Post by Rob Durkee on Apr 19, 2012 21:12:17 GMT -5
By ROCKIN' ROBIN
NEW YORK CITY (RTDP) -- Levon Helm, the drummer and sometimes lead singer of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band called The Band, died Thursday, April 19, 2012, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He was 71 had been battling throat cancer since 1998. He was the only American member of The Band, whose principal lineup consisted otherwise of all Canadians.
On Tuesday April 17, 2012, two days before his passing, Helm's website announced that he was in the final stages of his 14-year battle with cancer. According to writer Ellen Wulfhorst of Reuters, Helm's wife, Sandy, and his daughter, Amy, who'd been singing in recent years with his current band, announced, "Thank you fans and music lovers who have made his life so filled with joy and celebration. He has loved nothing more than to play, to fill the room up with music, lay down the back beat and make the people dance! He did it every time he took the stage."
According to Wikipedia, Mark Lavon Helm was born on May 26, 1940 in Marvell, Arkansas. Yes, his middle name was Lavon.
Helm grew up in a cotton farming family in Turkey Scratch, a small community located just outside of Helena, Arkansas. Cotton farming wasn't his ambition, though, as he learned the guitar at age eight with the full support of his parents. Not long thereafter, he would then take a liking to the drums, a move that would be part of the rest of his life. Inspired by seeing early rock and roll performers like Elvis Presley, Conway Twitty, Bo Diddley and Ronnie Hawkins, Helm was performing in clubs and bars in the Helena area during his high school years.
It was Hawkins, also from Arkansas, who would notice Helm and add him to his band, the Hawks, not long after he graduated from high school. The Hawks eventually moved to Toronto, Canada and in 1959 signed a record deal with Roulette Records. It was about that time that Helm's first name would become Levon. That's because Hawks' members couldn't pronounce his real middle name of Lavon. In the early 1960's, Helm and Hawkins recruited four Canadians: guitarist Robbie Robertson, pianist Richard Manuel, organist Garth Hudson and bassist Rick Danko. Hawkins severed ties with the group by 1963. At that point, the group recorded and toured as Levon and the Hawks and the Canadian Squires before finally going back to their original name, the Hawks.
By the mid-60's, the Hawks hooked up with Bob Dylan and toured with him. Disgusted with the band's new sound and fans' protests, Helm left the Hawks and worked on oil rigs in the Gulf Of Mexico for about two years. By the time he returned to the group, it was known as The Band. The new name stuck as the result of contract agreements with new manager Albert Grossman.
The Band did two albums with Dylan but finally reached the national spotlight with its own LP, "Music From Big Pink." Off that album came the breakthrough pop chart single for The Band. Although "The Weight" only reached #52 on the Cash Box pop chart, it would make the soundtrack of the highly successful late 60's movie, "Easy Rider."
The song "The Weight" became a classic in more ways than one. The Band's version of the song was heard in the movie while on the "Easy Rider" soundtrack LP, the version by the group Smith was played. In 1968-69, there were three different pop chart single releases of the song...by Aretha Franklin, Jackie DeShannon and a duet between the Motown groups the Supremes and the Temptations. "The Weight" would make it onto the soundtrack of seven other movies, six TV shows and in commercials for Diet Coke and AT&T. Over 25 other acts recorded "The Weight."
Even the song's opening lyric line stretched into the 1970's. The one-hit wonder group Nazareth of 1976 "Love Hurts" fame took its name from the opening lyric line of "The Weight." The song began with the lyric "I pulled into Nazareth." The Band's followup single release to "The Weight" was "Up On Cripple Creek," which reached #26 in 1969. That wasn't The Band's highest peaking pop chart hit. That honor went to "Don't Do It," a remake of a minor Marvin Gaye hit that peaked at #23 in late 1972.
Robbie Robertson wrote "The Weight" along with "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," which became a Top 10 remake hit for Joan Baez in late 1971.
The Band's breakup was highly publicized with a Thanksgiving, 1976 farewell concert at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. The concert was well documented in the movie, "The Last Waltz." Helm and Robertson would experience serious creative differences over that movie and the subsequent soundtrack album. The two wouldn't speak for years. However, a few days before Helm's passing, the two patched up their differences. Robertson made a key hospital visit to see Helm and later described him as "like an older brother" on Facebook.
Two other principal members of The Band are also deceased. Manuel committed suicide in 1986 and Danko died in his sleep in 1999.
NEW YORK CITY (RTDP) -- Levon Helm, the drummer and sometimes lead singer of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band called The Band, died Thursday, April 19, 2012, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He was 71 had been battling throat cancer since 1998. He was the only American member of The Band, whose principal lineup consisted otherwise of all Canadians.
On Tuesday April 17, 2012, two days before his passing, Helm's website announced that he was in the final stages of his 14-year battle with cancer. According to writer Ellen Wulfhorst of Reuters, Helm's wife, Sandy, and his daughter, Amy, who'd been singing in recent years with his current band, announced, "Thank you fans and music lovers who have made his life so filled with joy and celebration. He has loved nothing more than to play, to fill the room up with music, lay down the back beat and make the people dance! He did it every time he took the stage."
According to Wikipedia, Mark Lavon Helm was born on May 26, 1940 in Marvell, Arkansas. Yes, his middle name was Lavon.
Helm grew up in a cotton farming family in Turkey Scratch, a small community located just outside of Helena, Arkansas. Cotton farming wasn't his ambition, though, as he learned the guitar at age eight with the full support of his parents. Not long thereafter, he would then take a liking to the drums, a move that would be part of the rest of his life. Inspired by seeing early rock and roll performers like Elvis Presley, Conway Twitty, Bo Diddley and Ronnie Hawkins, Helm was performing in clubs and bars in the Helena area during his high school years.
It was Hawkins, also from Arkansas, who would notice Helm and add him to his band, the Hawks, not long after he graduated from high school. The Hawks eventually moved to Toronto, Canada and in 1959 signed a record deal with Roulette Records. It was about that time that Helm's first name would become Levon. That's because Hawks' members couldn't pronounce his real middle name of Lavon. In the early 1960's, Helm and Hawkins recruited four Canadians: guitarist Robbie Robertson, pianist Richard Manuel, organist Garth Hudson and bassist Rick Danko. Hawkins severed ties with the group by 1963. At that point, the group recorded and toured as Levon and the Hawks and the Canadian Squires before finally going back to their original name, the Hawks.
By the mid-60's, the Hawks hooked up with Bob Dylan and toured with him. Disgusted with the band's new sound and fans' protests, Helm left the Hawks and worked on oil rigs in the Gulf Of Mexico for about two years. By the time he returned to the group, it was known as The Band. The new name stuck as the result of contract agreements with new manager Albert Grossman.
The Band did two albums with Dylan but finally reached the national spotlight with its own LP, "Music From Big Pink." Off that album came the breakthrough pop chart single for The Band. Although "The Weight" only reached #52 on the Cash Box pop chart, it would make the soundtrack of the highly successful late 60's movie, "Easy Rider."
The song "The Weight" became a classic in more ways than one. The Band's version of the song was heard in the movie while on the "Easy Rider" soundtrack LP, the version by the group Smith was played. In 1968-69, there were three different pop chart single releases of the song...by Aretha Franklin, Jackie DeShannon and a duet between the Motown groups the Supremes and the Temptations. "The Weight" would make it onto the soundtrack of seven other movies, six TV shows and in commercials for Diet Coke and AT&T. Over 25 other acts recorded "The Weight."
Even the song's opening lyric line stretched into the 1970's. The one-hit wonder group Nazareth of 1976 "Love Hurts" fame took its name from the opening lyric line of "The Weight." The song began with the lyric "I pulled into Nazareth." The Band's followup single release to "The Weight" was "Up On Cripple Creek," which reached #26 in 1969. That wasn't The Band's highest peaking pop chart hit. That honor went to "Don't Do It," a remake of a minor Marvin Gaye hit that peaked at #23 in late 1972.
Robbie Robertson wrote "The Weight" along with "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," which became a Top 10 remake hit for Joan Baez in late 1971.
The Band's breakup was highly publicized with a Thanksgiving, 1976 farewell concert at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. The concert was well documented in the movie, "The Last Waltz." Helm and Robertson would experience serious creative differences over that movie and the subsequent soundtrack album. The two wouldn't speak for years. However, a few days before Helm's passing, the two patched up their differences. Robertson made a key hospital visit to see Helm and later described him as "like an older brother" on Facebook.
Two other principal members of The Band are also deceased. Manuel committed suicide in 1986 and Danko died in his sleep in 1999.
