Sunday Cinema | Remembering Levon Helm
By Andy Kahn Apr 19, 2015 • 12:00 pm PDT
Three years ago today the world lost Levon Helm who died April 19, 2012 at the age of 71. The Band drummer and lead singer had an immeasurable impact on American music over the course of his storied career. Today Helm’s Woodstock, New York recording space The Barn is open to the public for a celebration of his life. We’re also celebrating Levon’s life with this week’s Sunday Cinema by taking a look back at Levon’s first appearance on Late Night with David Letterman from January 11, 1983.
[Photo by Ahron R. Foster]
We’ve previously chronicled several of Helm’s trips to Letterman hosted late night programs, but as Letterman inches closer to his final show on May 20, today we’re taking a look at Levon’s first trip to see Dave in 1983. Helm was supposed to make his debut on the program on January 4, 1983 but failed to show up for the nascent talk show. The clip below shows Dave trying to fill time in Levon’s absence, complete with an unplanned interview with former NBA star Bernard King who happened to be in the building an willing to fill in.
When Helm did finally show a few days later on January 11, he brought homemade barbecue sauce wrapped in wool hat as a peace offering for having left Dave hanging. He goes on to explain a fire –in which he lost a pickup truck –prevented him from showing up to his originally scheduled appearance. After the entertaining interview, Helm played mandolin with the original version of Letterman’s house band on “Rag Mama Rag.”
RIP Levon.
We’ve previously chronicled several of Helm’s trips to Letterman hosted late night programs, but as Letterman inches closer to his final show on May 20, today we’re taking a look at Levon’s first trip to see Dave in 1983. Helm was supposed to make his debut on the program on January 4, 1983 but failed to show up for the nascent talk show. The clip below shows Dave trying to fill time in Levon’s absence, complete with an unplanned interview with former NBA star Bernard King who happened to be in the building an willing to fill in.
When Helm did finally show a few days later on January 11, he brought homemade barbecue sauce wrapped in wool hat as a peace offering for having left Dave hanging. He goes on to explain a fire –in which he lost a pickup truck –prevented him from showing up to his originally scheduled appearance. After the entertaining interview, Helm played mandolin with the original version of Letterman’s house band on “Rag Mama Rag.”
RIP Levon.
