They interviewed Robbie on the Broken Record podcast a while back where he told his story. Great listen if you're interested: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rewind-robbie-robertso...
Robbie Robertson has died
41–50 of 57 posts
Re: Robbie Robertson has died
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCSzL5-SPHM (better resolution)
I just love this. Scorsese’s camera moves - the way he swoops in behind Mavis and then slowly comes back around her as she starts to soar. The way he lights up Danko for the start of his solo bit. It’s just a beautifully put together document of a great performance. It was shot separately on a soundstage, making it essentially an early music video, and a great one at that. That Robertson and Scorsese were still worki…
In Once Were Brothers Scorcese tells how he planned out the shooting for the whole concert. One thing you might not pick up on: there are NO shots of the audience at all.
Re: Robbie Robertson has died
#43Played The Band's Academy of Music performance [0] last night when I got the news. It's right up there with The Last Waltz. Great and timeless music. Hell some of my favorite Grateful Dead performances were covers of his music. RIP Robbie. Enjoy your weekends fellow heady folks (~);) [0] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNtcW2LqveU&list=OLAK5uy_khf...
I was there. It started three hours late. They showed a samurai movie with subtitles while we waited. My GF was sick from all the smoke. Dylan seemed drunk.
But it is a fantastic album!
Re: Robbie Robertson has died
#44Played The Band's Academy of Music performance [0] last night when I got the news. It's right up there with The Last Waltz. Great and timeless music. Hell some of my favorite Grateful Dead performances were covers of his music. RIP Robbie. Enjoy your weekends fellow heady folks (~);) [0] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNtcW2LqveU&list=OLAK5uy_khf...
I was there. It started three hours late. They showed a samurai movie with subtitles while we waited. My GF was sick from all the smoke. Dylan seemed drunk. But it is a fantastic album!
Wasn't that around the time Dylan was having lots of problems with drink?
Re: Robbie Robertson has died
#45Highly recommend checking out the Levon Helm documentary from about 10 years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMCurMyP4n8
Robertson's obituary alluded to questions over songwriting credits. That came up in Helm's 2012 documentary and autobiography - he thinks he and the other members of The Band were cheated. Robertson refuted that a few years back, and quite forcefully:
To this day, on The Band's songs, I share the publishing and songwriting credit with Levon. The other guys said they wanted to sell their part of the publishing. When we started out, everyone was supposed to write songs. [When they didn't] I thought they were being lazy. But some people can write songs, and some can't. Levon didn't write songs. I gave him credit on some songs because he was around. Garth was a great musician, but he couldn't write. Ringo Starr doesn't write songs. Charlie Watts doesn't write songs, and they don't share publishing credit with the other guys in their groups. After 16 years together, Levon never once mentioned songwriting. When it came up, I was generous about it.
https://www.salon.com/2020/05/23/robbie-robertson-the-band-o...
Re: Robbie Robertson has died
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was there. It started three hours late. They showed a samurai movie with subtitles while we waited. My GF was sick from all the smoke. Dylan seemed drunk. But it is a fantastic album!
Wasn't that around the time Dylan was having lots of problems with drink?
I have always thought that Dylan showed up drunk, and they started late, so he could sober up a bit.
It was New Year's Eve, 1971.
Re: Robbie Robertson has died
#47RIP, also kudos for one of the most savage Twitter reply burns in history: https://twitter.com/Steven_Hyden/status/946951877635268608
Re: Robbie Robertson has died
#48Sad. If I had to choose the greatest song ever written, I would not hesitate to go with The Weight. The version [0] from The Waltz is especially brilliant. [0] - https://youtu.be/q-w9OclUnns
No better clapping than Mavis'
That little vocal flourish she does after "...stick around", and her expression, sends me into outer space.
Re: Robbie Robertson has died
#49Seems most commenters know him from the Band, so I thought I'd share how I know him instead since I seem to be in the minority.
When I was a kid my father gave me a copy of "Music for the Native Americans"[0], an album he put together in collaboration with several Native American artists as a soundtrack for a documentary. It's my favorite album ever written. I know that's just because I grew up listening to it so it rooted itself somewhere deep in my brain during my formative years, but I hope someone else might find it now and hear something beautiful in it too.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_for_The_Native_Americans....
Re: Robbie Robertson has died
#50"Now I don't mind choppin' wood. And I don't care if the money's no good." RIP.
"... they should never ever have taken the very best"
:-(