Cable drummer boy (updated and bumped)

(Note: I cannot claim to be a fan of Levon Helm's or The Band, in fact, I know very little about them. However I did write about him a while back for reasons, I hope, will be plain in the post. I thought it worth re-posting in light of the passing of Helm today. - Mike)

I'm sure most people with cable TV notice that there are all kinds of channels that broadcast programming of, shall we say, limited appeal. Some of them look like they were shot inside someone's house using lamps with the shades taken off for some really harsh lighting. And they look that way because it was shot inside someone's house using lamps with the shades taken off for some really harsh lighting.

For example, take this one program on Mediacom here in Springfield. It was shot in a nightclub and the focus of the program is the musical act that is performing there. More specifically, the subject seems to be this scraggly, old drummer with a gravelly voice who does all the lead singing. I watched it a for a few minutes and I thought, "Eh." They're probably some regional act that does all the hotspots in the college towns around here. And they probably drink up all their profits.

The things they show on TV.

And, it's interesting, in view of the discussion of popular music here at "The Porch" lately. Many of the acts that we admire would be old, gravelly and scraggly, like the drummer on this cable show. I heard a new Bob Seger song the other day and you can definitely hear some age in his voice.

Cousin Bob posted his list of favorite songs from 1973 and we've been having fun with it. He listed "Dancing In The Moonlight" by King Harvest and someone from that group was kind enough to reply and we got a kick out of that. Later, I posted in response and playfully asked Bob if his new friends, King Harvest, would explain how their name came about. Lo and behold! I got a reply from them! What generous and friendly people! It's an interesting story.

"In 1970 we made a last minute entry into a R&R contest in Paris, France. They asked for our band's name, which we had not yet decided on. On the stereo we had one of our favorite albums by The Band playing. The song was King Harvest Has Surely Come. So we gave them King Harvest as a name. As it turned out we won the contest and never changed the name. Two years later, still in Paris, we recorded Dancing in the Moonlight."

I think that is a cool story and it's a good band name. I think a lot of creativity is like this - it just happens, it's not forced.

So, in reading this reply, I had a thought. The record was by a group called The Band? That sort of rang a bell, so I did what any self-respecting person would do at this moment, I Googled. (I Google, therefore I am?)

I Googled "the band king harvest has come" and up came the typical Google page with lots links. At the top was a You Tube video of the song, so I clicked it and about 20 seconds later, I was floored.

The video opens with a shot of a cabin and the camera zooms in to look through the window. At about :20, I recognized someone. I recognized this bobbing head and the shrugging shoulders. I recognized the inelegant twisting neck so the singer could line up with a microphone.

It was the scraggly old drummer from the show on my local cable provider! Only he wasn't so old in this video! Amazing! You mean this guy on my local cable was SOMEBODY?

Quick! More Googling! I Googled The Band and got the Wikipedia page. (There is a sentence that would have been meaningless 10 years ago!) I saw a picture of The Band and their names. And I saw it! Levon Helm! He's the drummer for The Band and he's the drummer on my cable show! I remember seeing it when the credits rolled!

So, Levon Helm was the drummer for The Band and they recorded a song called King Harvest Has Come which inspired a nameless band in Paris to name themselves King Harvest and two years later they recorded "Dancing In The Moonlight" which my cousin listed as one of his favorite songs from 1973 on this blog and somebody from the band King Harvest replied to that and then I asked a question and they answered with a story about The Band and I looked it up and saw the drummer from my cable show was not a club guy but a real rock and roll pro, the drummer for The Band. Amazing.

Did I just win "Six Degrees of King Harvest"?

(Originally posted October, 2008)