Happy Birthday Levon Helm: The Band Performs ‘Atlantic City’ On ‘Letterman’

One of the heroes of the rock world, The Band multi-instrumentalist Levon Helm, was born in Arkansas 80 years ago today. Levon was arguably the greatest singing drummer in the history of the genre, but he was also a quite capable mandolin player. Helm showed off his mando skills on The Band’s cover of “Atlantic City” by Bruce Springsteen on a visit to The Late Show With David Letterman in 1993.

While The Band’s golden age was clearly the time between the release of Music From Big Pink in 1968 and The Last Waltz in 1976 and Helm’s now legendary second act filled with rambles at his home/studio took place over the first 12 years of this century, The Band did regroup in 1983 without Robbie Robertson and lasted until 1999.

To be honest, there’s a reason not much is made of The Band’s Robbie-less years. Levon and his mates never added any originals of consequence to their repertoire over the course of the 16-year period. However, The Band did re-imagine Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska gem “Atlantic City” into a song that would’ve fit well on Music From Big Pink. Now, when bands such as Greensky Bluegrass and Joe Russo’s Almost Dead cover “Atlantic City,” their versions sound much more like The Band’s than The Boss’.

Watch Levon lead The Band on “Atlantic City” during a 1993 visit to Letterman:

[Originally Published: May 26, 2017]