A great, great talk by Robbie Robertson on all things The Band.
This is a 26:40 recording of Robbie Robertson talking (no video, no interviewer questions, just Robbie’s voice) about all aspects of The Band, his traveling from Canada to Arkansas at age 16 to join Levon Helm in The Hawks, his songwriting, the extreme talent of Rick Danko and Levon Helm, The Last Waltz, and many other musical matters. And his love of movies (The Band included "Third Man Theme" on their Moondog Matinee album). He puts into words better than I have ever before read or heard what made The Band the model of musical quality they were, and so respected by all the best musicians, singers, and songwriters in Rock ’n’ Roll. In Jazz too.
Even if you are sick of hearing about The Band, I do believe you will be very glad you’ve listened to this.
https://youtu.be/IF690sDgb6M?si=rbr7DFR7Mh7YP5OH
Nice talk With Robbie. He always sounds intelligent and honest to me. I know some of Levon’s followers don’t think so, but what can you do? Here’s a video of Robbie talking about his relationship with Levon: Robbie Robertson Talks About His Relationship With Levon Helm on The Big Interview |
I watched "Once Were Brothers" last night. If Dominique Robertson is to be believed, Robbie and Garth struggled manfully to keep the band from swerving off the tracks for quite awhile while Levon, Rick and Richard indulged in heavy drug use that compromised their ability to fully contribute musically. Watching this has actually made me reassess Levon. He now appears to have been a less reliable/credible witness than I’d previously believed, given the fact that his perceptions were filtered through the blurry lens of heroin usage. I can easily see how Robbie’s role as a father/husband would necessarily put him on a different trajectory from those in the group who just wanted to keep living the partying single’s life. And it came as a surprise to hear Robbie assert the plan was for the band to take a break following The Last Waltz, then get back together. Contrast this with Levon’s sarcastic remark -- something about a "going-out-of business concert". Maybe Robbie wasn’t the bad guy, after all. |
Everything you say is true @stuartk, except for your final sentence.
I only recently learned of Levon, Rick, and Richard’s use of hard narcotics. Clapton recently talked about the breakup of The Band, and mentioned how those three members had gotten clean by the time of The Band’s reunion. He thought they then sounded better than they ever had (I prefer Jim Weider’s Telecaster playing to Robertson’s Stratocaster playing), and that Robbie may have regretted his decision to dissolve the group. Levon never wanted to, and I guess went along with it partly out of his drug influenced state of mind. Their reunion was severely hampered by the suicide of pianist/singer Richard Manuel, imo the heart and soul of The Band. What a great, great singer, and an unusually interesting drummer (he plays drums on half the songs on the brown album).
Regarding your last sentence, there are a couple of matters involved. Levon’s change in attitude began when the royalty checks for the brown album started rolling in: Robbie’s were a lot bigger than everyone else’s, a natural result of his taking credit for most of the songwriting on the album. Levon’s view was that the writing of the songs was just a skeleton, the fully realized song reaching fruition only with the contributions of the other four members. Since Robbie’s contribution after the songwriting was only the guitar playing (don’t be fooled by Robbie’s "singing" in The Last Waltz. The Band’s harmonies were two and three part, not four. If you listen when Levon, Rick, and Richard are singing together, do you hear Robbie’s voice? No, you don’t. He’s faking it. All those shots of him "singing" in the movie should have been coverage of Richard, who is grossly ignored by Scorsese), the others doing all the singing and the vast majority of the playing of instruments, that is a justifiable view on the matter of equitability, and compensation for contributions leading to the final product..Levon was the leader of The Band musically, playing an indispensable role in crafting the arrangements, sound, and feel of The Band’s songs. Robbie’s view was that what the other members of The Band did was merely what musicians do, and should not be considered part of songwriting. That too is a justifiable view of the matter, though one more old school (Tin Pan Alley tradition, rather than Rock ’n’ Roll reality) than perhaps appropriate for the situation.
And then there is the matter of The Last Waltz. It was all Robbie’s idea, and his relationship with the money men resulted in his being credited with being an associate producer of the movie. That meant he got a big paycheck off the top of the proceeds generated from the movie (gross profit), while the other members of The Band received only compensation from the net profit the movie made, if any. There wasn’t any. That REALLY pissed off Levon. Then there is the matter of John Simon, the producer of the first and second Band albums. Robbie approached him with an offer to do all the arrangements for The Last Waltz, writing charts for the horns, etc. Simon told him he hadn’t received any royalty checks from Capital Records in a LONG time, and wasn’t going to do the film until he had. Robertson came back with a royalty check and an offer: sign away all future royalties for the two Band albums he produced in exchange for a percentage of the net profit the film made. Simon agreed to it, and has never again received a royalty check from Capitol Records. He also made no money for his work on The Last Waltz, as the cost of making the film, promoting it, etc., resulted in there being no net profit. But here’s the kicker: Robertson knew that would likely be the case, and was why he made sure he himself got his cut off the top of the film’s gross profit. Disgraceful behavior, one musician knowingly using another for his own personal gain at the cost of the other’s.
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You are far more better informed than I am regarding Robertson’s financial machinations. I have no reason to doubt what you’ve said. Before watching that movie, I always thought Robertson was quite slick and egotistic. Maybe I was right, after all. Granted, there are some radically creative re-imaginings of tunes out there, but in most cases, in Rock/Pop, I’d argue writing a tune is a bigger challenge than arranging a tune. I wasn’t in the room when it was all going down so I have no way of knowing just how "skeletal" Robbie’s original parts were. Unless Levon was significantly involved in composing the main melodies and chord changes, I don’t see how he could justify writing credits. Perhaps the degree to which changing a drum part constitutes "writing" is inevitably going to be a point of contention between drummers and guitar players. ;o) As for harmony vocals, which is more difficult -- coming up with a main melody or adding a harmony? I vote for the former. I saw The Band with Weider. Can’t recall who played piano. Johnny Winter and Roy Buchanan were also on the bill. Also saw Little Feat without Lowell. Both shows were OK, not great.
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All good comments and valid opinions. @onhwy61, I regretfully have to agree with you on The Band without Robbie Robertson. Mick Jagger once sang a song entitled "The Singer Not The Song", Sorry Mick, you’re mistaken. Without the song there’s nothing to sing. I’d much rather listen to an average singer sing a great song than a great singer sing an average song. When you have a great singer singing a great song, well now you’re talking! Speaking of which, at the beginning of the clip below, Kasey Chambers introduces the song she then sings by saying "This is my favorite song." It’s amongst my very favorites as well, "No Time To Cry" by Iris DeMent.
"https://youtu.be/boG_aCz3YEk?si=iLRfCuJINVRHlauVNo
Here’s Iris’ original recording, found on her second album, My Life.
https://youtu.be/BfyqbkuV_e8?si=WxD3s21ddj_Qv08-
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Amen to that, brother!
RE: "No Time To Cry", what an ironic title. I’m not embarrassed to admit the mere sound of Iris’s voice makes me tear up. It’s as if she has a direct line into the very heart and soul of the human experience. |
@stuartk: I couldn’t agree with you more about Iris, my favorite living songwriter and singer. I made the mistake of taking her My Life album (on CD) to the CES in Vegas one year in the mid or late 90’s, and had Jerry Crosby play "No Time To Cry" on his QUAD ESL loudspeakers. I embarrassed myself by breaking down when she sang the final couplet.
I made it through the last verse, which goes:
"I sit down on the sofa, and I watch the evening news There’s a half-a-dozen tragedies from which to pick and choose The baby that was missing, was found in a ditch today And there’s bombs a-flyin’, and people dyin’, not so far away."
But when she sang the couplet that followed (see below), I found myself with tears streaming down my face.
"I take a beer from the refrigerator, and go sit out in the yard And with a cold one in my hand I'm gonna bite down and swallow hard."
Merle Haggard also thinks highly of the song, and this live version by him is awfully good:
https://youtu.be/QBOvKGsouPc?si=YWxYH2fGdh_2XCHy
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Bands should be treated as "black boxes" with no insight to their inner workings, otherwise it distracts from the music. Within wide limits I just don't care what type of person the musician is or whether they get along with each other. As long as they make great music I'm okay. Still, every now and then something comes out that surprises me. George slept with Ringo's wife Sam & Dave deeply despised each other Joni Mithcell in blackface Nobodies perfect! |
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+100, @bdp24 . |
