Singing drummer Levon Helm, who died April 19 at age 71, enjoyed one of the more glorious second acts in American music.

As heartbeat and frequent lead vocalist in the Band, the son of an Arkansas cotton farmer (and sole Southerner in a group whose sound was fundamentally rooted in the region) laid the foundation for all subsequent "Americana" groups.

Diagnosed with cancer in the '90s, Helm fought back, and in 2005 began to invite guest musicians and fans into his barn studio for cozy Midnight Ramble events that became Mecca for roots-music aficionados and helped the proprietor pay his all-American medical bills.

THE FIVE MOST IMPORTANT TRACKS

1. The Band – "The Weight" (1968)
This Music From Big Pink afterthought would become one of songwriter Robbie Robertson's most covered tunes. Although Richard Manuel was singing nearly all of the group's material at the time, Helm stepped forward to drawl the first three verses of this surreal Old Testament saga of a traveler who, while making his way to Nazareth, Pennsylvania (home of Martin Guitars), is besieged by a motley assortment of archetypal figures asking for favors.

2. The Band – "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" (1969)

Virgil Caine was Helm's name on this pounding Civil War allegory about a Confederate survivor of a Union attack on Virginia's railroads. In a voice overcome with grief, rebellion, and resolve all at once, Helm movingly evoked the contradictory passions behind America's cresting counterculture. His military drum rolls emphasized a nation still at war with itself a century after the richly detailed events recounted in this highlight from the Band's eponymous second album.

3. The Band – "Up on Cripple Creek" (1969)

Opening with a funky shuffle the Meters might have envied (and that Gang Starr sampled forStep in the Arena’s "Beyond Comprehension"), the other "afterthought" of the Band's second album turned out to be the group's first and only Top 30 single.

Helm is charmingly roguish as a hard-drinking mountain man visiting his mistress Bessie in Louisiana. The honey can't help but drip when he sings: "There's one thing in the whole wide world, I sure would like to see / That's when that little love of mine dips her doughnut in my tea."

4. The Band – "When I Paint My Masterpiece" (1971)

The best song about life on the road ever writ? Bob Dylan evoked the homesickness of countless itinerants in this Technicolor road movie compressed into a four-minute tune. "Someday everything is gonna sound like a rap-so-dee," sings Helm in a paean to homesickness inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night. Accompanied by Garth Hudson's French accordion, Helm's redneck yawp makes allusions to "a purdy little girl from Greece" all the more touching.

5. The Band – "Ophelia" (1978)

Indebted more to Minnie Pearl than to Hamlet, Robbie Robertson's Dixieland paean to a gal on the run first appeared on the Band's last great studio album, the Louisiana-flavored Northern Lights – Southern Cross. Three years later, Levon knocked it out of the park with rollicking horn accompaniment during The Last Waltz.

THE FIVE BEST DEEP CUTS

1. Levon Helm – "Lucrecia" (1982)

A certain stank often imbues the atmosphere when Levon sings about women. And the lady of the evening who stars in this funky tune by frequent Aerosmith content supplier Richard "Richie" Supa is especially ripe. The song begins with the singer — "so eager and in need of affection" — pulling up to the "Pair-ee-dice Hotel" under the advisement of a stranger. By the time he leaves, “Lucrecia,” a distant cousin of Ophelia, perhaps, has left him feeling "weak in the knees after the ragin' commotion."

2. The Band – "Don't Ya Tell Henry" (1995)

The Band took a busman's holiday from recording Moondog Matinee to play the gigantic Watkins Glen festival in 1973. Levon delivered one of their set's strongest performances with this version of Dylan's inscrutable barnyard ditty in which animals and humans alike try to hide the fact from Henry — whoever he is — that "Apple's got your fly." Helm sounds like he knows, though, which is reason enough to hear him out.

3. Levon Helm and the Crowmatix – "Rag Mama Rag" (2001)

Helm rocks out with some Woodstock locals on another Band tune he claims wasn't appreciated until after it was in the can. Levon and pals capture the laid-back yet prickly essence of Southern culture in this rollicking portrait of a man pitching inebriated woo to a woman who's up and left him once again. He recalls the gold ol’ days when it was just "you and me and the telephone, our destiny was quite well-known."

4. Levon Helm – "The Mountain" (2007)

On Dirt Farmer, his first studio album in a decade, Helm addressed the national malaise by returning to his roots with a terrific acoustic album. Who knew that Levon would evolve into one of the country's finest pure country singers? This Steve Earle gem about the horrors of strip mining turns out to be the perfect vehicle for Helm's rich blend of nostalgia and regret.

5. Levon Helm – "Tennessee Jed" (2009)

It's somehow fitting that this final studio album, Electric Dirt, opens with a track that combines Dylan's joking and surreal imagery with Robbie Robertson's deft portraiture. The now-elderly Helm inhabits the hapless Jed with as much regional aplomb as he does any of Robertson's characters, only this time it's Helm's own band blowing behind him. A fitting send-off indeed.

FIVE SONGS THAT COULDN'T EXIST WITHOUT HIM

1. Rolling Stones – "No Expectations" (1968)

One history of '60s music sees things moving along nicely in a heady, futuristic, psychedelic direction until the Band brought everything to a screeching, check-yourself stop with Music From Big Pink. Take the Stones, who followed up the weird and ambitious Their Satanic Majesties Request with Beggars Banquet and this dusty country blues.

2. The Beatles – "Get Back" (1969)

Ringo Starr, rock's other great beat-chasing drummer, sounds a whole lot like Levon on this watershed single produced by Phil Spector. Its character-driven verses about a guy named Jojo, who leaves his home in Tucson, Arizona, and Loretta Martin, a woman who is really a man, are as close to a Band classic as anyone else would ever record.

3. Elton John – "Levon" (1971)

Elton and songwriting partner Bernie Taupin wrote this whooping, driving tune to honor the drummer, and damn what a tribute. It sketches the life story of a "good man" who is born, raises a family, and dies — accompanied by banging piano and some passionately sawing strings. Decades later, Sir Elton would middle-name his son Levon, too.

4. Uncle Tupelo – "Looking for a Way Out" (1991)

As harmonizers, Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy, and Levon-esque drummer Mike Heidorn were the '90s equivalent of Helm, Richard Manuel, and Rick Danko. The Tupelo trio, of course, evolved into Son Volt and Wilco, but their entwined voices on this slacker anthem — "There was a time / That time is gone" — are imbued with the Band’s timeless sense of longing and quest for redemption.

5. The Hold Steady – "The Swish" (2004)

According to lead guitarist Tad Kubler: "Me and [frontman] Craig [Finn] were just sitting around watching The Last Waltz when Craig said, 'Dude, why aren’t there any bands like this anymore? Let’s do this from now on.'" Robbie Robertson and Richard Manuel are name-checked in this dissolute and surreal rocker.

[Edited 4/26/12 10:09am]

Identity said:

Except there's no evidence in his post-Band career of Levon ever having penned songs himself. I believe Robertson's account of life with The Band, that Robertson gave writing credit to some of the guys when ideas were being exchanged during the process of finishing certain songs.

Could it be because Robbie stole them all.

Fans Remember Levon Helm at His Woodstock Home
April 27, 2012

Link

Crowds of fans paid tribute to the late Levon Helm Thursday at a public memorial at his home in Woodstock, NY.

The Poughkeepsie Journal reports that fans were playing Helm's music in the parking lot of the Woodstock Playhouse while they waited for yellow school buses to shuttle them to the home studio of the former drummer and singer for The Band, where his casket was surrounded by his drum kit and a piano.

Meanwhile Ulster County, NY flags were flown at half staff in recognition of the impact the drummer had on local tourism with the series of Midnight Ramble concerts he hosted. "Levon Helm’s contribution to community, county and our nation was inspiring," Ulster County Executive Mike Hein said in a statement to the paper. "Not only was Levon Helm an incredible musician with world-wide recognition, but his contributions to his local community will have a lasting impact."

The member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was famous for performing his Saturday night Midnight Ramble concerts in his barn. Ron Cavallaro told the Journal he had attended more than 40 shows there and drove from Rhode Island for the memorial. "This is my religion," Cavallaro said.

Following a private funeral on Friday, Helm -- who died last week after a long battle with throat cancer -- will be buried in the Woodstock Cemetery next to Rick Danko, vocalist and bassist for The Band who passed away in 1999.

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Identity said:

3. Elton John – "Levon" (1971)

Elton and songwriting partner Bernie Taupin wrote this whooping, driving tune to honor the drummer, and damn what a tribute. It sketches the life story of a "good man" who is born, raises a family, and dies — accompanied by banging piano and some passionately sawing strings. Decades later, Sir Elton would middle-name his son Levon, too.

Elton's early stuff was really Band influenced. But being Elton, it's super catchy, as well.

On May 2nd, the Boss paid a heartfelt tribute to Levon by covering The Band's "The Weight".