From a cotton farm in Turkey Scratch Arkansas to the very pinnacle of the music world. 71 year old Levon Helm will soon be gone. Thought I'd post this tribute song written by Elton John from his 1971 album "Madman Across the Water".

Story here. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Entertainment/Music/6474166/story.html

From the above story "Born May 26, 1940, in Turkey Scratch, Arkansas, the son of cotton farmers, he learned to play guitar and drums as a child. By 17 he was appearing in honky tonks in and around nearby Helena and taking in performance by such southern legends as Conway Twitty, Elvis Presley, Bo Diddley, and Ronnie Hawkins.

He joined Hawkins’ rockabilly band The Hawks just before they moved to Canada in the late 1950s.

In the early 1960s, Helm and Hawkins recruited Canadians Robbie Robertson (guitar), Rick Danko (bass) and pianist Richard Manuel and organist Garth Hudson. They left Hawkins and toured as Levon and the Hawks before backing Bob Dylan in the mid-60s. Fans weren’t initially receptive to Dylan’s switch from acoustic folky to electric folk-rocker, and Helm headed back south, working on offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico for a couple of years until bassist Rick Danko asked him to rejoin the group that would become known around the world as, simply, The Band"

Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/Levon+Helm+near+death+wife+daughter+with+videos/6474166/story.html#ixzz1sLwHMdvM

In reply to this comment by therealblankman:
@aniatario- Yup, definitely has a reputation as an asshole. As for "stealing" the rights to the music, well he's the songwriter for most of it and that's where the rights to revenues lies. That said the tracks that the band recorded were very collaborative, so he could have chosen to be more equitable, but chose not to. They worked together for over 20 years and by not sharing Robbie alienated himself from the rest of The Band, especially Levon Helm. So yeah... an asshole.

@rougy- During the editing process for The Last Waltz Scorsese and Robertson lived together and consumed copious quantities of drugs. I guess Scorsese was the typical New York hopped-up cokehead, and Robertson definitely seemed to be more of a mellow stoner.

Side note: Just read on Wikipedia that Elton John's song "Levon" was written as a tribute to Levon Helm, the drummer from The Band. Interesting.

wow man.
the next time i find a good robbie robertson vid ill send it your way to post.
you know waaay more about him and the band than i do,for real.
i learned more about him just by your comments..very awesome my man.

Saw'em at the Aboriginal Achievement Awards awhile back. Gave one hell of a concert, Tho it's a shame when you look at his history. If you check around, online, Robertson isn't exactly the most popular guy in town. He apparently "stole" all the rights to The Band's songs and then quit entirely to focus on a solo career. As far as I know he and Levon Helm don't talk anymore. They both came out with biographies, "Across The Great Divide" from what I've read (haven't finished it yet) is quite heavily biased towards Robbie Robertson, tho I'd expect Levon Helm's "Story Of The Band" tells a different tale.

Regardless, remarkable man.

Good stuff!

Saw the film.

Cracked up when Robbie Robertson caught a fly after Scorsese did his New Yorker fast talk (not a dig on St. Martin).

Robbie put out an album of Native American songs - aces all around.

Seriously? Jimi has no soul? are you retarded?

I think Bill Hicks said it best

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCbVkX7jdAM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRkA6zugNMQ

Oh and considered by who exactly? Well lets take a look at the top 100 guitarists as voted for by the readers of rolling stone

The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time and the number one spot goes to...??? Jimi? oh no that can't be right. Now who is this eric johnson noob? Is he even on the list? oh yea that's right...he's not.

1Jimi Hendrix
2 Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band
3 B.B. King
4 Eric Clapton
5 Robert Johnson
6 Chuck Berry
7 Stevie Ray Vaughan
8 Ry Cooder
9 Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin
10 Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones
11Kirk Hammett of Metallica
12 Kurt Cobain of Nirvana
13 Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead
14 Jeff Beck
15 Carlos Santana
16 Johnny Ramone of the Ramones
17 Jack White of the White Stripes
18 John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers
19 Richard Thompson
20 James Burton
21 George Harrison
22 Mike Bloomfield
23 Warren Haynes
24 The Edge of U2
25 Freddy King
26 Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave
27 Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits
28 Stephen Stills
29 Ron Asheton of the Stooges
30 Buddy Guy
31 Dick Dale
32 John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service
33 & 34 Lee Ranaldo, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth
35 John Fahey
36 Steve Cropper of Booker T. and the MG's
37 Bo Diddley
38 Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac
39 Brian May of Queen
40 John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival
41 Clarence White of the Byrds
42 Robert Fripp of King Crimson
43 Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic
44 Scotty Moore
45 Frank Zappa
46 Les Paul
47 T-Bone Walker
48 Joe Perry of Aerosmith
49 John McLaughlin
50 Pete Townshend
51 Paul Kossoff of Free
52 Lou Reed
53 Mickey Baker
54 Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane
55 Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple
56 Tom Verlaine of Television
57 Roy Buchanan
58 Dickey Betts
59 & 60 Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien of Radiohead
61 Ike Turner
62 Zoot Horn Rollo of the Magic Band
63 Danny Gatton
64 Mick Ronson
65 Hubert Sumlin
66 Vernon Reid of Living Colour
67 Link Wray
68 Jerry Miller of Moby Grape
69 Steve Howe of Yes
70 Eddie Van Halen
71 Lightnin' Hopkins
72 Joni Mitchell
73 Trey Anastasio of Phish
74 Johnny Winter
75 Adam Jones of Tool
76 Ali Farka Toure
77 Henry Vestine of Canned Heat
78 Robbie Robertson of the Band
79 Cliff Gallup of the Blue Caps (1997)
80 Robert Quine of the Voidoids
81 Derek Trucks
82 David Gilmour of Pink Floyd
83 Neil Young
84 Eddie Cochran
85 Randy Rhoads
86 Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath
87 Joan Jett
88 Dave Davies of the Kinks
89 D. Boon of the Minutemen
90 Glen Buxton of Alice Cooper
91 Robby Krieger of the Doors
92 & 93 Fred "Sonic" Smith, Wayne Kramer of the MC5
94 Bert Jansch
95 Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine
96 Angus Young of AC/DC
97 Robert Randolph
98 Leigh Stephens of Blue Cheer
99 Greg Ginn of Black Flag
100 Kim Thayil of Soundgarden