The Deeply-Rooted and Everlasting Influence of Robbie Robertson (RIP)

Levon Helm sang them, but Robbie Robertson wrote them. Bob Dylan wrote them, but Robbie Robertson played them. There are few men that had their fingers deeper into the wet cement that would go on to form the foundations of what we consider Americana, rock, and folk music today. That rub between American country, Southern blues, Acadian folk, and old fashioned rock and roll all came together with The Band, and with Robbie Robertson as the conductor.
It was never particularly commercially viable or popular in the conventional sense. But the songs of The Band might have been some of the most influential music ever recorded and released. This is true for multiple generations, and in a manner that still lingers into the present day. That is why it won’t just be rock fans, but fans of folk, country, Americana, and bluegrass that will mourn the death of Robbie Robertson, despite what was sometimes a complicated assessment of his legacy by his former bandmates.
Born in Toronto, Ontario on July 5th, Robbie Robertson would go on to write some of the best-known songs from The Band, including “The Weight,” “Up On Cripple Creek,” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” Though over time his guitar playing went from flashy to more subdued and introspective, Robertson was considered one of the greatest guitarists of all time, and earned praise from Jimi Hendrix. Robertson was one of the very founders of the sound that infers so much of alt-country, Americana, Red Dirt, and independent country music today.
Most anybody who knows about The Band also knows their origin story back and forth. Rockabilly legend Ronnie Hawkins first discovered Robbie Robertson at a club on Merton Street in Toronto while Robertson was playing in a band called The Suedes. Hawkins gobbled Robertson up for his backing band The Hawks. Drummer and singer Levon Helm was already with the band, and by the end of 1961, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Garth Hudson were all playing in the band too, seeding what eventually would be known as The Band.
Early Hawks guitar player Roy Buchanan was a big influence on Robertson, including perfecting the style of bending two strings at once to emulate the twang of a steel guitar, which often helped give The Band that rootsy and country sound despite their foundations in rock and roll. By 1964, Robertson and the other players had left Ronnie Hawkins and were performing as Levon and the Hawks with Levon Helm singing lead. In 1965, they played a six night stint with Conway Twitty at Tony Mart’s club on the Jersey Shore.
Shortly after the Conway Twitty gigs, Robbie Robertson got a call from Bob Dylan’s management, asking if he wanted to join Dylan’s backing band. Robertson initially refused, but eventually agreed to play a few shows as a member of a pickup band with Al Kooper and others. Eventually, a version of The Hawks sans Levon Helm were behind Dylan on a nightly basis, and stirring controversy since this was the era that “Dylan went electric,” and drew the ire of many folk purists. This also helped put Robbie Robertson and The Hawks on the national radar.
Robertson and The Hawks also started recording with Dylan, and moved with him to Upstate New York in early 1967. The Hawks rented a house in West Saugerties, New York with pink siding that went on to be affectionately known as “Big Pink.” It was inside that house that The Band would take form, codified when former Hawks drummer/singer Levon Helm rejoined them. Big Pink would later give birth to Bob Dylan’s The Basement Tapes, and the debut album from The Band, Music From Big Pink.
The legacy of Robbie Robertson and The Band became one of shirking conventional commercial interests, and releasing what on the surface was rather fey, slow, eclectic, but inventive and ultimately influential music. When you think that the first song the public heard on Music From Big Pink was the slow and droning “Tears of Rage,” it really helps put in perspective just how different The Band was trying to be.
By melding together so many roots music influences, The Band pioneered what would become “Americana” today. It was too country for rock, to rock for country, with a folk-inspired heart, and even elements of ragtime and Cajun mixed in. Unlike the rest of The Band, Levon Helm was originally from Arkansas. Robbie Robertson used this to specifically write songs that would work well from Levon’s perspective, and fit well with his Southern twang. That is how a Canadian ended up penning the mournful and iconic “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.”
Despite the courtesies Robbie Robertson extended to Helm in the writing, he didn’t always extend those courtesies by giving his fellow Band members writing credits when they contributed meaningful portions to the songs. With Robertson receiving the majority of the royalties from The Band’s catalog, this began to cause friction within the group. In a 1993 biography, Levon Helm was outspoken about how he felt The Band’s songs were more true collaborations, and he deserved more credit. Other members of The Band concurred.
The Band couldn’t have ended more beautifully, though. Agreeing to go their separate ways, they performed their final concert on November 25, 1976 at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, CA, with director Martin Scorsese making it into arguably one of the greatest music films of all time called The Last Waltz. Guests on the film included Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Emmylou Harris, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Wood, and Neil Young among others, speaking to the wide influence and appreciation The Band sowed in less than ten years.
The Band would reform off and on in coming years, and Robbie Robertson also had a solo career. Robertson also continued to work closely with Martin Scorsese on movie scores and soundtracks for films such as Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1983), Casino (1995), The Departed (2006), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), The Irishman (2019), and Killers of the Flower Moon to be released later in 2023.
A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, considered one of the most accomplished Canadian musicians of all time, and counted among the founding fathers of the American Roots categories of modern music, Robbie Robertson is a major loss to the music world including in country, where his influence continues.
Jaime Royal “Robbie” Robertson passed away in Los Angeles on Wednesday, August 9th, after suffering from a long illness. He was 80 years old.
Garth Hudson is now the last surviving original member of The Band.
August 9, 2023 @ 5:08 pm
Incredibly influential guitarist (and band). I wore out at two copies of their eponymous second album (the “brown” album). Definitely godfathers of Americana, their unique musicianship and vocal harmony put them in a class of their own.
August 9, 2023 @ 5:28 pm
“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” is one of the finest songs ever on disillusionment and hardiness.
August 9, 2023 @ 8:20 pm
Agree. In the past couple of years, I’ve had the Last Waltz performance of that song bookmarked on youtube and have played it many many times. It’s thought provoking, including the mention of Lee. I agree with you that “disullusionment” and “hardiness” are great words to describe it. It’s an epic tune.
August 9, 2023 @ 5:31 pm
I heard the first sentence of your article in Tim McGraw’s “Southern Voice.”
August 9, 2023 @ 5:34 pm
What a legacy-timeless contribution to rock n roll as the songs will live forever, honor the man and the legacy not the bullshit….
August 9, 2023 @ 5:50 pm
“The Last Waltz” is streaming on Tubi now.
August 9, 2023 @ 6:08 pm
Fantastic article. Learned so much. Thanks for doing what you do.
August 9, 2023 @ 6:09 pm
I just read this tonite on my cellphone whilst sitting at the local watering hole with my gal. On the way home I played two songs in Robertson’s honor, Acadian Driftwood by The Band, and Somewhere Down The Crazy River off Robbie’s solo album. He had his flaws, was an ego-maniac at times, but man what a musician and songwriter. And I agree with Country Knight that The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down was incredibly well written, and showed great understanding to people that lost everything in a war that, most sadly, they were dragged into quite reluctantly. (Talking about the little people.. the dirt farmers who really lost. Not the leaders.) Even Joan Baez of all people, recorded a well received version of it. ( And I say this having had a great-great -grandad who fought for the North…I actually have his military cap and a couple of medals and discharge papers…cool huh?)
I cant tell you exactly why I like The Band so well, but man they just had this IT factor, the songwriting, musical chops, melodies, arrangements, Levon’s voice etc. Although I never met Robertson, I DID get an opportunity to meet Garth Hudson in a little hole in the wall playing with Burrito Deluxe one night many years ago, and Sneaky Pete Kleinow was also there! I walked up to Garth before the show with a couple of older friends and the best comment I could muster was “man you played Woodstock, what was that like?” He grinned, took it in stride and with a twinkle in his eye said “I guess I did…that was a long time ago… a lot of people.” He shook our hands vigorously and seemed appreciative that we knew who he was. ( It was after all, a Flying Burrito Brothers tribute band of sorts)
August 10, 2023 @ 1:22 pm
That’s awesome that you got to meet Garth and see Sneaky Pete! SP had such an interesting style and was such a talented artist in general, definitely a unique individual!
August 10, 2023 @ 6:04 pm
Kevin Smith, I appreciated the way you put this: “He had his flaws, was an ego-maniac at times, but man what a musician and songwriter.” A gracious way to note that less pleasant aspect of his personality. Speaking of Joan Baez’s version of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, it’s always annoyed me that she gets one of the lyrics wrong, singing “when so much cavalry came and tore up the tracks again,” when the correct lyric is “when Stoneman’s cavalry came”…etc. Also, I could be mistaken, but I’m pretty sure The Band did not play Woodstock. I remember it being talked about that the great Woodstock band didn’t play there.
August 10, 2023 @ 8:39 pm
Also, she sings “I’m a working man” instead of “I will work the land.”
August 12, 2023 @ 7:08 am
She admitted later that they didn’t have the lyrics but were taking them down from a record while being stoned. Still, to me it’s one of the greatest song covers ever.
August 11, 2023 @ 3:46 am
Doug, The Band really did play Woodstock, their set consisted of 11 songs played at 10 pm on Sunday night. Some of the songs included Chest Fever, The weight, Long Black Veil and We Shall Be Released. They were unhappy with their own performance and refused to allow the recording to be in the movie or soundtrack. This is why many thought they hadn’t played Woodstock. But it’s well documented. And Garths own testimony is reliable. All jokes about ‘ remembering woodstock” aside, that’s only the most famous music fest in history, so you certainly wouldn’t forget playing it. There are archived resources online about that set. Thanks for the feedback!
August 11, 2023 @ 11:03 am
Kevin, yes, I should have checked. I did just now and they were definitely in the lineup on Day 3. Sorry. You’re undoubtedly right about their not being included on the album or in the movie helped spread the impression they weren’t there.
August 11, 2023 @ 6:57 am
Doug,
There’s audio of The Bands performance on YouTube. Here it is. Enjoy.
https://youtu.be/dypzzj6d8rU
January 1, 2024 @ 6:39 am
I was listening mostly to electric blues and psychedelic music in the late sixties and early seventies (on WABX in Detroit – a fabulous underground station lost down the rabbit hole, if one can judge by the difficulty of finding any reference to it nowadays), despite being stationed just a few miles from Motown during its heyday. And speaking of rabbit holes, the first show where I saw The Band ‐ I think at the Orpheum Theater in Detroit – with a band opening for them that I’d previously never heard of, King Crimson, does not appear in the list of shows on the Levon Helm website. Anyway, two albums about as far away from psychedelic or rock music as you could get completely blew my mind. One was Big Pink, which immediately made me a lifelong devotee of the band. When you listen to their albums, you don’t just feel like you’re listening to music. You feel like you’re entering a previously unknown world of Americana. Tangentially, it’s my belief that if American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead had been released as a double album, it could have been regarded as the greatest album of American music of all time. Also tangentially, I should mention it bothered me when I learned of Levon’s claim that Robbie controlled the editing of The Last Waltz to ensure that Robbie would appear in almost every off-stage shot. I couldn’t help thinking that’s rather disturbing if true. On a brighter note, it seems to me Robertson is one of the most underrated guitar players of all time.
The other album at the time, a million miles from rock or psychedelic, that blew my mind? Astral Weeks, the album John Laroquette said he’d want to have if trapped on a desert island. I generally don’t bother posting lengthy comments that probably hardly anyone will see, but the fine, thoughtful comments posted by others made me feel obliged.
August 9, 2023 @ 6:23 pm
“It Makes No Difference” is a favorite of mine. Sung achingly by Rick.
August 9, 2023 @ 6:33 pm
Perhaps my favorite moment in The Last Waltz is when Clapton snaps a string and Robbie shifts from rhythm to lead guitar without missing a beat and just crushes it like it was planned that way. The Band’s music is timeless, fits in with any era.
August 9, 2023 @ 7:06 pm
I’ve enjoyed the Band more than just about anybody other than the Allman Brothers. Thanks for all the contributions Robbie. I was always on the Levon side of things, as if I had to choose or it mattered, but no denying Robbie was a genuine rock star. The Band would not have been the Band without him.
August 9, 2023 @ 7:46 pm
There is much to the deep story of Robbie and the Band. Too much to list. Much stuff to read about it if one has a mind to.
But I will say that the Band was extremely influential and deserves any and all accolades. And that includes every member.
August 10, 2023 @ 11:22 am
“This Wheel’s On Fire” by Levon Helm was an eye-opener to the Band’s inner workings and the music world in general.
August 11, 2023 @ 2:27 pm
That book is a fantastic read
January 1, 2024 @ 6:55 am
It was quite shocking to learn that Richard Manuel not only committed suicide while on tour in Florida (from stadiums to bars was a step down he couldn’t handle?) , but did so in a manner that would leave his wife to discover his hanging body when she returned to their hotel room. A very sad story, and one that makes one wonder what might have been torturing him that nobody ever knew about. I know what it’s like to have secrets you want to share, but just can’t.
August 9, 2023 @ 7:47 pm
The most underrated band by the general public but very appreciated by true musicians. RIP
August 10, 2023 @ 5:18 am
I don’t know what it is about The Weight but that song is about so much more than the lyrics. I’ve heard it maybe a thousand times and every listen gives me something else.
August 10, 2023 @ 6:08 am
I won’t say that The Band is one of my favorites of the Southern/Country Rock bands of that era, but they did have some great songs like the ones you mentioned in “The Weight,” “Up On Cripple Creek,” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” These songs have remained in my southern rock playlists over the years, and there’s no doubting the influence of The Band and Robertson. RIP
August 10, 2023 @ 7:07 am
One of the most influential bands ever. Should be studied in school.
August 11, 2023 @ 5:44 am
Hey Trigger, what is your opinion of the controversy about “Dixie?” Does it honor or elevate the Confederacy? And did JRR rip off his bandmates?
I have my opinion but want to hear yours as a southerner and appreciator of Americana.
August 11, 2023 @ 7:06 am
I addressed this back in 2020:
https://savingcountrymusic.com/the-night-they-drove-old-dixie-down-needs-no-redemption/
To my knowledge, the “controversy” has not been renewed after Robertson’s death, except for maybe on social media somewhere.
August 11, 2023 @ 1:15 pm
No one should care if a song elevates the Confederacy or condemns it: only if the tune is good.
I play “Bonnie Blue Flag” and “Marching Through Georgia” back-to-back. I have a whole playlist of Civil War songs. It is amazing music.
That said, “Drove Old Dixie Down” isn’t glorifying or damning the Confederacy. It is a tale of a man left wasted by the carnage of war. The North won, the South lost, and he remains to pick up the wreckage.
January 1, 2024 @ 7:19 am
I agree with your sentiment. It’s interesting to note that nobody is complaining about the Top 40 hit of yesteryear, Johnny Reb, a song glorifying the courage of Confederate soldiers in a lost cause. Ironically, millions of Americans would probably be outraged to hear criticism of a similar song for a lost,
and equally dubious, cause decades later – TheBallad of the Green Berets.
August 10, 2023 @ 9:16 am
Growing up in upstate NY, not too far from where they recorded Music From Big Pink and Levon had his studios, I grew up hearing them and they were played on the radio then.
I don’t understand why Classic Rock stations don’t play them or bands like them or say Little Feat anymore. Its always AC/DC, Tom Petty, Journey, Ozzy, RHCP, Def Leppard, Van Halen, Queen etc. repeat. Day after day.
I guess Classic Rock radio is just as repetitive and narrow minded as country radio.
August 10, 2023 @ 12:29 pm
I was recently looking at NYC’s WAXQ’s top 1043 songs list recently and noticed that only 3 Band songs made the 2022 list – The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, The Weight and Up On Cripple Creek. Just 10 years ago you had at least 5 songs on the same list – those three plus The Shape I’m In and Stage Fright.
So many bands’ radio playlists have been whittled to one or two songs like Badfinger (Day after Day), Marshall Tucker (Can’t You See), Dire Straits (Money for Nothing, Sultans of Swing), Moody Blues (Nights in White Satin), etc. I can’t tell you the last time I heard Little Feat or Love on the radio.
The days of turning on the radio and sitting down to listen to Scott Muni in the afternoon on WNEW are long gone.
August 10, 2023 @ 2:59 pm
sadly ‘NEW has not been ‘NEW for a very long time.
Muni is only one of the irreplaceable losses.
terrestrial radio sucks
I am the entertainer
I come to do my show
You heard my latest record
It’s been on the radio
Ah, it took me years to write it
They were the best years of my life
It was a beautiful song but it ran too long
If you’re gonna have a hit you gotta make it fit
So they cut it down to 3:05
August 10, 2023 @ 5:00 pm
I remember talking to a friend of a friend who worked for a record company. This was decades ago and he said he thought the best station in NY was Z100. I said I preferred WFUV or WCBS and he said something like “they move no product.” That’s what it comes down to.
The Billy Joel song, The Entertainer, you quote is from a half century ago. Radio was so different – FM radio was much more open so you had good options beyond the tight formats on AM. I guess today we have websites like this to discover music. FWIW, early Billy Joel had a bit of twang – steel guitars (e.g. The Entertainer), fiddles, banjos, mouth harps.
August 15, 2023 @ 12:41 pm
If you’re referring to WPDH , you couldn’t be more correct. WDST will occasionally play them but I can’t deal with their activist type D.J’s .
Btw, I’m lived in Shandaken/Willow area for a long time. Nice to see someone here who is ( sort of ) a neighbor. 🙂
August 16, 2023 @ 5:27 am
If Little Feat ever got more than miniscule amounts of radio play (beyond Dixie Chicken which I think charted but not in a big way), it was probably only a regional thing and/or a passion project of a few idiosyncratic DJs.
And there are a good 15 or 20 songs of theirs which equal or surpass the (very good) Dixie Chicken in all kinds of ways. (And the sheer variety of styles visited!)
The way I see it is they were much too good for the American (or Anglospheric) ear.. which should not be read as a full-out expression of contempt because that very same ear (obv talking about the upper-middle strata now) was quite open to innovators like the guys who did Abbey Road, and to Joni Mitchell, Yes, Steely Dan, Allmans, and even Genesis & Zappa, not to mention the subject of this post, The Band.
August 10, 2023 @ 2:16 pm
When those who were part of making you into who you became pass it hits harder. Thanks for this, Trigger.
August 10, 2023 @ 2:19 pm
Trig, you might wanna add his year of birth, and then delete this comment.
August 10, 2023 @ 3:29 pm
With Robertson receiving the majority of the royalties from The Band’s catalog, this began to cause friction within the group. In a 1993 biography, Levon Helm was outspoken about how he felt The Band’s songs were more true collaborations, and he deserved more credit. Other members of The Band concurred.
It strikes me that should have been a bigger part of the stories being written eulogizing Robertson. I mean, didn’t Robertson and the band’s manager screw the other guys out of a shitload of money with him unfairly claiming the sole songwriting credits on so many of their songs?
August 10, 2023 @ 4:17 pm
First off, I come from the school that believes that when someone dies, you want to be respectful to them in an obituary, though it’s also your job to be honest in assessing their legacy. Having pretty deep knowledge of The Band and this controversy, I wouldn’t feel comfortable not at least acknowledging it. That said, I think it has remained up for debate just how much Robbie Robertson “screwed” the other members. There are songs in The Band catalog where Levon Helm and the others are given songwriting credits. The truth is Robbie Robertson probably did do the vast majority of writing. The dispute is whether the collaborative effort of bringing the songs to life in the studio should have resulted in more credits to the other band members. In country, the rule is “third for a word” where even if you change only one word, you get a full credit on a song. That’s how so many performing artists get so many credits on songs they likely had very little hand in writing. Most rock bands didn’t adhere to that rule. If someone wrote the majority of a song, it was their song. If they wrote half of it, they get half.
August 11, 2023 @ 4:08 am
To be honest, it was more of a general observation, not a slam at you, Trigger. (I know you probably didn’t think of it that way but I just wanted to put that out there.) I knew of the whole ”third for a word” thing or whatever it’s called long ago. It was just my impression from what I’ve read over the years that RR took way more credit than he should have. And even many who give him his due as probably the best songwriter in the group say that he took more credit for that than he should have. I always found it a little dubious, for example, that Levon Helm did so little on ”The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” that he didn’t deserve ANY credit for that song.
Anyhow, this was still a good writeup of the man and his influence on American music!
January 1, 2024 @ 7:04 am
“Third for a word” sounds more like you get a one-third credit for changing a word. Anyway, you might find it interesting how outrageous it is that Tim Rose got a songwriting credit ( not to mention half the royalties) for Bonnie Dobson’s song, Morning Dew.
August 11, 2023 @ 8:28 am
When God takes away a Robbie Robertson, He gives an Oliver Anthony.
August 11, 2023 @ 11:17 am
I was wondering after I heard the news if this was the same Robbie Robertson who’s done so many Scorsese film scores. What a legacy. First with The Band, then his scores for one of, if not the greatest, director of all time
August 13, 2023 @ 2:39 pm
Nice article but it repeats the most common fallacy re The Band’s song writing credits. Although J R Robertson was listed as songwriter from the earlier albums initially all the members received royalties equally. However in the proceding years each of the other 4 members sold their interests to Robbie which Robertson tried to convince them not to do in real time. The Band’s 4 men were deep into drugs and Levon and the boys used their self inflicted financial mistakes onto Robbie. Personally I love all of them but I tend not to believe the heroin addicts in any group.
January 1, 2024 @ 7:07 am
I’m confused as to how they could force Robbie to buy anything.
January 6, 2024 @ 4:15 pm
Loved his music, but it Han Acadian roots not Arcadian