A few weeks after seeing a wonderful tribute to The Last Waltz, I was saddened to hear of original drummer Levon Helm‘s passing on Thursday. Helm shared vocal duties with the other members of the band and was best known for The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down and, one of my favourites, Up On Cripple Creek. He was born in Arkansas in 1940 and went on to become a member of The Hawks, fronted by fellow Arkansan Ronnie Hawkins. They eventually settled in Toronto where Levon would end up as the only American amongst a group of Canadians. They then became Bob Dylan’s backing band and decided to just call themselves The Band. At the end of the sixties they released two albums that are amongst my favourites from that decade, though they sound more like the 1860s than the 1960s. As well as sharing vocal duties, the group also swapped instruments and Levon often came out from behind the drum kit to pick up a guitar, bass or mandolin. His singing and playing in Martin Scorsese’s film of The Last Waltz farewell concert is quite prominent and his chats with Marty in the film are also worth checking out
