Levon Helm

Small town.

also for some reason i always find it way more impressive when awesome drummers can sing at the same time than when ppl that play other instruments sing at the same time, though i guess i don't know why i think that's different

― Mississippi Butt Hurt (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, April 17, 2012 5:51 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it totally is imo, just because you use so much more of your body and especially upper body playing a drum set than most other instruments, also requires i think a little more breath control or consciousness of moving around or away from the mic.

― some former lust object you've shamefully forgotten (some dude), Wednesday, April 18, 2012 2:11 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also really notable imo is the ease & joy with which he pulls this off, so elastic & graceful

listening to cbc the sunday edition at midnight last sunday in a cottage, michael enright gave a brief eulogy to helm & played "the hold." one of my earliest musical memories is of my father playing that song, & i have so many wonderful moments & memories of hearing it since, i almost burst into tears right there

http://i612.photobucket.com/albums/tt203/pplains/12-9.jpg

I think Ai Lien scoped you taking that shot today, pp. She wondered what you were up to.

She didn't catch me walking on the grass, did she?

Could've been windier.

http://distilleryimage8.instagram.com/fe8e00da908d11e1a39b1231381b7ba1_7.jpg

Remembrance from Donald Fagen

LEVON HELM: 1940 - 2012

During the last few years, whenever possible, I've played in the rhythm section of Levon Helm's band at his house/blues-joint up in Woodstock, N.Y. I was literally grandfathered in: Levon's daughter Amy, who has two boys herself, is also daughter to my wife, Libby. Amy, a terrific singer, has been central to the Midnight Ramble since it's inception.

On those Saturday nights, I had a great sightline over to Levon, straight across the top of the Steinway. When he was into his groove, with that left shoulder pulled down, wailing into the boom mic on his right, I couldn't take my eyes off him. I couldn't figure out how he could keep that thuddy, cycling pulse so even, making every fill and roll, and yet sing so well at the same time. He made all those machines - the sticks, the skins, the pedals, the cymbals, even the microphone - into living extensions of his own body. Without ever sounding mechanical, he always put the downbeat in that sweet spot. Locking in with Levon was the easiest gig I've ever had.

Towards the end, before each show, he was trying everything possible - inhalers. steam and whatever - to get his damaged larynx loose enough to sing a few tunes so as not to disappoint the folks. The fact is, when he walked out on stage and sat down at the kit, his percussive excellence and iconic presence were more than enough to satisfy most all the paying customers. His family, his old bandmates Robbie and Garth, the Ramble band and crew and several generations of fans around the world - we're all missing him.

god it's beautiful to have a wordsmith like fagen describe helm so perfectly

otm

still bummed that he's really gone

They should hire Fagen and Becker to write negative obituaries.

save it for another thread josh

that's a really nice piece.

I couldn't figure out how he could keep that thuddy, cycling pulse so even, making every fill and roll, and yet sing so well at the same time. He made all those machines - the sticks, the skins, the pedals, the cymbals, even the microphone - into living extensions of his own body. Without ever sounding mechanical, he always put the downbeat in that sweet spot. Locking in with Levon was the easiest gig I've ever had.

gets at some of the stuff i was trying to express upthread

yeah was listening to rock of ages over the weekend, and it was clear how much the band followed levon's lead, like they could just bounce around helm's drums. even danko, who is the other part of the rhythm section, had enormous freedom.

Which link is better for the xpost Levon & the Hawks set? File Factory's freebie keeps being fully in use--"try again"--and that skeeball thing, h'm-m-m.

i did it through filefactory, which, yeah is a pain in the ass. i would put it up on mediafire, but i've been kicked off of there.

Remembrance from Donald Fagen

Rock of Ages
Lost Wages
Rock of Ages
Lost Wages

Tyler, anybody, have you tried http://bbchron.blogspot.com Levon & Friends 70tn Birthday Jubilee?

haven't! looks pretty good though.

James, would love to hear some kind of Steely Band mash-up, esp from the early prime of both.

save it for another thread josh

Ha, I meant to cast no aspirations on the beautiful tribute to Levon he wrote. I just think, incidental to Levon, that those guys would write hilariously mean obituaries.

A friend in Kingston writes:
Also see http://fooooo.com/w/ce051061b5833c6557c2348b33df1b76which is very local. The cornfield scenes were shot about half a mile from where I used to live, and the band scenes were shot in our spookiest bar, Snyder's, which is kind of a haunted house that sells Bud Lite. Levon was our most prominent local citizen--sure wish tickets to his Rambles hadn't cost $100 a pop, so that I never could go to one (L had bigtime medical bills)

Even Poldark was a fan: http://robin-ellis.net/2012/04/20/one-of-my-heroes-has-died/

Dunno how to search for a thread on the Band, but this just announced:

Garth Hudson presents a Canadian Tribute to the Band

*Garth Hudson produced and plays keyboards on all tracks along with the following artists:

1. Danny Brooks & The Rockin’ Revelators - Forbidden Fruit

2. Mary Margaret O’Hara - Out of the Blue

3. Peter Katz & The Curious - Acadian Driftwood

4. Neil Young & Sadies - This Wheel’s on Fire

5. Suzie McNeil - Ain’t Got No Home

6. Cowboy Junkies - Clothes Line Saga

7. Kevin Hearn & Thin Buckly - You Ain’t Going Nowhere

8. Bruce Cockburn & Blue Rodeo - Sleeping

9. The Road Hammers - Yazoo Street Scandal

10. Raine Maida - The Moon Struck One

11. The Sadies - The Shape I’m In

12. Chantal Kreviazuk - Tears of Rage

13. I Loved Your Too Much – Hawksley Workman

14. Great Big Sea - Knockin’ Lost John

15. Blue Rodeo - King Harvest

16. The Trews - Move to Japan

17. Garth Hudson - Genetic Method (Anew)

18. Ian Thornley & Bruce Cockburn - Chest Fever

damn no Chadvril?

pretty sure this already exists? at least i heard the neil young/sadies contribution at least a year ago. it's great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luShSj0JGT8

sounds great, maybe they'll do "levon"
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/elton-john-mumford-sons-to-honor-levon-helm-at-grammys-20130206

Dpcumentary, released in 2010, but much more extensive screenings coming up, also DVD--enticingly described here: Levon steppin' lively no matter whut:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/levon-helms-last-years-captured-in-aint-in-it-for-my-health-20130415
Screen dates, trailer and other goodies here:
http://www.kinolorber.com/film.php?id=1235

Ain't In It For My Health: A Film About Levon Helm

So is it worth seeing?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/aint-in-it-for-my-health-movie-review/2013/05/22/a52e471c-c164-11e2-bfdb-3886a561c1ff_story.html

“Ain’t in It for My Health,” an affectionate documentary by Jacob Hatley, examines Helm’s face and voice up close, at several points following its subject into the doctor’s office, where we’re literally shown Helm’s ravaged vocal cords, via a camera at the end of a flexible tube down the singer’s throat.

...

Don’t look for any new or deep psychological insights from Helm about his relationships with the members of his old group.

Feel like I must have already seen that footage at a Butthole Surfers gig.

As much as I love Levon Helm, that's more than I wanna know. I mean, I don't really wanna see Keith Moon's liver, either.

Wife is tremendous Levin fanatic. Is this worth a 90 minute detour on our way home from a wedding out of state?

err, 'Levon,' obvs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fusKcZjj7dg

Iirc, Mercury Rev is actually from or was based around Woodstock, right? I think I heard that they would see Garth and Levon at the grocery store, and just one day asked them if they wanted to sit in.

Yeah they have a whole upstate NY thing - formed in Buffalo, Dave Fridmanns studio is in Cassadaga NY, Jonathan Donahue and Grasshopper were in the Catskills when working on Deserters Songs, not sure where but close enough to connect with those guys

https://richardsmanuel.tumblr.com/post/121183926169

aw man <3

I was going to add ^get out your handkerchiefs

There are some videos on Libby Titus's instagram of his other stepfather, Donald Fagen, setting in with him, the kid I mean.

Okay, I just read Ezra Titus's obituary. Really get out your handkerchiefs for that if you choose to click.

I guess you can read the same thing here if that goes away: http://theband.hiof.no/updates_2009.html

Is there a clear winner among the Helm solo albums?

I usually hear fans say his last two are his best. Just a heads up, his voice won't be what it once was, but considering that he wasn't sure if he would ever sing again, it's kind of miraculous by that standard.