@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.

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.

Wow, this is a great parody of both the folksy singer/songwriters and the entire gangsta culture... Impressive.

Not sure why you're mythin about me being a "rabid atheist." I never wade into that subject, unless it is to point out that Pat Condell is a bigoted plapf of dookie. (Pat Condell is a clam; he's exactly as big as his mouth.)

Jonny had just blew a 100 amp fuse when I dared to tell a little joke about the Grateful Dead - the most over-rated band ever:

Q: What does a Grateful Dead fan say when the LSD wears off?
A: This band sucks.

Here's a good song for when you're feeling holy. (By Canadian leftist and guitarist/songwriter extraordinaire Bruce Cockburn -- pron. Coe-burn.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFkM_R3CZvI

Not so sure they were getting along.

Taken from Wiki:
In the film Let It Be, during the Twickenham sessions in January 1969, McCartney attempts to teach the song to the rest of the band,[1] who are clearly less than enthusiastic. McCartney can be heard sniggering at 1:21 as he sings the line "... writing fifty times I must not be so ..." on the studio recording. This is sometimes rumoured to be because as McCartney sang the line "so he waits behind," Lennon mooned McCartney from the control room.

>> ^garmachi:
Now that you mention it...
I was actually so focused on how well they were getting along and enjoying the songwriting process that it never occurred to me to take the lyrics into account. Time to dust off the Beatles MP3s!

Now that you mention it...

I was actually so focused on how well they were getting along and enjoying the songwriting process that it never occurred to me to take the lyrics into account. Time to dust off the Beatles MP3s!

Love Haricot's analysis.. though what really bothers me here is the fall weather in the background. You really do need the Canadian winter to nail the original video's mood.

@spoco (there really needs to be a way to put my response BELOW the quote... is there?) - You should really hang out with more singer-songwriters to learn that... no wait, just stay away from them, to keep the peace.

>> ^spoco2:
In Morisette's own words

"For me the great debate on whether what I was saying in ‘Ironic’ was ironic wasn’t a traumatic debate. I’d always embraced the fact that every once in a while I’d be the malapropism queen. And when Glen and I were writing it, we definitely were not doggedly making sure that everything was technically ironic. It’s a testament to the fact that we didn’t think it was going to be put under the microscope by 30 million people. For me the sweetest moment came in New York when a woman came up to me in a record store and said, ‘So all those things in the “Ironic” aren’t ironic.’ And then she said, ‘And that’s the irony.’ I said, ‘Yup.’ To me it’s a real snapshot of a nineteen-year-old’s definition and version of how life worked at the time. All that ‘Ironic’ touches on spawned all my future inquiries into and current understandings of the mysteries of life."

You may be captivated by the simple formula of a cute girl-next-door who can carry a tune and play the guitar who picks a song from one of the best songwriters of the 50's to cover.
Lubbock, Texas, baby.



Here's a pop-up player with the original tune

He's always been one of my favorite artists, and not only for his outrageous chameleon-like performances. The man has such a broad range of interests and talents that it blows my mind. He's been an actor, a painter, a singer, a songwriter, and a narrator, and the worst he's been at any of them was competent.

I started out wanting to go with *Eire, decided there wouldn't be enough content, then I went ahead and made *Blues, changed it to Blues & Roots, which is where it's at now, although pending approval - but then I found out that *HipHop had an inactive manager, so I recently PM'd dag to inquire about that one.. I am a fickle fellow, it appears.

In reply to this comment by schmawy:
Nice pick Ollie! Thanks for that. Have you decided on a channel?

In reply to this comment by EndAll:
Haha, love the pie at the end.

I gotta agree with RM - fantastic songwriter, singer, storyteller in general. That last line made me smile.

*promote!

Nice pick Ollie! Thanks for that. Have you decided on a channel?

In reply to this comment by EndAll:
Haha, love the pie at the end.

I gotta agree with RM - fantastic songwriter, singer, storyteller in general. That last line made me smile.

*promote!

Haha, love the pie at the end.

I gotta agree with RM - fantastic songwriter, singer, storyteller in general. That last line made me smile.

*promote!

"I may have a ssssolution. You see, I have this special ehmmm.. sting. It's almost painless."
"Snake in the grass."
"One sting is quite enough to make you happy and free."
The scriptwriter/songwriter must have had the day of his life.

I want to know this guy's back story. He seems to have some bitterness towards musicians.

I bet he was once the lead singer/songwriter of some serious, political, prog-rock band, but grew angry at his bandmates for showing up 10-15 minutes late and constantly missing rehearsals to play paying gigs. One day in frustration at not having his bandmates available to help him demo out some songs, he bought a Casio and fell in love.

He kicked his band mates out of the band, threw away his torn jeans, white t-shirts and leather jacket, bought himself a bright yellow shirt with keyoards on it and started his career afresh. His Casio songs were completely rejected by consumers, but they did prove to be impressive tech demos. Soon he was snatched up by Casio to create instructional videos and the rest is history.

Great tune, great voice, and I admire the songwriter's (Donna Fargo's) reluctance to use the (very) obvious Girl/world rhyme. Good on her.