In memoriam to Robbie Robertson, Big O have posted, as something of a swan song for themselves* two wonderful Band concerts
This one . . . . .
The Band - Live at The Palladium, NEW YORK 1976 - Big O
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Lineup:
Robbie Robertson - guitar
Rick Danko - bass
Garth Hudson - organ
Richard Manuel - piano
Levon Helm - drums
Big O says:
ROBBIE ROBERTSON R.I.P. 1943 - 2023
Robbie Robertson, the Band’s guitarist and primary songwriter who penned “The Weight,” “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” “Up on Cripple Creek,” and many other beloved classics, died on August 9 at age 80.
Robertson’s management company confirmed the musician’s death. “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,” his longtime manager Jared Levine said in a statement. “In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to the Six Nations of the Grand River to support the building of their new cultural centre.”
The Band only lasted eight years after the release of their 1968 debut LP, Music From Big Pink, but during that time they forever changed the pop-culture landscape by releasing brilliant Americana music at the peak of the psychedelic movement. Their first album sent shockwaves through the industry, inspiring Eric Clapton to break up Cream, the Beatles to attempt their own stripped-back project with Let It Be, and a pair of young British songwriters named Elton John and Bernie Taupin to begin writing and recording their own material.
Robertson took on the role as the group’s leader, writing the majority of their songs and pushing them forward when substance abuse issues and infighting threatened their existence. It was also his decision to pull the plug on the group in 1976 when he couldn’t take it anymore, setting the stage for their legendary farewell concert The Last Waltz.
Before the Band began making their own music, Robertson was one of Bob Dylan’s key collaborators, playing guitar on Blonde on Blonde and convincing the songwriter to hire the other members of his group as his backing band. They toured the world in 1965 and 1966, facing a torrent of boos by enraged folk purists. “His friends, his advisors, and everyone told him to blow us off and start from scratch,” Robertson said in 1987. “And it took a tremendous amount of courage for him not to do that.”
By 1976, Rick Danko and Richard Manuel developed severe substance-abuse issues, and Robertson - who had effectively been on the road since 1959 - was burned out. “The road turns you into a meaningless piece of dribble that will complain about shit that doesn’t mean anything to anybody,” he said in 1987. “It got to the point where I couldn’t see the upside.”
Robertson decided that the Band should go out with a bang, so he organised a massive farewell gig at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom and invited everyone from Dylan to Neil Young to Muddy Waters and Hawkins to guest. Martin Scorsese filmed the event, which was released in 1978 under the title The Last Waltz.
Keeping the promise of The Last Waltz, Robertson never returned to touring, though he did release five solo albums beginning with 1987’s critically acclaimed Robbie Robertson. In 2016, he published the memoir Testimony, following it up in 2019 with the documentary Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band. At the time of his death, he was working on a second volume of his memoir series. - Andy Greene, rollingstone.com
Robertson had also worked alongside Martin Scorsese as a composer, music supervisor, and music producer starting in 1980 on films including “Raging Bull,” “The King of Comedy,” “The Color of Money,” “Gangs of New York,” “The Departed,” “Shutter Island,” “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Silence,” “The Irishman” and “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
Scorsese issued a statement on the death of his collaborator and friend obtained by Variety that lauded Robertson’s “effect on the art form” as “profound and lasting”. He said: “Robbie Robertson was one of my closest friends, a constant in my life and my work. I could always go to him as a confidante. A collaborator. An advisor. I tried to be the same for him. Long before we ever met, his music played a central role in my life - me and millions and millions of other people all over this world.”
Neil Diamond tweeted that the “music world lost a great one with the passing of Robbie Robertson. Keep making that Beautiful Noise in the sky, Robbie. I’ll miss you.” Canadian musician Bryan Adams reminisced on “the great hangs” he spent with Robertson, “especially photographing you in LA not so long ago.”
Stevie Van Zandt tweeted: “RIP Robbie Robertson. A good friend and a genius. The Band’s music shocked the excess out of the Renaissance and were an essential part of the final back-to-the-roots trend of ‘60s. He was an underrated brilliant guitar player adding greatly to Bob Dylan’s best tour & best album.”
and this extraordinary set from Watkins Glen SUMMER JAM on this four disc set!
SUMMER JAM - THE BAND at WATKINS GLEN FESTIVAL : Live at the Raceway, New York, July 27, 28, 1973.
This includes the Sound Check, the two disc concert and then the later Summer Jam with members of the Grateful Dead and the Allman Bros Band . . . .four discs! Enjoy!
Keyboardist Garth Hudson is 86.
Bassist, songwriter, and singer Rick Danko died of heart failure away in 1999.
He was 55.
Pianist, singer songwriter Richard Manuel committed suicide in 1986. He was 42.
Drummer Levon Helm died from complications of throat cancer in 2012. He was 71.
