Goodbye to Levon Helm, A Man of Excellence
Rolling Stone reported that Levon Helm passed away at 1:30pm today surrounded by family and friends at the age of 71.
Helm’s longtime guitarist Larry Campbell tells Rolling Stone. “All his friends were there, and it seemed like Levon was waiting for them. Ten minutes after they left we sat there and he just faded away. He did it with dignity. It was even two days ago they thought it would happen within hours, but he held on. It seems like he was Levon up to the end, doing it the way he wanted to do it. He loved us, we loved him.”
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American music practically came from the dirt. The dirt was beneath the feet of those who played music on the porch, the living room, the dance halls, the parlors, bars and juke joints. American music came from this soil and its best by products – blues, jazz, folk, country and rock n roll came from this soil.
Mark Lavon ‘Levon’ Helm came from the South, the most fertile of that precious soil. Born and raised in Arkansas, this was the place where blues, country, bluegrass, R&B and rockabilly had a beautiful collision and its by-product became rock n roll. Levon was at the center of this collision: His family were all musicians and he listened to Grand Old Opry Radio on one side, the powerful Nashville R&B station WLAC on the other and The King Biscuit Flower Hour featuring blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson II. Helm also attended the Rabbit Foot’s Minstrel shows that featured the top Black artists of the day (and became the basis of the Band classic ‘The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show’). Levon saw Elvis, Bo Diddley, and Conway Twitty in their formative years.
He would later hook up with fellow Arkansas native Ronnie Hawkins and became the drummer for his band. Hawkins’ backup band, The Hawks, featured the best musicians around: Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson. And when the Hawks split from Hawkins in 1963, Helm became its leader. They would perform under the names ‘Levon & The Hawks’, and ‘The Canadian Squires’, and toured across the United States. When Dylan wanted to go electric, he wanted a solid, experienced band that could deal with the criticism and explore the new musical terrain. The collaboration between Dylan and The Hawks was unlike anything before it, and the live shows the most controversial. Helm didn’t last for the bulk of those tours. Tired of touring Levon returned home.
After a few years working oil rigs, he got a call to rejoin the group. Dylan and the band had re-located to a small pink house in Woodstock, New York to escape the pressures of touring and to work on new songs. They set up shop in the basement and began to mine the rich American musical history which highly influenced them all. Helm became an essential member.
Out of those sessions– The Band was born– an extraordinary collection of musicians where the sum was greater than the individual parts. The Band were simply one of, if not, the best in the business. Levon’s drumming added a distinctive, funky flavor to every song. When guitarist Robbie Robertson began writing songs that tapped into the American experience and landscape, Levon became the featured voice. The world weary traveler/narrator in The Weight. The defeated Confederate soldier in The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down. The alcoholic miner in Up On Cripple Creek. The list goes on and on.
Even as Helm voiced his displeasure about The Band’s farewell concert and subsequent film The Last Waltz, he was at the center of some of the show’s highlights. It was Helm who insisted that Ronnie Hawkins be included. Helm also demanded that The Band’s R&B roots remain front in center with the inclusion of Muddy Waters, Dr John, and Paul Butterfield to the program. The final song that the original incarnation ever played together: a cover of Marvin Gaye’s Don’t Do It, sung by Helm.
Helm remained active after The Last Waltz, recording several solo albums, performing with Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band and, along with Roger Waters, Rick Danko and Van Morrison, appeared singing ‘Comfortably Numb’ at the Berlin Wall in front nearly half a million people. Helm also appeared in several films, most notably as Loretta Lynn’s father in the Academy Award winning film Coal Miner’s Daughter. In 1993, Helm published his autobiography, This Wheel’s On Fire. While the book is rich with stories of his extraordinary life and the people who crossed his paths, the book became notable for Helm’s animosity towards Robbie Robertson on how he’d been portrayed as the group’s leading force. The rift became so deep that when The Band was inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1994, Helm refused to attend the induction ceremony.
The Band – minus Robertston – reformed in the 80s and released a couple of critically acclaimed albums putting an emphasis on their blues and R&B roots. But Richard Manuel’s suicide and the sudden passing of Rick Danko ended The Band for good.
To capture the down home essence of the shows that he saw as a kid, Helm started The Midnight Ramble at his home in Woodstock. The premise was simple: Invite some friends over to play music. And anyone can come by to watch. You heard blues, sprituals,country, R&B, rock.
The success of The Ramble – and the new generation of groups that cited The Band as an influence -put Helm back in the spotlight. Not even a battle with throat cancer stopped him. When he couldn’t sing, Helm played drums or mandolin with a crack band that included guitarist extraordinare Larry Campbell and Jimmy Vivino and his daughter Amy. When his voice returned, Levon released a string of Grammy winning albums: Dirt Farmer, Electric Dirt and Live At The Ryman Auditorium.
The cancer that Helm bravely battled for all of these years, finally claimed him. But we know that Levon Helm’s spirt is alive in the music.
Rest easy Levon.
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