RIP LEVON HELM

[dick]

Levon Helm , co-founder of THE BAND has died of cancer at the age of 71. He was the drummer and vocalist on such hits as "The night they drove old dixie down " and "The shape I'm in" He counted Bob Dylan and Kris Kristofferson as friends , Eric Clapton was also a friend " Country/Rock has lost a valued performer. :'(

 

[cciaffone]

Must be an age thing, but ... I never did listen to nor
like Dylan or Duh Band, but Levon Helm was in the
truly great Ronnie Hawkins and The Hawks well before.
I still have the LP!!

Now that was rock and roll!!

 

[dick]

To each his own Chuck. I am and have been a Dylan fan since the 1960's so please dont hold it against me if I defend THE BAND . I got into THE BAND via DYLAN. It amazes me that you liked THE HAWKS and do not know that THE BAND broke away from RONNIE HAWKINS due to the old chestnut " artistic differences" (they wanted to play their own songs) LEVON HELM fronted LEVON AND THE HAWKS but it folded because they had not got a "frontman " the audience recognised. After some time they were reformed as THE BAND with ROBBIE ROBERTSON as lead and things started to pick up. They were asked to join DYLAN on his first electric tour and things grew from there.So you see Chuck your Hawks were an early version of THE BAND since many of THE HAWKS helped create THE BAND.That is the way of rock and roll Chuck nothing stays forever.! If you can get a copy of THE LAST WALTZ (THE BANDS final performance) ,RONNIE HAWKINS appears as a guest, along with several other greats and you can watch it with an open mind you may be pleasently surprised.