Levon Helm
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm was an American rock 'n' roller, Americana musician, and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and regular lead vocalist for The Band. Helm was known for his deeply soulful, country-accented voice, multi-instrumental ability, and creative drumming style, highlighted on many of the Band's recordings, such as "The Weight", "Up on Cripple Creek", and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDrummer
Date of Birth26 May 1940
CityElaine, AR
CountryUnited States of America
I like to get within handshaking distance of the crowd. If it happens, they know it, we know it, and that's all we came here for.
Don't we all want what's best for each other?
We all love musical architecture; there's no doubt about that.
Maybe the greatness we heard in [Richard Manuel]'s voice, that catch in it, came from all that pain. To this day, we don't really know.
You can either make it come around or you can't. By the time we would be ready to record a song, we would know for sure that it was the best way we could do it.
If you feel like you're getting into a rut with a song, a night off usually fixes it.
The Jungle Bush Beaters didn't last too long as a group, but we had a pretty good time while we did.
The Band never really played big concert tours. We never sold millions and millions of albums.
Most of our stuff was trial and error. You live with a tape recorder, you turn it on, you play the song and you listen to it.
I played some Yamaha drums that I like a lot. And I like the Yamaha people a lot too. They've been really nice to me and The Band.
By the time The Band did The Last Waltz, the chemistry had changed, and it wasn't a thrill anymore to live that studio kind of life.
When the second record came out, they started calling it The Band. I voted to call it The Crackers. I'm no fool.
I was in high school, trying to get out of high school. The only thing slowing me up was grades.
Good times don't last long sometimes.