Thank you for the music Levon

Today we shed our tears for the demise of a an inspiring and fantastic musician, Levon Helm who died away from us today, too early.  I’ve never seen him play live; the closest I got was in the late eighties when he and two other The Band-members were supposed to play at a festival, but they had to cancel in the last minute. Nevertheless Levon’s and The Band’s music has been something that I have always come back to, again and again, ever since I found them.

Since I was too young to experience them in their heydays, I discovered them in the early eighties, in a sort of backwards manner. It was Martin Scorceses movie of their last live performance, “The Last Waltz”  that caught my attention. The line-up with Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and many others got me curious and before I watched the movie I bought the corresponding triple vinyl of the concert. And It was fantastic, and I still think it is. Here’s one of The Band’s and Levon Helm’s finest moments from this film, together with The Staple Singers, “The Weight”:

/Pär