Thoughts On Levon Helm

Heard the sad news yesterday that Band drummer and vocalist Levon Helm is about to pass on, due to cancer.

I knew that Levon fought throat cancer in the 90s and it took him a long time to be able to sing again.

But in recent years he was back in form, hosting 'Midnight Rambles' in his Woodstock, New York barn.

All sorts of guests showed up to these gigs and they seemed like a cool throwback to the 40s when Levon snuck into similar gigs in the south where he grew up.

You'd have to go to Woodstock but otherwise the door was open. Great idea. Wish I'd have gone to one! I was surprised to see that he played as recently as April 1, according to his Facebook page. There was a post that he'd play on the lighter side to favor his back and neck but I think everyone thought it was just old age or the flu or something. Must have hit him super quick for him to be on his deathbed just two weeks later.

The Band was such a unique group. Three singers. Could go from the bouncy Stage Fright to the morose Tears of Rage on a dime. I remember my friend in college commenting he didn't like the Band because they were depressing!

I see where he was coming from but to me that was just proof that they were genuine. My friend didn't have to grok the meaning behind King Harvest to get the vibe.

A lot of that was due to the incredibly heartfelt vocals of the also late Rick Danko and Richard Manuel, but also to the sparse, behind the beat drumming of Levon Helm.

Vocally, Levon took more of the upbeat tunes that required a bit of a belter to deliver but dig any live version of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down and you will hear 100 percent heart.

Levon's pending passing also makes me think of Band leader Robbie Robertson and how as far as I know Levon never made peace with him since the 1976 Last Waltz breakup.

I did see just today that Robertson visited Levon over the weekend but he doesn't say if Levon was even awake for it. Would have been cool if they had made peace but maybe cooler if Levon's last words were 'fuck off Robertson.'

But seeing Roger Waters and David Gilmour bury the hatchet in recent years gave me hope that maybe old Levon would find it in his heart to forgive Robbie and make peace with his old bandmate. Ah well...

So in all, bummer news but as usual it's as fine an excuse as any to pop on The Band. My choice tonight is the live Rock of Ages.

Rest easy Levon, and I hope you are soon harmonizing with Danko and Manuel in that great gig in the sky.

Rush and Tom Petty Classic Album Releases

I posted about this a while ago, but I think the Eagle Vision Classic Album series is one of the best music-related shows out there. They spend an hour or more picking apart classic albums from bands from U2 to Floyd to Cream, interviewing the band, producers, engineers, managers, hell the dude who swept out the studio...

Just watch the DVD on The Band's first two albums. They are able to interview Rick Danko before he passed, and the breaking down of the music by isolating tracks in the studio is breathtaking. Same with The Who's Who's Next album.

These DVDs are top notch and I am so stoked that there are two new ones out this year that I will watch more than a few times. The first I already posted about is Rush 2112 and Moving Pictures. This one will be out next month and it looks like one DVD covers both albums, so I hope it's extra long.

The other one I just found out about today, and it's Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Damn the Torpedoes. It is available right now.

Below are trailers for the DVDs I just mentioned. Rumor has it that they would like to do The Wall. Actually, the bottom of this article talks about what it takes to put these out and some of the artists they are thinking about. It's an interesting read.

Damn The Torpedoes:


2112/Moving Pictures:


Who's Next:


The Band:

Ain't In It For My Health - A Documentary on The Band's Levon Helm

The recent excellent and popular rock documentaries The Story of Anvil, Iron Maiden Flight 666 and Rush Beyond the Lighted Stage all whetted my appetite for, well, MORE rock documentaries, dammit! I love behind the scenes access to bands who over the course of their careers have not granted much access - Rush is a great example.

So I was highly stoked to stumble across some PR for filmmaker Jacob Hatley's upcoming documentary on Levon Helm, cantankerous 70-year old drummer from The Band. Old Levon was the one guy in The Band who was from America (the rest were Canadian) and was from the deep south to boot. His autobiography This Wheel's On Fire is a fantastic read if you dig The Band. But it also tears the cover off of any image of that group as a bunch of pals.

The Band basically toured in relative obscurity for years in the 50s and 60s and of course broke through as Dylan's backing band and then on their own. The core lineup splintered with the 1976 concert/film The Last Waltz, which Levon hated. He saw it as a ploy between Band songwriter Robbie Robertson and Martin Scorsese to sell out to Hollywood.

In the interviews below, Hatley even tells a story of how Levon rejected a lifetime achievement award because of his 'demons from the past,' which I read as "I am not going to Hollywood to pick up some Goddamn bullshit award that has anything to do with Robertson." Despite the fact he still plays Robertson's songs every gig, but ahem...

Anyway, the movie is called Ain't In It for My Health, and it was screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June. The movie's Web site is at Ain't in It for My Health.

Hatley spent three years off and on living with Helm, shooting pretty much anything he wanted, editing along the way. The interviews below are from Levon's Web site. They are revealing regarding Levon and the film, but also give some great advice on filmmaking (mostly in the second part).

I have no idea when the rest of the world gets to see this film, but I can't wait.

Levon Helm - Still Full of Piss and Vinegar

By most accounts, The Band's drummer Levon Helm has always been a Southern Boy loaded with hospitality, graciousness and humility. Until you piss him off. The dude has been holding a grudge against Robbie Robertson since 1976, and probably with good reason, as Robbie single handedly broke up The Band against everyone else's wishes. Anyway, good to know age has not mellowed out old Levon. Seems he is suing a New York ad agency for using The Band's song "The Weight" without permission for a Cingular ad.

Now this quote is all Levon: "It was just a complete, damn sellout of The Band - it's reputation, its music. Just as much disrespect as you could pour on Richard and Rick's tombstones..." (Richard Manuel, vocalist and piano player for The Band, died in 1986. Rick Danko, who played bass, died in 1999).

Classic. You tell 'em, Levon!