It's hard to think of a group from the last 50 years who have written and performed more influential Rock and Roots music, and who fewer people know by name than "The Band". I just don't get it. I guess part of the answer is the fact that they pretty much dropped off the map completely after "The Last Waltz" in 1976.

I've mentioned to several friends over the past couple of days just how saddened I was by Levon's death, and the inevitable response is "Who?".

But everybody knows the music. Maybe that's enough.

As for Levon- he's on his way to Venus to meet his son Jesus.

This is from the fantastic concert film "The Last Waltz".

In reply to this comment by therealblankman:
@aniatario- Yup, definitely has a reputation as an asshole. As for "stealing" the rights to the music, well he's the songwriter for most of it and that's where the rights to revenues lies. That said the tracks that the band recorded were very collaborative, so he could have chosen to be more equitable, but chose not to. They worked together for over 20 years and by not sharing Robbie alienated himself from the rest of The Band, especially Levon Helm. So yeah... an asshole.

@rougy- During the editing process for The Last Waltz Scorsese and Robertson lived together and consumed copious quantities of drugs. I guess Scorsese was the typical New York hopped-up cokehead, and Robertson definitely seemed to be more of a mellow stoner.

Side note: Just read on Wikipedia that Elton John's song "Levon" was written as a tribute to Levon Helm, the drummer from The Band. Interesting.

wow man.
the next time i find a good robbie robertson vid ill send it your way to post.
you know waaay more about him and the band than i do,for real.
i learned more about him just by your comments..very awesome my man.

@aniatario- Yup, definitely has a reputation as an asshole. As for "stealing" the rights to the music, well he's the songwriter for most of it and that's where the rights to revenues lies. That said the tracks that the band recorded were very collaborative, so he could have chosen to be more equitable, but chose not to. They worked together for over 20 years and by not sharing Robbie alienated himself from the rest of The Band, especially Levon Helm. So yeah... an asshole.

@rougy- During the editing process for The Last Waltz Scorsese and Robertson lived together and consumed copious quantities of drugs. I guess Scorsese was the typical New York hopped-up cokehead, and Robertson definitely seemed to be more of a mellow stoner.

Side note: Just read on Wikipedia that Elton John's song "Levon" was written as a tribute to Levon Helm, the drummer from The Band. Interesting.

@therealblankman:

"...you've got to check out "The Last Waltz" from Martin Scorsese- probably the best live concert ever captured on film."

Saw that years ago with some friends. Loved it. Great show all around, but there's a scene where Robertson and Scorsese are having a talk that was just priceless. Scorsese is interviewing Robertson. Scorsese talks really fast, typical New Yorker, asks a question and can't shut up long enough to hear the answer. Robertson talks pretty slowly. And I can't remember what Scorsese said, but it sort of implied how slow Robertson was.

Well, there was a fly buzzing around Robertson when Scorsese said that, and Robertson caught it in mid-flight and tossed it on the table between him and Scorsese.

That's how I remember it, anyway.

Robertson is a legend. Oddly, for one who has made such a huge contribution to American music he seems to be known by name to only a few, but everrybody knows his music. I mean just hum a few bars of "The Weight" or "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" or "Up on Cripple Creek" and all of a sudden people go "Oh... yeah I know that one". The guy is a monster guitar player and one of the best American songwriters of the 20th century. The contributions that he has made, along with the rest of The Band can't be overstated, and don't forget that when people talk about Dylan going electric- this was the guy who was his chief collaborator. *quality stuff.

He's probably also one of the worst singers in the world. The Band released 9 LPs with Robertson writing the majority of the material, but he only sang on 2 tracks in total. When the group performed live his microphone was usually turned off or was so low as to be inaudible. The Band played the Woodstock festival, but their set is nowhere to be seen in the movie- the rumour as to why is that Robbie's mic was live and the whole set was ruined.

This track is from his last album, released in 1998- an eternity in rock and roll years. I met Robbie at a book-signing in TO and asked him about any upcoming solo projects, he said he had something in the works- this was about 4 years ago. Takes him a long time to come up with new material I guess- he's only released 4 solo albums since The Band's last LP in 1977. Wikipedia says he's got a project in the works with Clapton. I'll be there in the store on release day.

For fans of Rock, Country, Soul, Folk, Funk, Blues, Roots (am I missing anything) you've got to check out "The Last Waltz" from Martin Scorsese- probably the best live concert ever captured on film.

You have been awarded 1 Power Point for fixing the embed code for Dead Pool video Bob Dylan at The Last Waltz. Thank you for helping maintain VideoSift's reliability.

Your video, Bob Dylan at The Last Waltz, has made it into your personal Highest Rated Videos listing. Congratulations on a job well done. For you contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Thanks and fixed

In reply to this comment by gwiz665:
Was removed by user *dead

My spider sense is telling me you'll like this vid http://www.videosift.com/video/I-Shall-Be-Released-The-Last-Waltz

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Coyote, Joni, Mitchell, live, music' to 'Coyote, Joni, Mitchell, live, music, last waltz, the band, 70s, 1976' - edited by rasch187

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Neil Young, Last Waltz, The Band, 1976, 70s' to 'Neil Young, Last Waltz, The Band, Joni Mitchell, 1976, 70s' - edited by rasch187

One of my favorite songs from the Last Waltz (which is ironic because it's not from the actual performance).

Tags for this video have been changed from 'the band, staple singers, the weight, the last waltz' to 'the band, staple singers, the weight, the last waltz, Martin Scorsese' - edited by schmawy

wilco, I've seen bits and pieces as I've grown on this earth (45 times around the sun now) I'll spend some time consuming the whole concert, again thanks for posting it schmawy.

In reply to this comment by schmawy:
You're welcome. If you like The Band and and many other artists from that era, give "The Last Waltz" a watch.

In reply to this comment by sorted:
thanks for sharing this.