"Take what you need and leave the rest, but never should have taken better"

"Take what you need and leave the rest, but never should have taken better" is a refrain from "The Night they Drove Old Dixie Down", one of the best-known songs of The Band.

Levon Helm, the revered drummer and singer of the band the Band has retained the core band for more than three decades, "peacefully" died on 19 April.

From CNN:

Born in Elaine, Arkansas, in 1940, the son of a cotton farmer, Helm rose to fame in the late 1960s and 1970s as a member of The Band, a folk rock band.

His voice, Soul, drawling highlighted many successful recordings, such as "The Weight", "The Night they Drove Old Dixie Down" and "Up on Cripple Creek".

Helm, 71, was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1998. He fell on hard times as the cancer took his voice and medical expenses threatened his home.

"You got to choose one-pay medical bills or pay the mortgage. Most people cannot do both, and I am no different, "said CNN in 2010.

So The Barn, as the residence is known around Christmas foster helm of Woodstock, New York, became the setting that calls a "last celebration". Not at all. Instead, The Barn became the Centre of an unlikely and unrivaled rock 'n roll revival.

It was there that Helm regularly hosted the midnight ramble, weekly concerts, which attracted sell-out crowds and media all-star. The result not only paid the Bills but also led to a recrudescence creative helm, with his collaborations with Grammy winning album produced back to back: "Dirt farmer" and "the 2007 Electric Dirt" of 2009.

"If I had my way about it, we probably would do it every night," said helm. "I'm not tired of it."

From Wikipedia:

Helm remained with The Band until their 1976 farewell performance, The Last Waltz, which was recorded in a documentary film director Martin Scorsese (an excerpt is embedded above). Many music fans know Helm through his appearance in the concert film, a performance notable for the fact that Helm's vocal tracks appear substantially as they sang during a grueling concert.

In the 1990s, the helm was diagnosed with throat cancer suffering hoarseness. Advised to undergo laryngectomy, helm instead underwent an arduous regimen of radiation therapy at Memorial with Cancer Center in New York City. Although the tumor was successfully removed, the rudder's vocal cords were damaged, and his powerful tenor voice and has been replaced by a quiet RASP. Initially Helm only played drums and relied on guest vocalists at the Rambles, but Helm's singing voice became louder. The January 10, 2004, she sang once again of his ramble sessions. In 2007, during production of dirt farmer, Helm estimated that his singing voice was 80% recovered.

The midnight ramble was an outgrowth of an idea Helm explained to Martin Scorsese in The Last Waltz. Earlier in the 20th century Helm explained, traveling medicine shows and music shows which Assassinators of F.S. Walcott rabbit, featuring African-American blues singers and dancers, would put futile performances in rural areas. This was turned into a song by the band, "The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show," with the name altered so the lyric was easier to sing.

"After the finale, which would have the midnight ramble," Helm told Scorsese. With young children off the premises, picked up the show: "the songs would get a bit more juicy. Jokes would get a little more fun and the best dancer would really get down and shake it a few times. A lot of rock and roll duck walks and moves came from that. "

Helm refused to play "The Night they Drove Old Dixie Down" by 1976, though he continued to perform "Midnight rambles" several times a month in his private residence in Woodstock, New York.

References:

Fans remember Levon Helm as he tackles the final stages of cancer. CNN.
Levon Helm, co-founder of The Band, died at 71. CNN.
Levon Helm, an icon of American music, is in the final stages of cancer ". Guardian.
Fauquier ENT Blog: Levon Helm, singer/drummer for The Band, dies of throat cancer http://goo.gl/tDgxL
Levon Helm. Wikipedia.