Levon Helm in final stages of cancer...

Bill Kellum · Post by **Bill Kellum** » 17 Apr 2012 12:40 pm

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... r-20120417

One of my favorites...

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 17 Apr 2012 12:42 pm

Sad indeed. Always loved him and The Band.

Dave Harmonson · Post by **Dave Harmonson** » 17 Apr 2012 3:02 pm

Sad news indeed. I love the emotion he puts in a song. Turned out to be quite an accomplished actor as well.
Played Loretta's dad in Coal Miner's Daughter and starred in one of my favorite movies with Wilford Brimley, End Of The Line.
Sorry I never got to see him live, but still remember seeing him with The Band around '74 or '75 on a TV show and just killing The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down on drums and vocal.

Will Houston · Post by **Will Houston** » 17 Apr 2012 4:01 pm

One of my all time favorite vocals Levon doing The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.

Dave Zirbel · Post by **Dave Zirbel** » 17 Apr 2012 4:53 pm

Dang. he and the Band were great!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11Y987Uf1wY

Here's young Levon in 1959 with Ronnie Hawkins:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN9XhoaT ... re=related

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 17 Apr 2012 4:55 pm

I read this a little earlier elsewhere. It's like a hard punch to the gut for me.

One of my heroes.

Olli Haavisto · Post by **Olli Haavisto** » 18 Apr 2012 12:56 am

triple post

Olli Haavisto · Post by **Olli Haavisto** » 18 Apr 2012 12:56 am

triple post

Olli Haavisto · Post by **Olli Haavisto** » 18 Apr 2012 12:56 am

Thinking about all the joy he has brought to my life, for over forty years.

He will continue doing that through his music....

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 18 Apr 2012 8:46 am

I wrote this earlier on the Jerry Douglas Forum:

Brother Barry Bales (bassist for Alison Krauss & Union Station) did a beautiful job on his podcast yesterday paying tribute to Levon. Way to go Barry.

You can go to his Facebook page and catch it, or copy-and-paste the tiny below into your browser and go directly to it.

I have been astounded through my life that so many people in my (and JerryD's) age group of baby boomers are or were not hip to The Band. I have had to go through the spiel about who they were and citing their more famous songs along the lines of giving my 90 second spiel about "what is a dobro?" They were even on the cover of Time Magazine in 1970. I mean what the heck!

Barry is 15 years younger than I am and he was just a babe during the era of the orginal version of The Band, and he completely gets them, and Levon.

First time I saw them live was 1971 at the former San Francisco (now Bill Graham) Civic Auditorium. This was several weeks before they made the "Rock of Ages" live album in New York. It was and always will be one of the most profound musical experiences of my life. I will never forget the start of Dylan's "When I Paint My Masterpiece." This is one of the songs where some of the members would literally play musical chairs. Levon would vacate the drum kit and grab a mandolin while Richard would leave his piano bench and head over to the drums. Garth would come out from behind the organ and strap on his accordion.

Garth starts into the song bathed in a cone of reddish light with an Italian flavored accordion solo with Levon softly strumming on the mando, then the full lights come up, the rest of the band hits it and Levon belts out the first line, "Oh the streets of Rome..."

tinyurl.com/cbufzem

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 18 Apr 2012 9:47 am

Joe Henry, one of my favorite artists and songwriters wrote this beautiful note:

GONE/NOT GONE: LEVON HELM IN MOTION

As I sit writing this, on the late evening of April 17, Levon Helm is not yet gone, but neither is he fully here among the living.
As we understand from his family, he is hovering now at the doorway between this world and the next…taking the air of mortals in shallow and halting breaths, but with his eyes rolled back against the drawn curtain of his times. Already, for many of us sadly absorbing the falling shoe of this news and preparing for the other, he has assumed the flickering posture of memory; of those who have danced alive in our high beams, throwing shadows that move like ancient black rivers, and pointing the way forward from so far behind us that he shall forever, hence forth, stand ahead on the pathway like an omen of what is still to come.

Levon entered my life when I was so young as to have had no notion that my gate needed a guard; thus, he waltzed right in and I was completely vulnerable
to his raucous and ranging alchemy, and he changed me. Like children pulled into ministerial service when still in single digits, I looked nquestioningly upon Levon Helm as my church elder…a deacon who spoke our gospel; who swung- and sung-out time in glorious illumination of its wild and elastic poetry.
In the same way that his great friend and sometimes-boss Bob Dylan connected the dots between Jimmy Reed, Arthur Rimbaud, and Muhammad Ali,
so Levon drew the second line that had Howlin’ Wolf, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Hank Williams all dancing out in front of the same New Orleans funeral party.
(They all walked liked Bo Diddley and didn’t need no crutch.)

As I await word of the inevitable –while we all wait— I find there is nothing I can do but listen. And when I do, I am moved; moving…leaning, as implied, from the past tense into present action; loosing my mind to the instinctive sway of my knees and shoulders, as I am reminded how much of our true intelligence resides in our bodies’ southern hemisphere.

Yes, all we can do this day is listen and move. But then, that is all Levon Helm ever asked of any of us.

Joe Henry
South Pasadena, CA

Larry Tracy · Post by **Larry Tracy** » 18 Apr 2012 10:00 am

In another thread I was saying how Jerry Garcia had a lot of music in him and whatever he played something musical would come out. Levon is right up there. Wether he was singing or playing whatever instrument something soulful was going to come out. So long Levon, hope you have a great adventure in whatever comes next.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 18 Apr 2012 10:44 am

Thanks Mike. That was very touching. My Cd's are all in storage, so it's off to YouTube to find some music by The Band.

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 18 Apr 2012 9:14 pm

Strangely, I've taken up drums the last few months. I found an old 50s Gretsch round-badge kit, and have been hammering away for the last few months. Of course, Levon is the veritable fountainhead of rhythmic coolness for me, the absolute essence of perfect minimalism.

And thus, last night early after getting in from work - fat, dumb, and happy with no knowledge of this latest chapter in Levon's health - I found myself digging out all my old Band albums, trying to tap the rhythmic stream of all these cool tunes that I've played on other instruments for decades. When I got done (after playing for several hours), I logged in here and found this thread well underway. Of course, we all know that Levon has battled back from cancer for the last 14 years. I keep on hoping that something divine will intervene here, but it doesn't sound like that will happen.

All I know is that Levon has managed to capture the true essence of American music in anything he's had his hand in, perhaps more than any other musician I can think of. I still can't imagine a musical world without him. So I guess I'll just stick my head back in the sand and wait.

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 19 Apr 2012 11:30 am

Levon Helm has passed on.

Rest in peace Levon.

They didn't come any better.

Bob Blair · Post by **Bob Blair** » 19 Apr 2012 11:46 am

You said it Mark. What giant he was. RIP Levon and thanks.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 19 Apr 2012 12:05 pm

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?sectio ... id=8628102

Kevin Hatton · Post by **Kevin Hatton** » 19 Apr 2012 4:13 pm

Levon Helm was one of a kind world class. What an immense talent. RIP. Your journey is over now. Time is passing.

Skip Edwards · Post by **Skip Edwards** » 19 Apr 2012 8:36 pm

Yeah... too sad.
In the summer of '76 I was playing with Chris Hillman, and we opened for The Band for about 2 months.
They were beyond awesome...words just cannot describe.
I stayed and watched them every night.
They were most amazing musical thing I've ever seen.

Vaya Con Dios, Levon...