Dang. Just finished working on music for "The Killers of the Flower Moon" soundtrack.
https://consequence.net/2023/08/robert-robertson-dead-at-80/
https://consequence.net/2023/08/robert-robertson-dead-at-80/
RIP Robbie Robertson
- Thread starter Inky_Wretch
- Start date
Michael_ Gee
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2004
- Messages
- 39,424
Ahh, ********. RIP to an all-timer. One of my favorite music memories was seeing the Band at Symphony Hall in Boston on Halloween 1969.
Neutral Corner
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2014
- Messages
- 46,614
Neutral Corner
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2014
- Messages
- 46,614
jr/shotglass
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2011
- Messages
- 22,389
Never hung on The Band's music (although the song above was one of the best of that era).
He was iconic, though. RIP.
He was iconic, though. RIP.
garrow
Well-Known Member
Damn....that's why 60s on 6 was playing the Band a lot this afternoon. RIP.
Always amazed me a kid from southern Ontario wrote "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down".
His autobiography included a mention of the rink where my brief, undistinguished hockey career began and ended as an eight year old.
RIP to one of Canada's finest musical exports.
His autobiography included a mention of the rink where my brief, undistinguished hockey career began and ended as an eight year old.
RIP to one of Canada's finest musical exports.
I saw Danko/Hudson together a couple of times in the Eighties at the Lone Star Cafe in NYC and the Capitol Theater in Passaic, one time the week after Richard Manuel died. I was all but ignorant of their oeuvre. My hippie colleague and concert-going partner, Jeannine, reminded me, "You know. The Weight."
Mr._Graybeard
Well-Known Member
The musical genre known as Americana owes a lot to Robertson and The Band
Robertson also discovered one of my all-time favorite singer/songwriters, Jesse Winchester.
Robertson also discovered one of my all-time favorite singer/songwriters, Jesse Winchester.
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2011
- Messages
- 2,026
Feels like a punch in the gut was just delivered.
Robertson seemed to be doing well and was very active, and I was thinking he may have upwards of another decade left in him. It's a shock, too, considering I've been waiting for news of Garth Hudson's death for a while; he supposedly hasn't been doing well (which is why he was absent from Once were Brothers.) Funny... the oldest member of The Band is the last one living.
I'm in my 30's. As I know many on here can understand, finding "your music" can really resonate. I first head The Weight on a Cingular (I think that's how that cell service was spelled) commerical 20 years ago. Liked it then as a young one, but it wasn't until about 10 years ago I purchased the song on my iPod Touch and dove into The Band.
It was everything I loved about music, time 10. The stories crafted in those lyrics, the melodies of the music, resonated with parts of my soul I didn't know was there.
Rockin' Chair is a masterpeice. Unfaithful Servant is brilliant. King Harvest is an epic to itself. Chest Fever is an insane party. Sleeping is beautifully sad. Daniel and the Sacred Harp is as good a story that's ever been put to music; The Rumor is close. Stage Fright is vivid. Acadian Driftwood is mournful.
And none of those songs are love/relationship songs; they are all stories. It's no wonder The Band wasn't ever that popular; I think there songs were too intellegent for the masses at large.
And then there's The Weight; my God. Timeless.
It's amazing how Robertson was able to produce such a volume of work in so little time. His musical education in the late 50's/early 60's, and then the time with Dylan in the mid-60's, planted the seeds.
This may be controversial, but for my money, Robertson surpassed Dylan as a songwriter.
A punch in the gut...
Robertson seemed to be doing well and was very active, and I was thinking he may have upwards of another decade left in him. It's a shock, too, considering I've been waiting for news of Garth Hudson's death for a while; he supposedly hasn't been doing well (which is why he was absent from Once were Brothers.) Funny... the oldest member of The Band is the last one living.
I'm in my 30's. As I know many on here can understand, finding "your music" can really resonate. I first head The Weight on a Cingular (I think that's how that cell service was spelled) commerical 20 years ago. Liked it then as a young one, but it wasn't until about 10 years ago I purchased the song on my iPod Touch and dove into The Band.
It was everything I loved about music, time 10. The stories crafted in those lyrics, the melodies of the music, resonated with parts of my soul I didn't know was there.
Rockin' Chair is a masterpeice. Unfaithful Servant is brilliant. King Harvest is an epic to itself. Chest Fever is an insane party. Sleeping is beautifully sad. Daniel and the Sacred Harp is as good a story that's ever been put to music; The Rumor is close. Stage Fright is vivid. Acadian Driftwood is mournful.
And none of those songs are love/relationship songs; they are all stories. It's no wonder The Band wasn't ever that popular; I think there songs were too intellegent for the masses at large.
And then there's The Weight; my God. Timeless.
It's amazing how Robertson was able to produce such a volume of work in so little time. His musical education in the late 50's/early 60's, and then the time with Dylan in the mid-60's, planted the seeds.
This may be controversial, but for my money, Robertson surpassed Dylan as a songwriter.
A punch in the gut...
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2011
- Messages
- 2,026
I think even that's an understatement; it owes everything to The Band.
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2011
- Messages
- 2,026
The king of Americana - Jason Isbell - tweeted (sorry, X-eeted) as much today when the news broke.
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2005
- Messages
- 4,087
My first real girlfriend introduced me to The Band's music when I was 16, back in the early 90s. Been hooked ever since. Sad news. He was one of the greatest songwriters from a generation that had a lot of them.
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2013
- Messages
- 7,346
Jeff Tweedy has something to say.
I don't know how much The Band had to do with Americana. Rural Midwesterns listening to country and classic rock seems to be the recipe for Americana.
ADD: The Dead, Flying Burrito Brothers.
2muchcoffeeman
Well-Known Member
Americana music is country music that country radio is afraid to touch.
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2013
- Messages
- 7,346
I don't see it that way. Sturgill Simpson is country, but I don't see him as Americana unless by default. Same about Billy Joe Shaver or Cash's American Recordings.
Last edited:
Starman
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2002
- Messages
- 49,987
The Band certainly projected the image of a close knit brotherly unit, but subsequent events have revealed a lot of cracks in that facade. The music remains great.
A crux of a lot of the friction in The Band appears to be Levon Helm's demand to get more credit in the writing of the songs and Robertson's insistence he deserves most of it himself.
A crux of a lot of the friction in The Band appears to be Levon Helm's demand to get more credit in the writing of the songs and Robertson's insistence he deserves most of it himself.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2011
- Messages
- 2,026
And it angered Levon so he didn't speak to Robertson for decades. Robertson was alerted when Levon was on his death bed in 2012 and went and saw him, but I've read conflicting accounts of this last meeting. Supposedly Levon was unconscious already; if true, it really wasn't much of a last meeting.
The fractions are unfortunate; both give their sides of the stories in their respective biographies.
I don't know what could have been done to avoid them, in the end. Richard was a full-on addict, Rick and Levon were close to or addicts themselves. As Robbie said throughout the years (and hinted to in The Last Waltz), he was afraid unless those three changed their lifestyles, they would meet premature deaths (and Richard eventual did; Rick met an early death, and Levon damn near did before beating cancer to have a decade-long encore). And that's not getting into the songwriting, money and ego issues.
I don't know what the truth is re: songwriting credits, but I tend to believe Robertson's telling is closer to the truth. John Simon has said as much, and Robertson did Levon shared credits when Levon's contributions apparently warranted it (like Life is a Carnival); that leads me to believe that while Levon's stories may have inspired Robertson or Levon may have contributed to the arrangement, he didn't actually write the lyrics or the music.
But, who knows. And maybe even if that was a case, Robertson should have been more generous with the songwriting credits, knowing how important they are monetarily in the long run, and that while he may have done the heavy lifting, he couldn't have done them without the inspiration of the other four (and knowing they would never have been popular without Levon/Richard/Rick singing them and Garth's orchestration).
One thing that will always bother me about Robertson: I don't know how he could skip Richard's funeral. I don't care how mad you are at Levon, or if you blame him and the others for Richard's death. How can you have a "brotherhood," with him, be in a band for 20 years, and not come to his funeral?
