The Band. THE Band. that’s it. That’s all there was to it. Earlier, they may have been the Hawks and there was a moment when people viewed them as Bob Dylan’s backing group. But they were The Band, the only band that could get away with a name like that.
With the sad news being announced today that Levon Helm, one of the voices of this seminal five-man ensemble, in the final stages of throat cancer, that another member of this great group is leaving us, we must celebrate the majesty of the short but remarkable career. On albums like Music from Big Pink, The Band and Stage Fright and in the live concert film The Last Waltz, Helm, Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson created some of the most memorable music in the rock canon and forced a shift in thinking in Eric Clapton and others back to a tighter, more focused roots-rock that has never gone out of style.
Robertson was the songwriter and one of rock’s greatest guitarists, but it was Helm’s voice on songs such as “Up on Cripple Creek,” “The Weight,” “Chest Fever,” “Rag Mama Rag,” “Jemima Surrender” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” that helped define the Americana feel of a band made up of mostly Canadians.
Helm has been sick for a while, but he battled and released a powerful pair of what now appear to be his final albums, Dirt Farmer and Electric Dirt.
As with The Band, there were no frills. And that is the highest of compliments. For Helm, with or without his Band-mates, it always was about the music.
As my friend Rich said on Facebook, “Thank you, Levon. Prayers and wishes for you and your family. Sing us a song when you get there and make the angels jealous of your voice.”
- Send me an e-mail.
- Read poetry at The Subterranean.
- Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.
- Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Hank Kalet 