Levon Helm R.I.P.

Levon Helm died today. He was lead singer of The Band. I'm too young or too sheltered to have ever been a fan of The Band. I know who Helm is because of Marc Cohn's song "Listening To Levon." That is enough to make me love the man. That's kind of a neat thing about community (the concept, not the TV show, though that has been pretty neat): the people who came before can share with us what was important to them, and to a lesser extent, they then become important to us. I was reminded of a conversation I had with my cousin, who has no love or respect for the Beatles (or Shakespeare, which he reminds me of often), because he was raised in a kind of religious vaccuum.* I was trying to express how influential and game-changing the Beatles were, and why they were so vital to the history of Rock & Roll, and the music we listen to today. And it occurred to me that the Beatles were already broken up by the time I was even born, and I was just passing on what people had said to me over the years. I guess that's what history is all about. And I remind you again that we're all going to die in just a little while. Rish "Mary, You Know Who You Are" Outfield *Not that I wasn't, having grown up in a town that actually barred MTV from the cable offerings, but he really was.