Wednesday, April 18, 2012

With love and gratitude to Levon Helm in his last days and always






















Listen to Levon Helm and The Band and The Staples Singers.

After Richard was drafted into the U.S. Army in April 1969, and before he left for basic training at Fort Lewis in Washington State, he took me to Winterland in San Francisco to see The Band. We were 19 years old. We loved their music. We danced. It was one of their first performances as The Band.

From Ralph J. Gleason's review:

"Somehow, four Canadians and an Arkansas country boy ("Give us a song, Levon," I can hear them saying at some Sunday West Helena picnic) found it in themselves to express part of where all of us are at now while expressing where they are at themselves in language and metaphor that can ignite explosive trains of thought inside your head."

Listen to "Ophelia"

("Woman Dancing," chalk pastel on paper, by am, from the early 1980s)

3 comments:

Taradharma said...

Isn't it wonderful the outpouring of love for Levon as he leaves this earth? His family is reading the tributes to him from his blog and fb page.

He was a great early musical influence on me, personally, and brought so-called American "roots" music to the rock scene.

Wishing him well on this final journey.

Goat said...

Another great song here, Am. Love the way the backing singers seem to perform so effortlessly too. Sorry to see Levon go, but he's leaving a lot of beautiful music behind.

Anonymous said...

A lovely tribute to a very fine man. Yes, wishing him well on his final journey. Sigh.