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Most of our stuff was trial and error. You live with a tape recorder, you turn it on, you play the song and you listen to it.

Levon Helm

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Levon Helm
Age: 71 †
Born: 1940
Born: May 26
Died: 2012
Died: April 19
Actor
Autobiographer
Composer
Drummer
Mandolinist
Musician
Record Producer
Singer
Songwriter
Elaine
Arkansas
Mark Lavon Helm
Mark Helm
Play
Trials
Errors
Listen
Turn
Recorder
Turns
Recorders
Song
Trial
Stuff
Tape
Live
Error

More quotes by Levon Helm

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I was in high school, trying to get out of high school. The only thing slowing me up was grades.
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Lord, when the song wants to pick up and go a little faster towards the end, it's hard for me to resist.
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The crowd is just as important as the group. It takes everything to make it work.
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Good times don't last long sometimes.
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Maybe the greatness we heard in [Richard Manuel]'s voice, that catch in it, came from all that pain. To this day, we don't really know.
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You can either make it come around or you can't. By the time we would be ready to record a song, we would know for sure that it was the best way we could do it.
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My parents wanted me to be smart and be a scholar, and the best I could do was graduate high school.
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With horns and a full rhythm section, the drums always looked like the best seat in the house.
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Conway Twitty was always our local hero while I was growing up. He had a series of good bands. I wanted to sit in, if Conway would let me. And he did a couple of times.
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If things are going slow, I'm itchy.
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I don't hear record companies coming up with any good ideas or suggestions. Historically, if it ain't their idea, it ain't no good, so you got that to contend with.
Levon Helm
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When the second record came out, they started calling it The Band. I voted to call it The Crackers. I'm no fool.
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Songs don't wear out. Good songs are good now. If they were a comfort during those hard times in the past, they'll be a comfort in today's age.
Levon Helm
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If you feel like you're getting into a rut with a song, a night off usually fixes it.
Levon Helm
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I like walking on the edge.
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Forever Young, by Dylan, is one of my favorite songs.
Levon Helm
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I don't fool with a lot of things that I can't have fun with. There's not much reward in that.
Levon Helm
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Anytime I switch to another instrument, I immediately turn it into another kind of drum so that I can understand it better.
Levon Helm
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My dad and I played music. He teaches me a song or two every time I'm home.
Levon Helm
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The power of music just kinda kills all those ills it cures everything and you’ve got more energy just from the music. And, I’ve never seen it fail. It’s good for ya real good for ya.
Levon Helm