Levon Helm quotes

If it doesn't come from your heart, music just doesn't work.
-- Levon Helm

#Heart

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

#Song #Hard Times #Past

If you give it good concentration, good energy, good heart and good performance, the song will play you.
-- Levon Helm

#Song #Heart #Play

The crowd is just as important as the group. It takes everything to make it work.
-- Levon Helm

#Important #Groups #Crowds

Music is the language of heaven.
-- Levon Helm

#Heaven #Language #Music Is

Anytime I switch to another instrument, I immediately turn it into another kind of drum so that I can understand it better.
-- Levon Helm

#Kind #Instruments #Turns

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

#Real #Energy #Failing

New York, it was an adult portion. It was an adult dose. So it took a couple of trips to get into it. You just go in the first time and you get your ***** kicked and you take off. As soon as it heals up, you come back and you try it again. Eventually, you fall right in love with it.
-- Levon Helm

#New York #Couple #Fall

Drums just always sounded like the most fun part of that good music for me.
-- Levon Helm

#Fun

With horns and a full rhythm section, the drums always looked like the best seat in the house.
-- Levon Helm

#House #Horny #Horns

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

#Country #Home #Sick

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

#Opportunity #Hands #Play

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

#Song #Would Be #Records

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.
-- Levon Helm

#Pain #Greatness #Voice

I don't think I'm a millionaire, but I'm comfortable.
-- Levon Helm

#Thinking #Millionaire

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.
-- Levon Helm

#Turkeys #Window #Used

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

#Distance #Distance Relationship #Crowds

The Jungle Bush Beaters didn't last too long as a group, but we had a pretty good time while we did.
-- Levon Helm

#Long #Groups #Lasts

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

#Song #Play #Errors

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

#Fun #Having Fun #Rewards

I love horns, and the bigger the band, the better it sounds to my ear.
-- Levon Helm

#Horny #Sound #Band

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

#Jobs #Son #Musician

Forever Young, by Dylan, is one of my favorite songs.
-- Levon Helm

#Song #Forever #My Favorite

Drums usually seem to tune themselves.
-- Levon Helm

#Tunes

Good times don't last long sometimes.
-- Levon Helm

#Long #Lasts #Good Times

I was in high school, trying to get out of high school. The only thing slowing me up was grades.
-- Levon Helm

#School #High School #Trying

If you pour some music on whatever's wrong, it'll sure help out.
-- Levon Helm

#Music #Helping

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

#Band #Calling #Records

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

#Band #Thrill #Lasts

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

#Nice #People #Yamaha

Dad and mom would have preferred that I be a doctor, a lawyer, a scientist, or a great humanitarian.
-- Levon Helm

#Mom #Dad #Doctors

My dad and I played music. He teaches me a song or two every time I'm home.
-- Levon Helm

#Song #Dad #Home

If things are going slow, I'm itchy.
-- Levon Helm

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

#Ideas #Suggestions #Records

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

#Song #Want #Littles

My parents wanted me to be smart and be a scholar, and the best I could do was graduate high school.
-- Levon Helm

#Smart #School #Parent

If you feel like you're getting into a rut with a song, a night off usually fixes it.
-- Levon Helm

#Song #Night #Ruts

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

#Growing Up #Couple #Hero

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

#Stars #Rocks #Band

I like walking on the edge.
-- Levon Helm

#Walking

I've had all the lessons I could get. I've learned from everybody I've ever met.
-- Levon Helm

#Lessons #Genocide

The Band never really played big concert tours. We never sold millions and millions of albums.
-- Levon Helm

#Albums #Band #Bigs

Those bad times are important. They give you a chance to practice, listen, take stock, have a life, get your feet back on the ground, and maybe you'll live to tell the story.
-- Levon Helm

#Practice #Feet #Giving