Levon Helm RIP

[Fran]

One of my favourite musicians, the great Levon Helm, has sadly passed away. He was only 71 and had battled his way through cancer a few years back.



Read more about him here:

http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/blog/inde ... levon-helm


Very sad to read this. Garth Hudson and Robbie Robertson are the only ones left now I think.


Fran

[Ivor]

RIP. I was discussing this earlier with someone who interviewed him some years ago, an absolute gentleman by all accounts.

[Fran]

Yes, he has always seemed a very likeable person.....

[Ivor]

‎"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 (of Wilco)

[cybot]

Another sad night. RIP LH...

[Claus]

Yeah I had to have two days of "tribute" in my second class. They all liked most of what I played and asked for "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" to be played twice.

Levon has been a huge inspiration to me without me really knowing who he was when I as a kid - mostly by accident - recorded a video of "The Weight" on the VCR: I had this system worked out with both radio and TV: I would hit record before a song started and then listen to the whole song with my dad's big headphones on. Then see if I liked the song, if not I would rewind and get ready to record again, if I liked it I would keep it. The result was endless mix tapes without me knowing who half the artist were..I went on to play that VHS a million times (Hotel California live version on the same tape I remember) until it got deleted by my sister (probably with an episode of 21 Jump Street!!!). I rediscovered The Band much later along with Bob etc. and has since become a huge fan. I would have given my right arm to have witnessed one of his Midnight Rambles, but alas....!!!

[cybot]

Yeah I had to have two days of "tribute" in my second class. They all liked most of what I played and asked for "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" to be played twice.

Levon has been a huge inspiration to me without me really knowing who he was when I as a kid - mostly by accident - recorded a video of "The Weight" on the VCR: I had this system worked out with both radio and TV: I would hit record before a song started and then listen to the whole song with my dad's big headphones on. Then see if I liked the song, if not I would rewind and get ready to record again, if I liked it I would keep it. The result was endless mix tapes without me knowing who half the artist were..I went on to play that VHS a million times (Hotel California live version on the same tape I remember) until it got deleted by my sister (probably with an episode of 21 Jump Street!!!). I rediscovered The Band much later along with Bob etc. and has since become a huge fan. I would have given my right arm to have witnessed one of his Midnight Rambles, but alas....!!!

Lovely story Claus....At least we have technology to thank for in immortalising our heroes for as long we ourselves do the rounds....

[PeterK]

Really sad loss. He was such a cool guy. Apparently he said all vocals on the Last Waltz were redone except his!!! A real musician and alot more active in recent years than Robbie Robertson.

[Rocker]

Really sad loss. He was such a cool guy. Apparently he said all vocals on the Last Waltz were redone except his!!! A real musician and alot more active in recent years than Robbie Robertson.

To be fair to Robbie Robertson, he is a native American and his recent work was recording [for posterity mainly] the music of the native Americans. [Source: a program about Robbie on Sky Arts recently].

[Fran]

Robbie had an album out just a few months back...