Levon Helm Quotes
"If you feel like you're getting into a rut with a song, a night off usually fixes it."
- Levon Helm
(Related: Night, Song)
"If you pour some music on whatever's wrong, it'll sure help out."
- Levon Helm
(Related: Music, Help, Wrong)
"Lord, when the song wants to pick up and go a little faster towards the end, it's hard for me to resist."
- Levon Helm
(Related: End, Song)
"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."
- Levon Helm
(Related: Time, Song)
"My dad and I played music. He teaches me a song or two every time I'm home."
- Levon Helm
(Related: Dad, Home, Time, Music, Song)
"If things are going slow, I'm itchy."
- Levon Helm
"If you give it good concentration, good energy, good heart and good performance, the song will play you."
- Levon Helm
(Related: Heart, Performance, Energy, Play, Song, Will)
"The Jungle Bush Beaters didn't last too long as a group, but we had a pretty good time while we did."
- Levon Helm
(Related: Time, Jungle, Pretty)
"The rock star stuff never came up for us. The Band was never attacked by groupies before, during or after any show that we ever played."
- Levon Helm
"The way to do it is to put as much life into the song as I can. You can either get it to breathe or you can't."
- Levon Helm
(Related: Life, Song)
"There were no rules, other than that the song should sound good and be fun to play."
- Levon Helm
(Related: Fun, Play, Rules, Song, Sound)
"We all love musical architecture; there's no doubt about that."
- Levon Helm
(Related: Love, Architecture, Doubt)
"We're all dealt with the same hand here, so to speak. I feel like I've had it a lot better than most people. I've had the opportunity to travel and play music all my life."
- Levon Helm
(Related: Life, Music, Travel, People, Opportunity, Play)
"Well, somebody's got to sing. They won't hire you unless you sing."
- Levon Helm
"With horns and a full rhythm section, the drums always looked like the best seat in the house."
- Levon Helm
"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
(Related: Error, Play, Song)
"When the second record came out, they started calling it The Band. I voted to call it The Crackers. I'm no fool."
- Levon Helm
(Related: Fool)
"Don't we all want what's best for each other?"
- Levon Helm
(Related: Want)
"I've had all the lessons I could get. I've learned from everybody I've ever met."
- Levon Helm
"The Band never really played big concert tours. We never sold millions and millions of albums."
- Levon Helm
"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."
- Levon Helm
(Related: Son, Friend, Job, Musicians)
"Anytime I switch to another instrument, I immediately turn it into another kind of drum so that I can understand it better."
- Levon Helm
"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."
- Levon Helm
(Related: Life, Time)
"Dad and mom would have preferred that I be a doctor, a lawyer, a scientist, or a great humanitarian."
- Levon Helm
(Related: Dad, Mom)
"Drums just always sounded like the most fun part of that good music for me."
- Levon Helm
(Related: Music, Fun)
"Drums usually seem to tune themselves."
- Levon Helm
"I love horns, and the bigger the band, the better it sounds to my ear."
- Levon Helm
(Related: Love)
"I was in high school, trying to get out of high school. The only thing slowing me up was grades."
- Levon Helm
(Related: School, Trying)
"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."
- Levon Helm
(Related: Growing up)
"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."
- Levon Helm
(Related: Travel, Policy, Country, Eating, Restaurants, Road)
"Forever Young, by Dylan, is one of my favorite songs."
- Levon Helm
(Related: Favorite, Songs)
"I like walking on the edge."
- Levon Helm
(Related: Walking)
"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."
- Levon Helm
"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
(Related: Fool, Fun, Reward)
"Good times don't last long sometimes."
- Levon Helm
"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."
- Levon Helm
(Related: People)