Levon Helm

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.

I'm glad everyone is making their peace in these final days and whatever good that comes out it can only be beneficial.

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.

hey those songs had to come from somewhere, so no prob w/ Rob. but i can imagine being in a Band with him could be unbearable

According to Helm in his autobio, many of the songs that came from "somewhere" were co-written by other Band members, while being solely credited to Robertson.

Singing drummers: I've seen gorillas ride bicycles, but it still seems like it shouldn't be possible.

I wasn't able to see Helm at the Old Town School here a few weeks back, but he was joined by Fagen there, too. Apparently they're neighbors in Woodstock and good friends, which would explain why someone like Levon, who was having trouble singing, would tap Donald as his unlikely ringer.

Has any major talent accomplished less in his days since being in one of the greatest bands of all time than Robbie Robertson? It can't be a coincidence that his creative well essentially dried up the second the Band broke up.

Best post-Band thing he did was the Casino soundtrack.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qgnHBStEGWo/T0zeteduT8I/AAAAAAAADGc/VK1AdG5sJks/s1600/430159_307375945976091_238558132857873_747223_1924266715_n.jpg

xpost God, man, I couldn't name you one note of actual composed music for "Casino." I thought it was all rock songs and stuff.

Robertson did "Color of Money" too, right? And in that case all I can think of is Eric Clapton and "Werewolves on London." And then Robertson went A&R with the occasional ethno-electronica disc, right?

xpost God, man, I couldn't name you one note of actual composed music for "Casino." I thought it was all rock songs and stuff.

Exactly. Not a single note of Robertson-composed music appears on the soundtrack. But his choices were brilliant.

Robertson was a heck of a DJ on the 1980 segment of GoodFellas.

i remember seeing a Robertson solo video once on VH1 Classic, i think "Somewhere Down the Crazy River," that kind of straddled the line between intriguing and embarrassing. aero is right that now is prob not the time for RR bashing/lols though.

robbie robertson also put together the intriguing modernist soundtrack to shutter island.

but wth folks, levon helm is dying, let's remember him.

listening to that "before the band" bonus disc on the band's big box set. it is awesome.

can't actually get past The Band/Dan connection. it's like two amazing religions
colliding. also, that lady has great taste.

one of her albums was produced by paul simon too, so throw that into the mix as well.

Some of my fave Levon playing is on "On the Beach."

Danko, too.

yeah so good. my dream is that somewhere in the archives there are more neil/band sessions from that period. there's at least one other track w/ levon that's never been bootlegged from around that time.

Is Levon on Comes a Time anywhere too?

But I've seen the band already?

Whoops, disregard that^

This makes me too sad for words.

In particular, I am having a pretty rough day today, and wasn't in any mood to come to the office. Sure enough, the moment I put on Rag Mama Rag, I was at least able to get myself going.

Such a positive force in lot of music I love. And his cameo in the Mark Wahlberg vehicle "Shooter" was AWESOME.

i think the only other Neil album Levon is on is Hawks & Doves (The Old Homestead) -- but I believe that song was recorded around the same time as On The Beach.

According to Helm in his autobio, many of the songs that came from "somewhere" were co-written by other Band members, while being solely credited to Robertson.

Has any major talent accomplished less in his days since being in one of the greatest bands of all time than Robbie Robertson? It can't be a coincidence that his creative well essentially dried up the second the Band broke up.

fair do's guys. fuck that dude.