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Post by drlj on Aug 9, 2023 15:40:15 GMT -5
Robbie Robertson, guitarist who backed Dylan and was a member of The Band, has died.
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Post by Cornflake on Aug 9, 2023 16:03:36 GMT -5
From the New York Times:
Robbie Robertson, the chief composer and lead guitarist for the Band, whose work offered a rustic vision of America that seemed at once mythic and authentic, in the process helping to inspire the genre that came to be known as Americana, died on Wednesday in Los Angeles. He was 80.
His manager, Jared Levine, said he died after a long illness.
The songs Mr. Robertson wrote for the Band used enigmatic lyrics to evoke a hard and colorful America of yore. With uncommon conviction, they conjured a wild place, often centered in the South, peopled by rough-hewed characters, from the defeated Confederate soldier in “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” to the tough union worker of “King Harvest Has Surely Come” to the shady creatures in “Life Is a Carnival.”
The music he matched to his passionate yarns mined the roots of every essential American genre, including folk, country, blues and gospel. Yet when his history-minded compositions first appeared on albums by the Band in the late 1960s, they felt vital as well as vintage.
“I wanted to write music that felt like it could’ve been written 50 years ago, tomorrow, yesterday — that had this lost-in-time quality,” Mr. Robertson said in a 1995 interview for the public television series “Shakespeare in the Alley.”
Speaking of the Band in the 2020 documentary “Once Were Brothers,” Bruce Springsteen said, “It’s like you’d never heard them before and like they’d always been there.”
In its day, the Band’s music also stood out by inverting the increasing volume and mania of psychedelic rock, and also by sidestepping its accent on youthful rebellion. “We just went completely left when everyone else went right,” Mr. Robertson said.
The ripple effect of that sound and image — first unveiled on the Band’s first album, “Music From Big Pink,” released in 1968 — went wide on impact, landing the group on the cover of Time magazine in 1970 and inspiring a host of major artists to create their own homespun amalgams, from the Grateful Dead’s album, “Workingman’s Dead” (1970) to Elton John’s “Tumbleweed Connection,” released the next year. The Band’s music so affected Mr. Robertson’s fellow guitarist Eric Clapton that he lobbied for entry into their ranks. (The offer was politely declined.) A quarter-century later, the Band’s music provided a key template for the acts first labeled Americana, including Son Volt, Wilco and Lucinda Williams, as well as for their sonic heirs.
A complete obituary will appear shortly.
[Levon Helm would have argued about Robertson being the chief composer.]
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Post by t-bob on Aug 9, 2023 16:33:19 GMT -5
Playing for Change “The Weight” and myriad in the planet - ie: Ringo youtu.be/ph1GU1qQ1zQThe Band is alive a soul - Garth Hudson 82 yr old RIP Robbie |
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Post by Shannon on Aug 9, 2023 17:02:18 GMT -5
Other than playing in church, I doubt that my partner Chuck and I have ever performed without doing "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." It is always well received.
Peace to Mr. Robertson's family.
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Post by jdd2 on Aug 9, 2023 18:29:38 GMT -5
There's a small club near at a nearby uni called big pink. Some local acts do shows there.
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Post by Village Idiot on Aug 9, 2023 19:55:50 GMT -5
Oh man. That's a big loss. I'm really sorry to hear this. Hobo Jungle taught me that folk music can merge with popular music with no loss of integrity.
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Post by howard lee on Aug 9, 2023 20:40:41 GMT -5
This one hurt. Now only Garth Hudson remains.
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Post by james on Aug 9, 2023 22:12:33 GMT -5
A favourite.
RIP
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Tamarack
Administrator
Ancient Citizen
Posts: 9,390
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Post by Tamarack on Aug 9, 2023 22:48:24 GMT -5
My condolences to his family
An amazing musician at an amazing time
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Dub
Administrator
I'm gettin' so the past is the only thing I can remember.
Posts: 19,915 
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Post by Dub on Aug 9, 2023 23:02:11 GMT -5
Man! Very sorry to see this.
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Post by millring on Aug 10, 2023 5:27:16 GMT -5
Other than playing in church, I doubt that my partner Chuck and I have ever performed without doing "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." It is always well received. Peace to Mr. Robertson's family. What key do you play it in? I was playing around with it last night. I used to play it, and back then I seem to remember that I used C shape chords. But last night I realized the signature lick doesn't work in C (and seems to only work in D ... but then leaves me with the minor chord being Dm. Awkward and kinda fussy). |
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Post by howard lee on Aug 10, 2023 5:34:09 GMT -5
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Post by Cornflake on Aug 10, 2023 7:47:38 GMT -5
Maybe twenty tears back I read Levon Helm's memoir. He wasn't kind to Robertson. I remind myself that Helm's view was a bit skewed.
However they did it, those guys played some unique and memorable music. There's not a lot of music from that time that still holds up for me but theirs does.
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Post by Shannon on Aug 10, 2023 8:01:30 GMT -5
Other than playing in church, I doubt that my partner Chuck and I have ever performed without doing "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." It is always well received. Peace to Mr. Robertson's family. What key do you play it in? I was playing around with it last night. I used to play it, and back then I seem to remember that I used C shape chords. But last night I realized the signature lick doesn't work in C (and seems to only work in D ... but then leaves me with the minor chord being Dm. Awkward and kinda fussy). We play it in G. We really don't try to duplicate any particular licks from their recording; we just do our own thing with it. |
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Post by Russell Letson on Aug 10, 2023 9:00:24 GMT -5
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Post by drlj on Aug 10, 2023 9:10:14 GMT -5
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Post by millring on Aug 10, 2023 10:41:42 GMT -5
Once the first lead singer changed the count, they all followed suit.
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Post by John B on Aug 10, 2023 11:08:15 GMT -5
An anecdote about Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm: In 1975 Robbie went to Levon and suggested it was time to quit drinking and drugs, because it was “taking a toll on our health, and on the collective health of The Band.” Helm’s existential reply was, “I’m a musician; I’m not in it for my health.” Then he expounds, “If I wanted to live a healthy life I would have become a pastor.”
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Post by Cornflake on Aug 10, 2023 12:19:23 GMT -5
"Once the first lead singer changed the count, they all followed suit."
It wasn't accidental. Nothing they did was.
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Post by t-bob on Aug 10, 2023 14:26:19 GMT -5
Russ I had thread early - The Weight. We have two of them. ;-) |
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