“Make Ourselves Better”: Interview with Levon Helm

Levon HelmIn this recent interview, legendary singer and drummer for the Band Levon Helm was asked what was next, and he replied that he and his musicians were going to try to “make ourselves better.” In the 13-minute PBS video, Marco Werman talks to Helm about music, his health, a Turkish Army Band, and Helm’s Midnight Rambles, where he hosts concerts at his barn in Woodstock, NY with guest performers.

Helm, who was born May 26,1940, talks about his health struggles and his voice since he was diagnosed with throat cancer. He continues to produce new music as on his most recent three Grammy-winning CDs: Ramble at the Ryman (2011), Dirt Farmer (2007), and Electric Dirt (2009).

Below is a clip of a performance of “The Weight”during a recent Midnight Ramble. In the performance, Helm is joined by Woody Platt and his band the Steep Canyon Rangers. Other singers include Ramble regular Larry Campbell and Brian Mitchell. Teresa Williams and Helm’s daughter, Amy Helm, add backing vocals.

When Helms talked about making “ourselves better,” he was talking about making the Rambles and his music better, but we wish him good health. At age 72 and a career of great music and a battle with cancer, we are lucky to have him around still trying to make better music.

What is your favorite Levon Helm song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Did Reality Singing Shows Just Jump the Shark?

    This week on NBC’s The Voice, Erin Martin and the Shields Brothers performed in one of the show’s “battle rounds.” In this part of the competition, two competitors sing a song together and their judge, who selected the song and helped both prepare, decides which performer moves on in the competition. For this battle, their judge Cee Lo Green selected Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” This odd performance was the result. [March 2014 Update: The official video of the performance is no longer available, but the Shields Brothers later put together their commentary on the performance in the video below, which adds some additional information about the story behind the performance.]

    After the performance, fellow judge Adam Levine said it was “weird” and made him feel “uncomfortable.” Cee Lo Green selected Martin as the winner, eliminating the Shields Brothers from the competition.

    What do you think of the performance? How does it compare to American Idol? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Springsteen’s “Whoop-Ass Session on the Recession” in Greensboro (Guest Post)

    Springsteen Setlist for Greensboro NC March 2012

    The following is a Guest Post by Brad Risinger, reporting on last night’s Bruce Springsteen concert in Greensboro, North Carolina:

    “Old friends,” the late Harry Chapin wrote, are special because “they see where you are, and they know where you’ve been.” The Wrecking Ball version of the E Street Band, even on night two of its tour, has figured out that old, and new, suit them just fine. Bruce Springsteen fondly recalled departed friends Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici for the Greensboro crowd: “If you’re here, and we’re here, then they’re here.” And then Jake Clemons, Clarence’s nephew, belted out the Big Man’s solos on “Promised Land” and “Thunder Road” with a fresh, charismatic vibe and style that are likely to make him a break-out rookie on E Street.

    The Wrecking Ball songs are tightly interwoven into Springsteen’s catalog, and it is much more apparent when played live in a big place with a full band. “Jack of all Trades” recalls the Darkness and Tom Joad records, with a weary resilience that underlines despair with an unshakable hope. But the cathartic beat and lilt that is so resonant in the Seeger Sessions material is there, too, particularly in “Shackled and Drawn.” Springsteen noted that “My City of Ruins” from the post-9/11 The Rising album, was penned before Occupy Wall Street. Yet the song fits thematically with the new material and book-ends nicely in the show with the renewal of “The Rising.”

    There is a healthy hit of Wrecking Ball in the show, with nine of the thirteen songs from the new CD making the cut in Greensboro, enhanced by the terrific horn section that Jake Clemons helms. Still, the shows in this early part of the tour span the Band’s decades. Springsteen dusted off “The E Street Shuffle” and “Rosalita” and the Band infused them with a raucous party vibe that’s a full, rich sound that at first you attribute to just the horns until it becomes apparent how much this E Street iteration feeds on and enjoys each other. “Thunder Road” got a tender opening with Springsteen and longtime keyboardist Roy Bittan alone; “Because The Night” rumbled, looking for trouble; and “Born to Run” was a lights-on, full-speed celebration.

    Seeds,” the 80s tale of a family searching the Southwest for work, and for hope, seemed the perfect bridge between E Street eras. It is a well-known song because of its appearance on the 75-85 Live compilation, but it has a resonant fit with Springsteen’s take on a new generation of American workers betrayed by corporate misdeed and greed. “How many times can you get up after you’ve been hit?” sounded resigned in the mid-80s. But here, paired with the anger of “Death to My Hometown,” “Seeds” gets a revived punch and meaning. The “Seeds” guitar work sounds as if the frequent guest shots of Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello have rubbed off. Springsteen’s playing was electric, and Nils Lofgren’s wild accompaniment was only overshadowed by his even-wilder frayed jacket. Fans still buzz about Morello’s influence on live versions of “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” and it will be fun to be in the audience on the occasional nights when he appears to shred through the Wrecking Ball material as he did with the Band on the recent Jimmy Fallon appearances.

    Springsteen promised a “whoop-ass session on the recession” early in the show, and the Wrecking Ball material stands firm with the E Street premise that it does matter whether Americans care about something beyond their own backyard. “We Take Care of Our Own” may get political play in the upcoming election — a topic in the air, but not discussed in Greensboro — but its message is clear: Whatever the politicians do, the work of building and nurturing a country gets done by the people, and for the people.

    “We’ve been traveling over rocky ground,” Springsteen sang in a highly charged duet with Patti Scialfa collaborator Michelle Moore, but “there’s a new day coming.” In Greensboro, the “new day” included an elementary school daily double with a young boy’s chorus on “Waiting On a Sunny Day” and a stunned little girl’s impressive moves on “Dancing in the Dark.” And thank goodness that the “old day” was there too, movingly marked by a thunderous “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” ovation for Clarence when “the Big Man joined the band.”

    What’s your impression of the shows so far in the new tour? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” Was Number 1 Today in 1982

    Joan Jett I Love Rock 'n' Roll Blackhearts On March 20, 1982, Joan Jett and the Blackheart’s “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” hit number one on Billboard’s pop chart. After the breakup of Jett’s band The Runaways, she previously had a modest hit from her first post-Runaways album Bad Reputation (1980) with a cover of Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me.” But the title track of her second album, I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll, gave Joan Jett & the Blackhearts one of the all-time classic songs about rock music.

    This video for the song begins with a clip of Jett’s song “Bad Reputation,” which might remind some TV fans of the opening of “Freaks and Geeks.”

    A British group named the Arrows had released “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” in 1975, but the song was not a hit in the U.S. Jett heard the song when she was touring with the Runaways, so years later she recorded her own version, taking it to the top of the U.S. charts. By then, the Arrows had disbanded.

    Here is the original Arrows version.

    Other artists seeking rock credibility have covered the song since Jett, including Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, and a number of people on American Idol. Weird Al Yankovic turned the song into an ice cream song with “I Love Rocky Road.”

    But of course, nobody comes close to the rock ‘n’ roll talents and attitude of Joan Jett, who still performs and heads her own record label, Blackheart Records. Rock on.

    What is your favorite Joan Jett song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Don’t Let (Badlands) Be Misunderstood

    Bruce Springsteen explained that the lick for “Badlands” was taken from “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” by the Animals.

    springsteen sxsw

    During a 2012 talk at the South by Southwest (SXSW) music conference, Bruce Springsteen explained that he found the lick for “Badlands,” which appeared on Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978), in “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” by the Animals. Then he exclaimed, “Listen up youngsters, this is how successful theft is accomplished!”

    The video of the entire speech is no longer on YouTube, but there are segments available, including the video below, which is set to start where he begins talking about the Animals.

    In the rest of the speech, Springsteen explained the role that music has played in his life, including Elvis, Roy Orbison, and the Beatles. He discussed The Animals, complete with an acoustic rendition of “We Got to Get Out of This Place,” concluding, “that’s every song I’ve every written.”

    I found the story about the “Badlands” riff interesting because I had not made the connection. But one may hear it now that he pointed it out. Here are the Animals performing “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” on The Ed Sullivan Show. The lick appears at several points, including the beginning and the end of the song.

    Here is Springsteen performing “Badlands” at the Pinkpop festival in 2009.

    Can you hear it? He did not mention the lyrics, but one might wonder whether “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” also inspired the “understood” line in the “Badlands” chorus:
    “We’ll keep pushing ’til it’s understood / And these Badlands start treating us good.”

    After the speech, Springsteen performed at SXSW and was joined onstage by Eric Burdon, the lead singer of the Animals (Chicago Tribune review here). So apparently there are no hard feelings about the larceny — or Springsteen’s comments earlier in the speech about how Burdon’s ugliness made him realize he could be a rock star too.

    What do you think? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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