Robbie Robertson Death: Robbie Robertson, a guitarist, songwriter, and singer who helped the Band achieve rock prominence in the 1970s and collaborated extensively with Bob Dylan and Martin Scorsese, has died. He was 80 years old.
Robbie Robertson Death
According to a statement released by his management, Robertson died in Los Angeles on Wednesday following a protracted illness.
Robertson’s manager of 34 years, Jared Levine, stated in a statement, “Robbie was surrounded by his family at the time of his death, including his wife, Janet, his ex-wife, Dominique, her partner Nicholas, and his children Alexandra, Sebastian, Delphine, and Delphine’s partner, Kenny.”
Angelica, Donovan, Dominic, Gabriel, and Seraphina, his grandchildren, will carry on his legacy. This is Robertson and Scorsese’s thirteenth film together, and they’ve collaborated for a long time on ‘Killers of the Flower Moon.’ In lieu of flowers, a new Woodland Cultural Centre for the Six Nations of the Grand River has been constructed as the family’s preferred memorial.
Robbie Robertson’s Childhood
One-half Mohawk, one-half Cayuga (a Native American tribe from the state of New York), and one-quarter Jewish. Jaime Royal Robertson was born in Toronto on July 5, 1943. His biological father and he never had the opportunity to meet. During the vacations, he would visit the Six Nations of the Grand River reservation where his mother grew up.
When Robertson was 15 years old, his band opened for Hawkins in a Toronto pub. Robertson overheard Hawkins tell his band that he needed new tracks, so he wrote “Someone Like You” and “Hey Boba Lu” that night and gave them to Hawkins the next day; Hawkins recorded both. Soon after Robbie Robertson joined Hawkins’ ensemble, Levon Helm was already a member.
The Band and its Legacy: With Bob Dylan and After
Following their split with Hawkins, Robertson and the others decided to accompany Bob Dylan on his 1965 U.S. tour and 1966 world tour. During Dylan’s May 1966 performance in England, an audience member shouted “Judas!” in protest of his adoption of electronic music.
After his catastrophic motorbike accident later that year, Dylan found solace in the Woodstock region, where The Band made their home shortly thereafter. During this period, songs such as “Tears of Rage” and “I Shall Be Released” for the forthcoming album “The Basement Tapes” were written and recorded. In 2014, a comprehensive six-disc set of a 1975 album was made available.
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Dylan insisted that The Band record an album, and the results are timeless: “Music from Big Pink” and “The Band,” both released in the late 1960s. Included on “Music from Big Pink” was Robertson’s “The Weight.” Robertson contributed six compositions to the 1969 follow-up album “The Band,” to which he contributed. Included in these tracks were “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and “Up On Cripple Creek.”
In his 2016 autobiography, “Testimony,” Robertson recalls playing “Music from Big Pink” for Bob Dylan. After every performance, Bob gave ‘his’ band an approving glance. He exclaimed, “This is fantastic,” as “The Weight” began to play. Who created the music? I, I responded. He struck my arm, shook his head, and exclaimed, “Damn!” Did you compose the song?
From Woodstock to ‘The Last Waltz’: Robertson and the Band
The Band’s 1969 performance at the Woodstock festival, not far from where they lived, earned them a spot on the cover of Time magazine. Robertson organised The Band’s retirement concert, The Last Waltz, which they performed after more than a decade together.
Martin Scorsese filmed Dylan, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Muddy Waters, and many others at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom in 1978 for his documentary “The Last Waltz,” which premiered that year.
In the aftermath of “The Last Waltz,” Robertson and Helm’s relationship began to deteriorate. In his 1993 biography “Wheel on Fire,” Helm accused Robertson of avarice and inflated ego and noted that Robertson had acquired proprietorship of the band’s song collection. Robertson stated that he became the group’s leader because, with the exception of Hudson, everyone else was too impaired by substance misuse to make decisions.
Scorsese’s films “The Colour of Money,” “The King of Comedy,” “The Departed,” and “The Irishman” were instrumental in launching Robertson’s distinguished career as a composer. The history of The Band will be the subject of a 2020 documentary titled “Once Were Brothers,” which Scorsese will executive produce.
1976’s “Beautiful Noise” by Neil Diamond was produced by Robertson, who also enjoyed solo success. His inaugural solo album, “Robbie Robertson,” released in 1987, featured Bono, Peter Gabriel, Maria McKee, Garth Hudson, and Rick Danko of The Band, among others, and was certified gold. The albums “Contact from the Underworld of Redboy” and “Music for the Native Americans” delved deeper into his history.
The Band, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, have been covered by artists as divergent as Aretha Franklin, Joan Baez, and the Staple Singers, and their influence can be felt throughout many generations.
Robertson stated in a 2020 interview with Dan Rather that the band “put it all in this big pot, stirred it up, and when we released it, people were like, ‘What is that?'” And I explained what it is: for years, musicians have congregated in the woods to practise their craft.
