Did Robbie Robertson take too much credit?

Richard's point about substance abuse is a good one. I don't know the detailed history, but there's no doubt that drugs and creativity don't always mix well - there may be a brief honeymoon period, but it's a rare group that can keep it all together when there's lots of smokin and snortin going on. There were scenes in tthe Last Waltz where Robbie looked pretty out of it.... Having said that, drugs were part of rock and were maybe in the Band's case more of a symptom rather than a cause of disharmony.

BTW, anyone seen the doumentary on Robbie that was produced some years ago? It focuses very much on his background and music, with reference to the other members of the band. Quite funny were his recollections of living with Martin Scorsese...

 

Mike's actual claim - undisputed, he's always had writing credit for it - is that it was his idea to mimic the bass line with lyrics. He wrote "I'm pickin up good vibrations, she's giving me.. etc". Until then the song really had no hook, one of the reasons Wilson struggled with it for six months of recording.

 

Actually it was Robby Krieger's Tell All the People that Jim didn't want his name attached to. I can't say I blame him.

 

I'm with the others that count themselves as big Band/Robertson fans that want to stick their heads in the sand and "trust the art, not the artist". At this late date, who knows what the truth is. And personally, I am just put off by Robertson's hubris...no problem if I never read/here another word out of his mouth as long as I have the Band's classic albums and his own solo work to enjoy. The last straw was a long time ago - I remember when he was being interviewed about his influences and he proceeded to explain that there once was an album called the "Best of Muddy Waters", as if he was the only one on earth hip to the power of the blues...

 

Check out his playing on John Hammond's 1965 Vanguard album So Many Roads. On this recording he really burns up the strings. Levon is featured on drums, with Garth on Hammond B-3 and Mike Bloomfield relegated to piano. Cisco Records recently reissued an 180-gram LP version of this classic that was cut by Kevin Gray and it sounds incredible! I've also got both stereo and mono Vanguard LP pressings, as well as the CD version, but the Cisco LP beats them all.

 

To be fair to Levon, he says ALL the members deserve what he considers their fair share of the songwriting, not just himself. And he frequently emphasizes that Garth in particular was the one who contributed the most to arranging/altering the songs from Robbie's original conception. As far as I know, Garth has never commented publicly on his opinion about the songwriting royalties issue.

 

It all starts with the original song writer and HIS idea. Without that seed, nothing happens. Levon needed to plant a few seeds.

 

Robertson remains a BSer of the highest order. His commentary on the Last Waltz DVD is virtually nothing but hot air, and often garbled hot air at that ("pivotable"?). The alternate commentary track with Ronnie Hawkins, Jay Cocks, et al., is where the meat's at.

Getting back to the credit issue, though, I have to cut Robertson some slack because after 1970, the full writing burden did fall to him. By then, Manuel had simply run out of songs. He knew it, he acknowledged it, and realized he had little choice but to hand the writing reins to Robertson.

 

After seeing The Last Waltz for the first time at the preview screening, Ronnie Hawkins is said to have commented "Was Richard still in the group when we did this?"

 

Has anyone else seen "Eat The Document", the unreleased documentary of Bob Dylan's 1966 tour of England with The Band? Although musically groundbreaking and brilliant, these cats were young young young, and not in a good way. Boorish, childish and dopey, and the worst is Robertson. My wife loves Robbie R's looks, always has, but after this movie she said "what a goober..." PS I know this is a cheap shot and almost completely irrelevant but....

 

They showed it at the Radio and Television Museum in Beverly Hills. I think you can still see it there (you "check out" what you want to watch and they show it in a screening booth).

 

I'm happily ignorant of the feuding and statements back and forth (as also with the Fogartys) and find his first two solo albums among the most enjoyable ever. 'Storyville' makes me feel happy every time I hear it, especially 'Night Parade.' And the instrumental song that opens the Native Americans album has got to be one of the most beautiful haunting songs ever. He also collaborated on a very good remix of 'I Have the Touch' with Peter Gabriel on the 'Phenomenon' OST.

P.S. Robertson also quotes a riff from a Band song on 'Soapbox Preacher' on Storyville, but I've never been able to figure out which Band song it comes from.

 

Sadly, the answer to that is "just barely." He looks like a ghost of his former self.