Push Admin

Article (news)

Robbie Robertson of The Band dies at 80

Agence France Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Robbie Robertson attends the " Were="" Brothers:="" Robbie="" Robertson="" and="" the="" press="" conference="" during="" Toronto="" International="" Film="" Festival="" at="" TIFF="" Bell="" Lightbox="" in="" on="" September="" Kevin="" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/afp/08/10/robbie-robertson-afp-08102023.jpg"/><figcaption>Robbie Robertson attends the &quot;Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band&quot; press conference during the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival at TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on September 05, 2019. Kevin Winter, AFP</figcaption></figure></div>NEW YORK, United States - Robbie Robertson, guitarist and main songwriter of the seminal rock group The Band, has died, his manager said in a statement. He was 80 years old.As the ringleader of the Canadian-American group, Robertson penned The Band&#x27;s most iconic songs including &quot;The Weight,&quot; &quot;The Night They Drove Ol&#x27; Dixie Down&quot; and &quot;Up On Cripple Creek.&quot;His manager said in a statement Robertson was surrounded by family at the time of his death, which followed &quot;a long illness.&quot;Prior to his work and leadership with The Band, Robertson was a key collaborator with none other than Bob Dylan, touring with him and playing on the album &quot;Blonde on Blonde.&quot;Born July 5, 1943 in Toronto, Canada with both Mohawk and Jewish roots, Robertson worked on traveling carnivals in his early teenage years, before joining, and starting a variety of bands.&quot;I&#x27;ve been playing guitar for so long I can&#x27;t remember when I started,&quot; he told Rolling Stone magazine in 1968. &quot;I guess I got into rock and roll like everybody else.&quot;He joined the backing band of Ronnie Hawkins, a rockabilly star, when he was just 16, where he eventually met fellow musicians Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel and Levon Helm.The group formed a strong bond, and they became Dylan&#x27;s backing band in the mid-1960s for his infamous first electric tour.They also played with the icon on his much-bootlegged &quot;basement tapes.&quot;<div>&#x27;The Last Waltz&#x27;</div>After several name changes, the musicians became known as The Band.Robertson&#x27;s history-minded compositions were masterful yarns that evoked the wilds of America and the characters who colored them, and in particular focused on the American South.&quot;The Weight&quot; is a regular on all-time greatest songs lists. A folk tune with country and gospel elements as well as Biblical allusion, it&#x27;s considered a classic of the American songbook.The group played Woodstock and cut a string of albums including &quot;Music from Big Pink,&quot; &quot;The Band&quot; and &quot;Cahoots.&quot;The Band split up in 1976 with a farewell concert in San Francisco, immortalized on film by director Martin Scorsese in &quot;The Last Waltz.&quot;The film, theatrically released in 1978, has become known as a critically acclaimed pioneering rock documentary.It also ushered in Robertson&#x27;s longtime collaboration and friendship with Scorsese, who hired the guitarist as a musical supervisor on a string of his films including &quot;Casino&quot; and &quot;Gangs of New York.&quot;At the time of his death Robertson had been working on a follow-up to his memoir &quot;Testimony,&quot; and had just completed scoring Scorsese&#x27;s &quot;Killers of The Flower Moon&quot; which is set for release this fall.Hailing his friend as &quot;a giant,&quot; Scorsese called Robertson &quot;a constant in my life and work.&quot;&quot;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. The Band&#x27;s music, and Robbie&#x27;s own later solo music, seemed to come from the deepest place at the heart of this continent, its traditions and tragedies and joys,&quot; Scorsese said in a statement.&quot;His effect on the art form was profound and lasting.&quot;Robertson didn&#x27;t tour again after &quot;The Last Waltz&quot; but did release a string of solo albums starting in 1987, when he dropped &quot;Robbie Robertson.&quot;He remained a beloved figure of American rock and folk, both for his guitar chops and his poetry.&quot;I thought of a couple of words that led to a couple more,&quot; he told Rolling Stone in 1969, asked how he penned the classic &quot;The Weight.&quot;&quot;The next thing I know I wrote the song,&quot; Robertson continued. &quot;We just figured it was a simple song, and when it came up we gave it a try and recorded it three or four times.&quot;&quot;We didn&#x27;t even know if we were going to use it.&quot;

Robbie Robertson, guitarist and main songwriter of the seminal rock group The Band, has died, his manager said in a statement. He was 80 years old.