Levon Helm Quotes
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I've had all the lessons I could get. I've learned from everybody I've ever met.
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I don't think I'm a millionaire, but I'm comfortable.
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I played some Yamaha drums that I like a lot. And I like the Yamaha people a lot too. They've been really nice to me and The Band.
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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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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.
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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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By the time The Band did The Last Waltz, the chemistry had changed, and it wasn't a thrill anymore to live that studio kind of life.
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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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I never subscribe to the stay-at-home policy. I'm not sick of the road or sick of eating in good restaurants around the country. I like to travel.
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A friend of mine took me to Memphis advised me that I should get in the musicians' union. He gave me a set of drums and said, Stay on the job, son.
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There were no rules, other than that the song should sound good and be fun to play.
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I had throat cancer, and I had to have radiation treatments, and I couldn't sing for a long time; and this was in '97. I had 28 radiation treatments. I didn't die, thank God.
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I like walking on the edge.
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I like to get within handshaking distance of the crowd. If it happens, they know it, we know it, and that's all we came here for.
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If it doesn't come from your heart, music just doesn't work.
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If you give it good concentration, good energy, good heart and good performance, the song will play you.
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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.
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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.
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I love horns, and the bigger the band, the better it sounds to my ear.
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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.
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When I was younger, I used to drive up to a bunch of turkeys, roll down the window and say something. They'd all gobble back at once.
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The Band never really played big concert tours. We never sold millions and millions of albums.
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If you feel like you're getting into a rut with a song, a night off usually fixes it.
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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.