rememberedsongs:

Levon Helm has passed away, 71 years old is far too young. Very sad now, can’t imagine how it must be for those who knew him. Damn the cancer. While the volume might have dimmed a bit, it can never extinguish the music he and his friends made.

The Band - It makes no difference

Sunday music.

The Band - It Makes No Difference.

The very sad love song that I couldn’t choose yesterday.

It makes no diff’rence
How far I go
Like a scar, the hurt will always show
And it makes no diff’rence
Who I meet
They’re just a face in the crowd on a dead-end street

Rick Danko, one of the best soul/folk-singers ever. He deserved better after the Band split up.

The Band - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

At first I though about posting Levon Helm performing the Mountain, but then I got sidetracked. I’ll do that tomorrow since more people need to discover Levon’s later solo works.

So I took this one instead as it is one of the best damn songs ever. A lament over the cost of war, the toll it takes both on the soul, the family and the landscape. Proper emotional storytelling in songs are pretty few, but this one is at the heart of the Americana myth-making. On a slightly smaller metaphorical scale, it’s really the Ballad of Serenity and that alone is enough for me.