts of it definitely tugged at the heart strings, especially when Levon was singing "The night they drove old dixie down". That song truly was written for him by Robbie Robertson. And Levon sang it with such heart and a lack of pretense that you really felt the impact of the lyrics.

 

Over the years I've had mixed feelings about Robbie Robertson and his decision to effectively END The Band. In the film's interview segments he kept on talking about how hard life on the road is on a musician. And in some segments I definitely got the sense that he may have had his own demons with a certain inhaled elicit substance. But when I saw the interview segments with Rick Danko and Richard Manuel, it suddenly struck me: did he recognize just how strung out his bandmates were? And did he want to end things in the hope of saving their lives? It's made me look at Robbie Robertson a little bit differently.

 

However, I think that on the business side of things he may have received a bit more credit than perhaps he deserved. That's another issue entirely.

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  • 4 months later...
  • 3 months later...

A little late in adding this one, but last month my wife and I got to attend Love for Levon at the New Jersey Meadowlands. Just before Levon passed this past spring he expressed a dying wish: That being that his friends and family keep his Woodstock, NY barn / studio running, along with the series of performances called the Midnight Ramble.

 

This was really an amazing experience, and one of the more moving concerts I've ever attended! Especially when you look at the roster of artists who turned up:

 

 

Roger Waters (Pink Floyd)

John Mayer

My Morning Jacket

Eric Church

Ray LaMontagne

Dierks Bentley

Joe Walsh (The Eagles, The James Gang)

Gregg Allman (The Allman Brothers Band)

Grace Potter (Grace Potter & The Nocturnals)

Garth Hudson of The Band

Marc Cohn

Jakob Dylan (The Wallflowers)

Mike Gordon (Phish)

Warren Haynes (The Allman Brothers Band, Gov't Mule)

John Hiatt

Bruce Hornsby

Jorma Kaukonen (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna)

The Levon Helm Band

John Prine

Robert Randolph (Robert Randolph & The Family Band)

Mavis Staples (The Staples Singers)

Lucinda Williams

Don Was

 

 

The whole show was recorded, and I expect that it's going to be released on BluRay / DVD some time in the next year. Proceeds from the concert went to helping keep Levon's barn going.

 

The bass duties were split between a few players. For a good portion of the night Don Was, the co-musical director for the event, played bass. He traded off with Levon Helm band bassist Byron House. And Mike Gordon of Phish also sat in on bass for a single song with John Hiatt, "Rag Mama Rag". Amazingly, all three of these guys played the same Fender Precision for the whole night, except for when Byron House played some upright. Tom Blankenship of My Morning Jacket took on the bass duties for MMJ's two songs, and My Morning Jacket also backed up Roger Waters who closed out the show.

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