This Wheel's on Fire: Levon Helm and the Story of the Band by Levon Helm, Stephen Davis Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of This Wheel's on Fire: Levon Helm and the Story of the Band
Book Review: Great book by a great man!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is written by the Levon Helm, who was is the Singer/drummer/mandolin player with The Band, which I'm sure most of you will already know. He gives his account of how he grew up and came to meet and form one of the most important bands in the history of music. What he conveys in this book, is a complete love of music from all different genres and his fellow band-mates. This biography is full of wonderful stories told with personality and humour. Ronnie Hawkins is featured throughout and is incredibly funny! It also gives you an alternative view on how the Last Waltz was put together and the tension that was mounting (understandably) between certain members of the band. Levon is just a really nice guy and gives full credit and respect to all folks deserved of his praise and remains modest and down to earth. I couldn't put the book down, it's so easy to read. A must for all band/music fans! In my opinion he is one of the greatest drummer/singers ever and this is his story.Book Review: I'll never buy another new Band CD again after reading this
Summary: 5 Stars
because it would seem that Robbie Robertson is a coniving so-and-so according to what Levon Helm has to say about him in this book. That said, it's one of the best books of it's kind since Diary of a Rock n' Roll Star. If you have read Ian Hunter's book, you will love this. Buy it now.Book Review: Best Notify My Next Of Kin, This Wheel's About To Explode
Summary: 5 Stars
"If your mem'ry serves you well
You'll remember you're the one
That called on me to call on them
To get you your favors done
And after ev'ry plan had failed
And there was nothing more to tell
You knew that we would meet again
If your mem'ry serves you well
This wheel's on fire
Rolling down the road
Best notify my next of kin
This wheel shall explode "
Lyrics to 'This Wheel's On Fire' Bob Dylan
'The Band' "They were grown men who had climbed the mountain together, spoken to the Gods, and returned to the valley, where they once again became mortal" said the Philadelphia Inquirer. The Band comprised Levon Helm (drums, mandolin, guitar, bass), Robbie Robertson (guitar); Richard Manuel (piano, harmonica, drums, saxophone); Garth Hudson (organ, piano, clavinet, accordion, synthesizer, saxophone); Rick Danko (bass guitar, violin, trombone), and at the beginning Ronnie Hawkins. Levon Helm was the unofficial leader of the band. He gathered the troops together one at a time. His memoir tells the story.
Mark Lavon Helm was born on a cotton farm in Arkansas, Turkey Scratch was the name. He grew up on country music and started playing drums, and then along came Elvis Presly and rock n'roll was born. Levon as he came to be known, would travel to the local music places, and then up to Memphis where he would listen to Conway Twitty and a new guy called Hawk, Ronnie Hawkins. He hooked up with the Hawk, and they played music dates around the south, and then traveled to Canada where the big music houses and money was to be found. They started as the Ron Hawks Quartet and traveled the highways and by-ways. They had a good time, booze, women, yes, many, many women, fun and music. Eventually Hawk found marriage and family life and bowed out of the band. Levon and the Hawks were born, and they met Bob Dylan and their entire world changed. They played with Bob as his back up band. Nothing much happened after this, and Levon took a two year hiatus. He found the group again after they moved to Woodstock, NY, Bob Dylan's home, and they started a recording career.
In 1967 the group recorded 'Music From Big Pink' and their band took off. The album, 'Big Pink' used the name 'The Band', much to Levon's dismay, but he grew to like the name. Thus the group had a new name and a new career. For ten years they recorded, toured, got rich, booze and drugs and women were the name of the game. One by one each band member got married and started a family. 1975 the group was tired and torn, drugs and booze had taken their toll. Robbie Robertson had taken over the day to day management and the group decided to split. 'The Last Waltz' a movie of 'The Band' and their friends was planned, and this was a deciding moment in their lives.
Levon Helm has expressed his distaste for the editing of the concert movie and in his memoir, this chapter is full of the life, times and making of 'The Last Waltz'. He was so angry about the financial arrangements for the group, asserting that a disproportionate amount of coverage was given to Robertson with Manuel being cruelly sidelined. The movie was a big disappointment to everyone but Robbie Robertson. Even though this movie is known as the quintessential movie of a band, and has every musician of fame playing; it was not a true representation of what really happened those 24 hours. Robbie Robertson parted from the group and never played with them again. With the demise of The Band, Helm began working on a solo album Levon Helm, and the RCO All Stars which was followed by other albums. In 1983, The Band reunited without Robbie Robertson, but then Manuel committed suicide while on tour in 1986. Helm, Danko and Hudson continued in The Band, releasing the album 'Jericho' in 1993 and 'High on the Hog' in 1996. The last album from The Band to date was the 30th anniversary album 'Jubilation' in 1998
Levon went on to act in several films. He played in 'Coal Miner's Daughter'. In 1990 he was diagnosed with throat cancer and had successful therapy. Since that time has had successful concerts he calls 'The Midnight Ramble' The Midnight Ramble is an outgrowth of an idea he talked about that concerned a traveling medicine show that would put on performances for communities. "After the finale, they'd have the midnight ramble," Helm said. "The songs would get a little bit juicier. The jokes would get a little funnier and the prettiest dancer would really get down and shake it a few times. A lot of the rock and roll duck walks and moves came from that." Levon Helm recently appeared at the Beacon Theater on March 16-17, 2007, a rare occurrence. Doctor John and Warren Hayes from the Allman Brothers Band played at the concerts as well along with several other guests. The Alexis P. Suter Band was the opening act.
"Although The Band was always more popular with music journalists and fellow musicians than with the general public, they have remained an admired and influential group. They have been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked them #50 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time". Rolling Stone
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'Rolling Stone' magazine lavished praise on The Band during their heyday, giving them more attention than perhaps any other group in the magazine's history. Many of today's bands give credence to "The Band' for their beginnings and love of music. The Eagles, Counting Crowes, Pink Floyd and on and on. 'The Band' the beginning of rock n' roll for me. Levon Helm has written a memoir to remember. He gives us the scoop, the lives and loves and rock n roll of a group that led my era into the sound of music as we know it. The heart and soul of rock n' roll with an edgy, blunt side but always loving memoir.
Highly Recommended. prisrob 3-20-07
The Last Waltz - DVD
The Last Waltz- CD
Book Review: The view from the inside, as only Helm could tell it.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the best Rock memoir I've read. Helm's bittersweet memories, humour and grievances are brilliantly presented. I suspect some punches were held back - particularly concerning Robbie Robertson, for whom Helm to this day still seems to hold a grudge - but there are episodes where you can feel sympathy for Levon. The 'Last Waltz' chapter is where his simmering resentment for Robertson finally explodes into anger.
An engrossing and stimulating read; makes you want to play all the albums again. That's the sign of a job well done. And Helm's STILL rockin'!
Book Review: Excellent description of a musical journey
Summary: 5 Stars
The Band were always a mysterious group of musicians, seemingly arriving fully-formed on the scene with their debut record "Music From Big Pink". Their work - at least in the early part of their career - produced a remarkable collection of songs that draw from deep wells of American tradition, folklore and musical styles. Add to that their important role as Bob Dylan's backing band when he took the ground-breaking decision to go electric, and you get some idea of the significant position that they occupy in musical history.
Here, Levon Helm (writer, drummer, singer, mandolin player) tells the story of their musical journey, beginning with his own childhood in rural Arkansas (the rest of the group came from Canada, which added to The Band's sense of other-worldliness), his early attraction to music as a way of getting out of the chores on his family's farm, joining up with singer Ronnie Hawkins, and the evolution of Hawkins' backing group into The Band. He describes the relentless hours of playing and practicing that were the groundwork for their selection by Dylan and their apparently effortless debut, and the way in which they gradually lost momentum, culminating in their farewell concert (captured on film by Martin Scorcese as "The Last Waltz").
This is a very well-written memoir. Helm takes you along on his remarkable journey, introducing you to all the characters that he met along the way, and telling you what happened to them. Along the way, he shows you some extraordinary scenes, including The Band jamming with a very impressed Sonny Boy Williamson shortly before his death, Rick Danko trying to skin roadkill, Robbie Robertson singing "so powerfully" into a switched-off microphone in "The Last Waltz", and the lonely, tragic death of Richard Manuel. I don't think I've read such an interesting, entertaining biography in any field (let alone just that of music) in a long time.