Levon Helm

One of the all-time greats.

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/575278_10150709017903528_99136623527_9668601_1869317415_n.jpg

:(

my brother and i were listening to Big Pink last weekend and just marveling at what a *different* sound all of those guys made together. even though they were certainly influential on their peer group and beyond, I don't know if anything else really sounds like them. for a while there anyway, the creativity level was insanely high.

A fucking great musician with the sort of love for the whole huge world of music that leaves a huge impact on others, on how they experience music. An underpraised singer.

so many great voices in the band and levons was the most memorable

one of my favorite musicians of all time. i'm really sad at the moment.

the band doing buddy holly's "slippin' and slidin'" on festival express, goddamn levon what a great drummer and singer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZu6NucfLHM&feature=related

xp i don't know, generally my favorite singer in the Band is whoever's singing at the time. they're all so amazing. but yeah, such a wealth of talent there.

^^i mean the drumming on that is SO GOOD

yeah, i mean the dude is a serious compendium of key american drumming styles -- new orleans, rockabilly, country, soul, blues, he covers it all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFgyD3Uk1JQ&feature=related

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

damn :(

surprised he's made it this long, but still v sad news.

With Helm, it's the way the his voice is simply not effected by what his left hand is doing -- he'd smack the back beat HARD and just behind the beat enough, but he could still sing in a different, straighter style right on top of it when he wanted to. That's impressive.

not an expert on his solo album, but I've got this one, it's a good bbq record
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_95DOmt9Bc&feature=related

levon had a great laugh too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgVxszM42DI&feature=related
check about 1:25

the greatest drummer w/ the greatest group

a sweet bonus track from one of those reissues a few years back. beautifully vulnerable vocal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cymLzaDFPPs

this is also good
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lquomjz4jV1qzy30io1_500.jpg

willing to bet that levon was the better ping pong player.

the band doing buddy holly's "slippin' and slidin'" on festival express,

oh yeah oops sry lil rich my bad, i only know buddy's version

Their cover of "Don't Do It" features all time drumming.

super sad. one of my fave musicians in the world. :'(

What other people said above -- he's totally classic as both a drummer and a singer, but as a drummer-singer I think he's pretty much #1 all time. And (the key here is) the reason he's a great drummer-singer is that his singing and his drumming grow out of the same impulse -- for want of a better word, soul. They're different expressions of the same feeling.

This hasn't fully sunk in yet. In addition to all the other things that make Levon great is the fact that he is the kind of guy who says things like "Muddy Waters, the king of country music."

also far and away the most likable member of The Band (Of Weirdo Drug-Addicts/Mad Genius Recluses/Domineering Frontmen)

robertson:
Last week I was shocked and so saddened to hear that my old band mate, Levon, was in the final stages of his battle with cancer. It hit me really hard because I thought he had beaten throat cancer and had no idea that he was this ill. I spoke with his family and made arrangements to go and see him.

On Sunday I went to New York and visited him in the hospital. I sat with Levon for a good while, and thought of the incredible and beautiful times we had together. It was heartwarming to be greeted by his lovely daughter Amy, whom I have known since she was born. Amy’s mother, Libby Titus, and her husband, Donald Fagen, were so kind to help walk me through this terrible time of sadness. My thoughts and prayers are with his wife Sandy.

Levon is one of the most extraordinary talented people I’ve ever known and very much like an older brother to me. I am so grateful I got to see him one last time and will miss him and love him forever.

-Robbie Robertson

oh and I just posted this little collection of Levon & The Hawks recordings, 1961-65 http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/21327965061/what-a-party-like-so-many-others-my-thoughts
great stuff.

Levon Helm's son-in-law is Donald Fagen?

Or wait, Donald Fagen is married to Helm's ex-wife?

also far and away the most likable member of The Band (Of Weirdo Drug-Addicts/Mad Genius Recluses/Domineering Frontmen)

― caulk the wagon and float it, Tuesday, April 17, 2012 10:11 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i dunno garth hudson is p loveable too imo

danko and manuel you kind of want to adopt and take care of

robbie isn't likeable though

his "fake singing into the microphone during choruses as if my voice doesn't totally blow goats and i'm not in a band with three amazing vocalists" is the most annoying stage mannerism of all time

fagen's his ex-wife's new husband, yeah, i think. xp

At any rate, I'm surprised Robertson didn't try to say that he was the one suffering from throat cancer.

everybody except robbie is pretty lovable, i think. i saw garth hudson play a couple times when i was in college and it was a fun time. just him doodling around on old standards and then hey how about a sax solo.

Or wait, Donald Fagen is married to Helm's ex-wife?

― pplains, Wednesday, April 18, 2012 11:24 AM (18 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

checked wiki, and yeah not his ex wife but they had a relationship and daughter together (amy) and then she married fagen in the 90s

that's crazy

"Hear Alexis P. Suter sing this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3qu0xNRaI4 ... I am too sad for words right now. Please continue praying for Levon and family." - Garth

tyler, i think my opinion of robbie is most based off of his camera hogging interview segments during the last waltz, he's such a douche in that

Saw him in Winnipeg in 2010 and optimistically thought/hoped he was beating the cancer. I always love drummers who set up side-stage at an angle. Great show, not great video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zM3a8B4edBA&feature=related

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ATAexrDtFes/TNlKJ5fsX9I/AAAAAAAACtk/lCU6l4bzwnQ/s1600/20101109_LibbyTitus.JPG
here's libby titus, she's got a couple cool records.

and yeah, my opinion of robbie as a lame-o just comes from the Last Waltz too. whatever, dude is one of my top 5 guitarists and an amazing songwriter. he can be a lame-o if he wants to be!

Picturing Fagen sitting alone in the waiting room with daytime television on. Robertson gets off the elevator.

"Yeah, they're all in there. He just woke up a little awhile ago."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgVxszM42DI

Kind of a "Saturday Night" pink.

Think there is another thread where some of us watched his instructional video which was kind of fun

I saw the post-Robertson version of The Band live in June '84 ... opening for R.E.M.!

ha, weird! i guess garth hudson was practically a member of the Call for a bit in the early 80s.
i know some friends who saw the post-Robertson Band and said they were still great. Jericho from the early 90s has some good stuff on it -- a great "Blind Willie McTell" (which I think Dylan called definitive) and "Atlantic City."

hey Robbie haters can we maybe dial it back during this time? Robbie-hating is a fucking disease. I mean sure he's an asshole but among Band fans it's like "hey what'd you have for lunch?" "just some potato salad, I wasn't too hungry. FUCK ROBBIE ROBERTSON"

Robbie was mouthing that post as you wrote it, Steve.

I lol'd

oh like i said, i don't hate robbie at all, he's a huge part of some of my favorite music ever. i'm sure all the Band were jerks in their own special way -- they were rock stars in the 70s! it was their right and privilege.