Levon Helm with The Band, 1974

He was born to music-lovin’ cotton farmers and grew up in a town called Turkey Scratch, pickin’ up the guitar by nine, blowin’ harmonica by ten; he hit the drum kit at fifteen after seeing Elvis and his band create frenzy with limbs that danced to heart-pumping rhythm.

His palette was formed of African-American minstrels, rhythmic blues and bluegrass, Grand Ole Opry and straight up rock n’ roll.  Calling music, “…one of the foods of our lives,” he ate and drank his fill, sharing a table filled with family and friends for more than sixty years.

In 1998, Levon (Lavon) Helm was diagnosed with cancer of the vocal cord and his soulful Southern voice became a whisper. No matter. He could still play drums, calling his drummer’s stool “the best seat in the house.”

The home he created for family was in Woodstock, New York – heritage of his humble beginnings with The Band and Big Pink. He used his house to stage “rent parties” in an effort to pay his mortgage and medical bills. The Midnight Ramble kicked off in the barn at 8:00 on Saturday night and shimmied ‘til midnight, becoming a continued event and one of the most cherished musical venues in the country.

Levon’s Midnight Ramble Sessions rejuvenated a creative spark, inspiring an ode to his family with Dirt Farmer, for which he received a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album in 2008, and Electric Dirt, which won the Best Americana Album in 2010.

“As long as you can keep music a part of your life, you’ve got a hell of a chance!”

For those with a passion for music, it is a vocation that makes most that pursue it self-employed.  As Levon would note, “Most of us are self-employed.  We get sick too and we have to pay those bills and it’s quite a struggle at times.”

“…Especially with aging musicians – a lot of them don’t have any health care.  A lot of musicians really tip their hats to MusiCares.”

Levon’s message of late was keeping his American roots music alive, and passing it on.

“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.”

To find inspiration in Levon’s music, we share:

-A video of Levon performing “Rag Mama Rag” with The Band on New Years Eve, 1983

-A video of Levon Performing “Ophelia” at Newport Folk Festival (Newport, RI) Aug 3, 2008

-A Levon Helm Tribute playlist

-A link to MusiCares

[Levon Helm – Dirt Farmer, American Minstrel is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

On this tour of the Vault, we take a look at the work of rock poster artist Bonnie MacLean. The evolution of the rock poster as a unique art form began in San Francisco in the mid Sixties as artists who were commissioned to create advertising for concerts broke free from the confines of commercial design. Originally intended as inexpensive promotional devices, rock posters evolved into extraordinary equivalents of the music they advertised. Rock promoter Bill Graham’s wife Bonnie could have made the “Fillmore Five” artist stable the “Fillmore Six” had the idea of women’s’ liberation been extant in San Francisco in the late 1960s. Let’s take a look at the 32 works created by Bonnie between 1967-1969. MacLean’s style evolved into ornate, Medieval-Gothic designs, many featuring the human face wearing trance-like stares, steady and serene – evoking the detached spirituality of the sixties.

http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/bonnie-maclean/memorabilia/

[Touring the Vault with Katherine Featuring Bonnie MacLean is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

The office mates and I were in a guess-off.

Beyonce?  Jay-Z?  Kanye West?  Tim McGraw?  Keith Urban?  Carrie Underwood?  U2?

Nope. The Beatles.  The Fab Four beat all of them and Britney and Madonna as well as AC/DC and Kiss who sold their releases exclusively through content censor Wal-Mart.

Almost four decades after their breakup, the Beatles still released the top-selling album of the 2000s. Their greatest hits compilation 1 has sold 11.5 million copies since its release in November 2000, making the collection of their most popular songs the 8th highest selling album of all time.

Taylor Swift was 2008’s top-selling artist, and she would have repeated the win last year were it not for the death of Michael Jackson. After Jackson and Swift, the Beatles were 2009’s top-selling artist, moving more than 3.28 million units. And if the Beatles had allowed their catalogue to be sold online at places like iTunes and if their re-mastered box set sales counted each of the 14 discs rather than just one unit per box, they probably would have been number one.

The Beatles formed in 1958, but didn’t have their first hit until 1962 when their song “Please Please Me” reached the number 1 spot on the British charts. They took America and the rest of world by storm in 1964 but were over and done by 1970.

Yet they remain a HUGE force.  The Beatles have had number one records in England and America in every decade since the 1960s. They are the highest-selling recording artists of all time, and have sold over one billion records (1 billion 600 million, actually). Their song “Yesterday” is the most covered song in the history of popular music, and the most played song on radio in history.

Just the last few years have brought us the movie Across the Universe (based on and told through thirty-three Beatles songs), Cirque du Soliel’s major Vegas hit The Beatles: Love, and at least five new books about the band. 2009 brought the September release of Beatles: Rock Band (more than half a million units sold during its first month) and the release of thirteen 13 digitally re-mastered albums in one box.

And we’re not even talkin’ about what the individual band members or estates are doing all these years later. Paul McCartney kicked off 2009 being nominated for two Grammys, headlining Coachella Festival (his first US festival appearance), playing a show at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas that sold out in seven seconds and kicked off a five-week US tour with a run of shows inaugurating New York’s Citi Field Stadium, (site of Shea Stadium where the Beatles made history in 1965).

The continuing power and influence of the Beatles just staggers.

The Beatles transcend generations; just ask musicians today who influenced and inspired them. The thing about the Beatles (as well as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and the Dead) is that every year there’s a whole new batch of kids who trip through their parent’s old records and discs for the first time and discover this music. They have a perpetual fan base.

Longevity comes to those who pay their dues, rely on talent and hard work (not insta-fame) to inspire, and prove with the quality of work, that they are in it for the music.

The Beatles may have started out as a ‘boy-band’ but they ended up being arguably the most influential group of all time. From pop to rock, the Beatles constantly reinvented themselves, producing hit after hit, within albums, meant to be listened to from start to finish, over and over again. Their collaborations bore lyrical and musical genius.

John, Paul, George, and Ringo banged out 27 No. 1 singles and 13 cutting-edge albums in an eight-year span. The music has stood the test of time, outlasting disco, new wave, punk, metal, and grunge. It will outlast Britney and Madonna, Jay-Z, Taylor, Ms. Gaga, and even the legacy of Michael Jackson.

Listen to any Beatles album today and you will nod with the realization that our grandchildren and then their kids will say good morning with “Here Comes the Sun”, get high to “I am the Walrus” or “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, and contemplate life with songs like “Because”, “Blackbird”, or “Across the Universe”.

To quote a quote I’ve heard before: “It’s the music, stupid!!”

To quote the men themselves:

John:

“Song writing is about getting the demon out of me. It’s like being possessed. You try to go to sleep, but the song won’t let you. So you have to get up and make it into something, and then you’re allowed to sleep.”

“My role in society, or any artist’s or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all”.

Paul:

“I saw that Meryl Streep said, ‘I just want to do my job well.’ And really, that’s all I’m ever trying to do”.

George:

“I think people who can truly live a life in music are telling the world, ‘You can have my love, you can have my smiles. Forget the bad parts, you don’t need them. Just take the music, the goodness, because it’s the very best, and it’s the part I give.’”

“I’d rather be a musician than a rock star.”

Ringo:

“I think the most exciting thing is that you expect people our age to know the music, but actually a lot of kids know the music, and if anything is left, we have left really good music, and that’s the important part, not the mop-tops or whatever.”

[WADAYAKNOW! is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

Welcome to the video blog series I call “Touring the Vault” in which I’ll take you on brief tours through the archive of Wolfgang’s Vault and give you a glimpse into our processes of learning and discovery. We’ll dig deep into the vast array of poster art, both inventoried and the as-yet-unearthed and tell you stories of their creation. We’ll delve into the depths of a half a million photographic slides and negatives to discover the prizes of great never-before-seen shots. We’ll turn the pages of history within a library filled with rare concert programs, early rock magazines and even scroll early music contracts and priceless letters and telegrams between the folks who put on the shows and those who performed them. Take a walk through Wolfgang’s Vault with me as we unlock a treasure trove of all things related to the live concert experience.

On this tour, we look at the historic vintage rock n’ roll tickets to be found in the archive – specifically, the original BG tickets from 1966-71 that mirror the art of the posters.  Starting with BG69, Bill Graham began printing the tickets along with the posters, postcards and handbills as small replicas of the actual posters themselves.  Fellow archivist and poster expert Grant Feichtmeir and I walk through the Vault delving into the ticket drawers and bringing out the printing proofs as well as original posters and other ephemera created to sell and market a show.

[Touring the Vault with Katherine Featuring Vintage Rock Tickets is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

In this edition of our “Touring the Vault” video series we look at how difficult it is to take a great concert photograph.  We’ll go straight to the light table with our mountain of proof sheets from a series of early concerts by Bob Dylan and The Band taken by  photographer Joe Sia between 1972 and 1974.  We’ll look at what it takes to make a shot a great one amidst the chaos of bad lighting, ever-moving subjects and the perils of maneuvering through a crowd to see if we can unearth some never-before-seen fantastic images of some legendary performers.

[Touring the Vault with Katherine Featuring Bob Dylan and The Band is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

Bob Dylan was poster child to old fashioned folkies — they wanted him to be the Christ for the revival — he was hip and cool, but seemed old school — just a man, his guitar, harmonica and voice. Then, on that balmy east coast night, he had the balls to flip a switch and electrify the sound.

Pete Seeger went looking for an axe with which to cut the microphone cable…

Folks shouldn’t have been too surprised. He had come out with his new album Bringing it all Back Home that March and it was half-electric, half-acoustic.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Dylan lately — his last couple of releases as well as recordings with the Band in 1972 and ’74. His writing hasn’t changed a bit in 40 years — just the medium or volume for transmitting the message. Why should we begrudge such change? No it’s not the same as Bob Dylan all alone with a guitar at 22 — that time and space was that time and space. Every morning’s glance in the mirror convinces me that there is no goin’ back…

A lot of people want their performers to sing it just as it’s been sung the time before. But, today’s another day. An other day.

Billie Holiday used to get shit for that. But every time she sang a song, her life had evolved, her emotions, her experience demanded a different expression.

Bob Dylan gets the same flak today with folks say things like, “Geeze, I hardly even recognized that version of ‘Just like a Woman’,” or “Hey man, what’s he doin’ behind a keyboard?”

Artists are artists; they express for themselves and share it with you. They know you’re their bread and butter, but a true artist would starve rather than cull truth for the almighty dollar.

Go on with your bad self, Bob — in my book, you’re the Man!

[Electric Plug or Eclectric Crud? is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

Welcome to my new video blog series I call Touring the Vault in which I’ll take you on brief tours through the archive of Wolfgang’s Vault and give you a glimpse into our processes of learning and discovery. We’ll dig deep into the vast array of poster art, both inventoried and the as-yet-unearthed and tell you stories of their creation. We’ll delve into the depths of a half a million photographic slides and negatives to discover the prizes of great never-before-seen shots. We’ll turn the pages of history within a library filled with rare concert programs, early rock magazines and even scroll early music contracts and priceless letters and telegrams between the folks who put on the shows and those who performed them. Take a walk through Wolfgang’s Vault with me as we unlock a treasure trove of all things related to the live concert experience.

On this tour, we time travel to 1971, the last weeks of the Fillmore East.  Frank Zappa and the Mothers lined up for two shows, June 5/6. The day before the concert, John Lennon and Yoko Ono met Zappa and took up his invitation to “come down and jam” with the band. Lennon and Yoko made a surprise, on-stage appearance with Zappa for the encore of the June 5th concert, much to the surprise of fans.  Here we dig through the Joe Sia archive to see what shots from the show behind and on the stage, will make it to the Wolfgang’s Vault website.

[Touring the Vault with Katherine Featuring Joe Sia and John Lennon is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

Another example of time travel in the 21^st Century… Here was Heart, “Oh my God, look at those two women – feel that energy… those sisters, performing their asses off thirty years after first hittin’ the stage with their hard rock sound!”

I wanted to bring my new Flip HD Video camera to the gig, I was all excited about it, conjuring up the recording I would make of the show; stuffed the petite device into the bottom of my purse to hide it from the security search …and then…took it out again and left it on my desk at the office.  What if it gets confiscated?  What if I get caught?  After all, working the concert production biz; I have spent many a night with an eagle eye toward illegal cameras and recordings.

So there I was, in front of the speaker stacks, three feet from Ann and Nancy cursing myself as I watched the masses holding up iPhones and Blackberries and Flip cameras and every other high tech device known to man, recording one of the greatest concerts I’ve seen in forever, while I could only daydream about a weekend spent pulling old albums for a nostalgic sing-along.

Back in 1970 folks were killin’ Bill Graham with screams of “The music should be free!”  Considering how many benefit concerts he staged, I can understand why that drove him crazy.

When Festival Express rode through Canada that year carrying the likes of Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Traffic and the Band, the movement against paying for music was in full throttle.  While the train kept on rollin’ and the bands played on, the promoters found themselves in financial ruin amidst the rioting chaos.

The Grateful Dead allowed their fans to record their shows on audiotape, eventually dedicating a taping section located behind the soundboard to them.  Of the approximately 2,350 shows the Grateful Dead played, almost 2,200 were taped.  As a band with only one commercial hit ever, and that one very late in the group’s life, taping let the fans share their favorite band’s music with others, quickly compounding their fan base.

Barry Manilow started a cameras-OK policy in 1981.  Although the promoters freaked, the fans loved it and still do.  Barry’s website shares over 10,000 photos from fans sharing every angle of his pan-caked smiling face.  According to one of his staffers, the flashes make the show even more exciting and the lights from the iPhones save on lighting rigs!  His fans are hooked … and they in turn, turn on their kids and grandkids.

I have a production friend who told me about a performer coming to town who was demanding that the promoter insure that no cameras or video cameras made it into the venue.  What’s the promoter to do?  Confiscate 5500 cell phones?  The beast has been unleashed and I don’t see how he’ll be recaptured.

In 1991, I spent the night in Golden Gate Park before Bill Graham’s memorial the next morning, making hot chocolate for others so sentimentally inclined.  I soberly awaited the gate opening for the polo fields very much aware of the somberness of the affair.  A thousand others pushed past me and toppled the fencing while making a mad dash to the front of the stage – there was nothing else to do but run myself, having been overtaken by throngs who had only just arrived.

That’s kind of how I feel right now.  On the fence, trying to stem the tide of all or nothing, thinking that if we give the fans all, we’ll keep nothing.  As a fan, with no disrespect to the act, I want to jump the fence too.

[Between a Heart and a Hard Place is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

Welcome to a new video blog series I call Touring the Vault, in which I’ll take you on brief tours through the archive of Wolfgang’s Vault, and give you a glimpse into our processes of learning and discovery. We’ll dig deep into the vast array of poster art, both inventoried and as-yet-unearthed, and you’ll hear stories of their creation. We’ll delve into the depths of a half a million photographic slides and negatives to discover the prizes of great never-before-seen shots. We’ll turn the pages of history within a library of rare concert programs, early rock magazines, and even early music contracts and priceless letters and telegrams between the folks who put on the shows and those performing them. Take a walk through Wolfgang’s Vault with me as we unlock a treasure trove of all things related to the live concert experience.

On this tour we take a close look at the most famous poster in rock n’ roll – the Flying Eyeball.    Created in 1968 by famed poster artist Rick Griffin for a series of Jimi Hendrix shows at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, the poster’s imagery weaves the telling of many tales from Egyptian lore to Griffin’s personal experiences and the resulting psychedelic demons.   Small details on the prints discern variations that mean thousands of dollars in the collectible world.

Katherine York, Archivist, www.wolfgangsvault.com

[Classic Posters with Katherine Featuring Griffin’s Flying Eyeball is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]

I recently went to see Jackson Browne perform in a Grande Dame of a venue — gorgeous to look at, pretty good acoustics, and rows and rows of seats. The reuse of old movie theatres as rock venues has created bodily restrictions that go against the soul of the sound.

I can beat my knees in the seats and sway to the groove only so long — once in a while if the song demands it, I MUST DANCE — of course within the parameters of my seat — my real estate.

For 5 out of 25 songs, I stood in front of Seat 102, first seat Row H Center Aisle and boogied my butt to the tunes of my teenage years. Unfortunately, this didn’t sit well with the sitters behind me.

Sit down venue — what? Must those of us who like to move to the groove wait year after year for our favorite performers (not gettin’ any younger) to hit a danceable venue?

And, what is a danceable venue?

Shoreline Amphitheatre in Northern California was built for the Grateful Dead audience with dancing in mind, with enough space in front of the seat to move to the groove. But, if you go there now and someone complains about your dancing, it’s you that will be removed from the venue if you don’t contain yourself to your seat.

What’s going on here?

Jackson sings, “In 69 I was 21”…

Back in those days nobody wanted to sit down in a fucking chair to see music — no fucking way. They wanted to experience it, be it, dance it, live it, be emboldened by it.

Bill Graham, the greatest of rock promoters, called himself a dance-hall keeper. He was no couch potato venue operator. Music was participatory and the division between performer and patron was blurred.

If you look at old concert footage from the ’70s, people were skinny, you know why? Because they were dancing, they were dancing; they were dancin’ to it all.

My young co-worker Wade has never been to a concert where people dance — they either stand or beat each other up (mosh-pittin’ don’t ya know).

I very clearly remember my first observations of this new way of taking in a show. It was a Radiohead concert and for all the buzz about the band, the audience seemed acutely catatonic during the gig, prone in their seats; eyes glazed. Wade calls bands that generate this behavior shoe-gazers.

Maybe that’s why we’ve become such an obese people. You go to a Radiohead show. People are just sittin’ there, sittin’ there like they’re watchin’ TV.

Well, I say, stay at home. Sit in your comfy chair and plug in your iPod ear-buds because your just wastin’ your money doin’ the same thing you do at home at a pricey concert hall.

You might say, well Katherine, in your case, it was a Jackson Browne show, but NO. I recently read a blog in which a gal described being rudely chastised for dancing at a ZZ Top and Aerosmith show!

A rock show is not a recital, nor is it meant to be a reproduction of the studio album. Bands need audience interaction to perform at their best. A performer like U2’s Bono would go absolutely nuts if he couldn’t get a reaction out of the audience during a song. A non-interactive audience is not only a bore to most fans, but also a bore to the band, and if the band is bored, you’re going hear it in the music.

If you want to go to a concert where everyone sits quietly and absorbs the music, go see a symphony or recital. If hearing other people singing along, and having people next to you dancing around to the music ruins the experience for you, then rock concerts aren’t for you.

I say you better get off your asses or your gonna lose em’ (or be nothing but ass). I’m stiff, got a bad knee, my butt aches, I’ve got my sciatic problems, whatever. You think I need to sit in a chair some more? Sit here in this chair getting’ stiffer and stiffer and stiffer and stiffer, livin’ my life like some voyeur?

No, we’ve got to move these bodies people, get these asses up out of our seats and move the bods people!

In fact, Mayo Clinic researchers reported that social dancing helps to: reduce stress, increase energy, and improve strength, muscle tone and coordination.

And whether you like to kick up your heals to hip hop, classical or country, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute says that dancing can lower your risk of coronary heart disease, decrease blood pressure, help manage your weight and strengthen the bones of your legs and hips.

Dancing is a unique form of exercise because it provides the heart-healthy benefits of an aerobic exercise while also allowing you to engage in a social activity. This is especially stimulating to the mind, and one 21-year study published in the New England Journal of Medicine even found dancing can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia in the elderly.

Dance, participate folks, get off your asses and dance!

Jackson Browne gave me my own “see I told you so” to the people in the seats behind me with his encore staple “Stay”:

Tonight the people were so fine
They waited there in line
And when they got up on their feet
They made the show
And that was sweet

[LET THEM DANCE, DAMMIT! is a post in From the Vault - The Wolfgang's Vault blog.]