Bob Dylan has played with a lot of great electric guitarists, starting in 1965 with Mike Bloomfield at Newport. For his subsequent tours, Bob has used Charlie Sexton, G.E. Smith, Fred Tackett, Stu Kimball, Mick Taylor and Larry Campbell. Dylan’s current two-guitar backing band features Bob Britt and Doug Lancio. Fine players, all.
One stands alone in Dylan history: Robbie Robertson was the first electric guitarist to tour with Bob for any length of time and would be with him during some of Dylan’s most interesting years.
Robertson became the centerpiece of a quintet known simply as the Band. Their first two albums are now seen as genre-crossing high points of the rock era. These records include Robbie Robertson compositions that are like no others in popular music—songs like “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and “Up on Cripple Creek.”
I sort of came in through the Band’s back door: The first record of theirs I owned was the single “Up on Cripple Creek.” I bought it partly because the song wasn’t getting a lot of radio play, and I wanted to hear it. I liked its funky feel. The flip side of this single was “The Weight.” Talk about getting your money’s worth!
Oddly enough, the first Band album I bought was a collection of old songs that they didn’t even write. The Band had enjoyed great success, releasing four studio records of original material. But now their songwriting pens were running dry. In 1972, they put out the live Rock of Ages album. Excellent as it was, this record did what all live albums do: It reflected on past glories. Next came Moondog Matinee, a batch of old songs that had influenced them.
Tribute records like this are commonplace now, but at the time a collection of oldies was a red flag signaling trouble for a group, especially following a live release. The songs were well played, of course, as these guys had probably pounded through Fats Domino’s “I’m Ready” and Elvis Presley’s “Mystery Train” in a thousand clubs before the “fortune and fame” arrived that Robertson writes about in his song “Stage Fright.”
Moondog Matinee did serve the purpose of educating the group’s younger listeners, such as me, about their roots. Even so, it was a holding pattern album, and I never played it much. After this, the Band did release some fine songs, including “Ophelia,” “It Makes No Difference,” and “Acadian Driftwood.” But nothing like the startlingly fresh material on their first two albums was ever heard from them again.
To be honest, that’s about all I have to say about the Band’s music. I always liked them fine but was more interested in their connection to Bob Dylan. What follows are thoughts about the Band’s role as Bob’s backing group, and especially Robbie Robertson’s time as Dylan’s guitarist:
After Bob Dylan famously “went electric” at the Newport Folk Festival of 1965, he needed his own musicians if he were to continue playing with a group. John Hammond Jr., suggested some players he had recently worked with. Around this same time, the secretary for Dylan’s manager gushed to Bob that he needed to see a local Toronto group called the Hawks. Turns out these were the same people that Hammond was talking about. Dylan too was impressed.
Bob first hired Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm, and eventually the entire Hawks quintet. Dylan played a series of dates in North American in late 1965 and early 1966, splitting his concerts into two sections: a solo acoustic set followed by one with his new, electric backing group. Most audiences were resistant to the latter.
The Band’s life on the road with Bob Dylan could not have been easy. They were using drums and amplifiers to accompany the world’s premiere folk artist. We don’t know a lot about those fall 1965 gigs in the United States. We do know that Helm temporarily quit after about a month, not willing to “play sideman to no folkie,” as he put it, and was reportedly unnerved by the audience’s relentless abuse at every show. Like his bandmates, Helm was accustomed to applause – not derision.
Some of the U.S. dates were recorded by fans in the audience, but the more well documented part of this era comes from the European leg of the tour. Most of these 1966 concerts were recorded from the soundboard, and many confirm the audience’s hostility towards Bob’s move to electric music. These audio tapes portray an unflappable Bob Dylan giving the audience exactly what it doesn’t want—an electric set of his music.
Besides Bob himself, the focal point of the audience’s irritation must have been Robbie Robertson’s electric guitar. Robertson’s style was aggressive, as he ripped the solos from his instrument. His playing was always appropriate, but each note was clearly delineated. His guitar was usually mixed as loud as Bob’s voice, which was undoubtedly the way Dylan wanted it. This was the tour where Bob was famously accused of being “Judas” by a member of the audience. If Dylan was Judas to folk music, then Robertson was a collaborating Chief Priest.
Following this European tour, Dylan was involved in a motorcycle mishap near his home in upstate New York. The nature of the July 1966 accident and the extent of Bob’s injuries have always been murky, but the accident was severe enough for Dylan to cancel any further live dates. By early 1967, Dylan had written a batch of new songs and called on the Band to help record them. They gathered in the relaxed setting of a basement in a house known as Big Pink, which can be seen on the cover of the Band’s first album.
Thanks to organist Garth Hudson acting as engineer, hours of recordings were made of these often impromptu sessions. They include newly written Dylan songs like “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” and “I Shall Be Released.” The group also ran through a variety of older numbers that Bob felt like singing—things as diverse as Hank Snow’s “I Don’t Hurt Anymore,” the Fleetwoods’ “Mr. Blue,” and Elvis Presley’s “A Fool Such as I.”
Robbie Robertson once said that through some of these songs, “Bob was educating us a little.” Robertson added that he learned a lot from playing these unfamiliar songs and by watching Dylan work. Robertson credited this era with helping his own songwriting.
The Basement Tapes demonstrate how the group was able to follow whatever music Bob calls up. Robertson’s piercing electric lines from the 1966 concerts are gone, but his guitar is prominent throughout the six discs of material released from these sessions. The box set, of course, focuses on Dylan. It’s said that a further cache of recordings exists from this period that don’t involve Bob; that is, the Band performing on their own. This seems likely, since a handful of solo Band songs appear on Columbia Records’ 1975 double album of The Basement Tapes. If there is more unreleased solo Band material from these sessions, none of it has surfaced.
The backstory of The Basement Tapes and their belated release is a complex one, but it’s thought that the bulk of this material was recorded in the summer of 1967. In January 1968, the Band backed Dylan for three songs at Carnegie Hall. Woody Guthrie had died the previous October and an all-star memorial was organized. Dylan agreed to perform and brought the Band with him. Anticipation was high since this was Bob’s first public appearance since his motorcycle accident.
Bob Dylan made interesting choices, pulling songs from deep in the Guthrie canon. Of special interest for fans of Robertson’s guitar work is “The Grand Coulee Dam,” one of the songs Woody wrote as part of his Columbia River Ballad series. Robertson peeled off fiery licks as Bob sang praises for the new dam. Dylan also performed the better known “I Ain’t Got No Home” plus the extremely deep catalog Woody Guthrie song “Dear Mrs. Roosevelt,” a plea for a widow to realize how much good her husband accomplished.
After this January 1968 appearance with Bob, the Band continued to record their own Music from Big Pink album, which was released in July. The following year, after the success of that album, they began to give concerts on their own as the Band. Robbie Robertson is now commonly cited as the Band’s leader, but this was not always the case. This quintet had once been a collective.
When the Band played San Francisco’s Winterland music hall in early 1969, patrons couldn’t decide who was in charge. Vocals and featured songs were evenly shared. It was only later did people begin to think of the Band as Robertson’s group. This did not sit well with some of his colleagues, especially Levon Helm.
In May 1969, Dylan again summoned the Band for assistance. Johnny Cash was taping a summer variety series for ABC television and asked Bob to appear on the premiere episode. The most famous performance from this show is the Cash/Dylan acoustic duet of “Girl from the North Country.” But Bob also performs two songs backed by the Band — “I Threw It All Away” and “Living the Blues.” The Band is offstage and out of sight for these songs, but their accompaniment is heard clearly and fits perfectly. The ballad “I Threw It All Away” takes on greater pathos than on the album, and “Living the Blues” becomes a carefree romp. Like the Woody Guthrie Memorial the previous year, these recordings demonstrate the Band’s diverse abilities as accompanists.
The year 1969 was important for Robertson and the Band in another way. The movie Easy Rider had used the Band’s recording of Robertson’s composition “The Weight” in the film, giving the song a great deal of exposure. For the movie’s soundtrack album, though, the song could not be licensed. One story tells of the Band being shown a rough cut of the movie. They liked it but wanted the producers to remove all the music already chosen for the film and hire them to provide the entire soundtrack.
This didn’t happen, and the Band’s version of the song was not used on the record. Instead, a cover version of “The Weight” by a group called Smith appears on the best-selling Easy Rider soundtrack, giving the song an even larger audience. By the way – the group Smith should not be confused with the later band, the Smiths.
After the Johnny Cash taping, the Band continued to tour throughout 1969. They appeared at Woodstock that August. The Band’s performance was not used in the movie or on the soundtrack album. Robertson later said it had not been an especially good gig. He described the Band’s set as being surrounded by heavy groups; they followed Ten Years After and preceded Johnny Winter. “We came off like choir boys,” he said.
Bob Dylan did not perform at Woodstock, but he agreed to participate in the Isle of Wight Festival, held just weeks later. Dylan took the Band with him to England, where they played their own set and later backed Bob on his. Dylan’s Isle of Wight performance is noteworthy for being the only full concert where Bob used his Nashville Skyline voice – think “Lay, Lady, Lay.” This concert is also interesting for the song selection, with unexpected material like “Wild Mountain Thyme” and “Minstrel Boy,” the performance of which would soon be released on Bob’s odd Self Portrait album. As always, Robertson and the Band rose to the occasion of backing Dylan successfully, even here at his loosest.
In the fall of 1973, Dylan used the Band to record his new album, Planet Waves. It is primarily remembered today for including the song “Forever Young.” Twice, in fact. In November, it was announced that Dylan and the Band would go on the road for six-weeks to play 40 dates.
This 1974 tour was the first time that people of my generation had the opportunity to attend a Dylan concert. I was able to see the tour on its second night, in Chicago. I loved it and have written about it elsewhere. Robbie Robertson was not the reason I was in Chicago that night, but I remember thinking that the Band was kicking hard, and that Robbie was playing some hot leads, using his choked-neck guitar style to great effect. His searing guitar lines can be heard on the live album from this tour, Before the Flood.
In most ways, the 1974 concerts were an extension of Bob and the Band’s 1966 shows. One difference between the tours was the inclusion of the two solo sets by the Band at each concert. The much bigger difference was that this time — as the musicians themselves pointed out — nobody was booing or heckling. It had been less than eight years since Bob and the Band’s contentious 1966 concerts, but now the musicians were being welcomed as heroes. Bob Dylan was playing a lot of the same songs, and in the same way he did in 1966 – but now there was only cheering. Had the audience simply caught up?
Some felt in retrospect that these shows were too slick. My friend, the late Texas music scholar Tony Davidson lamented that Bob chose not to tour with the Band after the Isle of Wight performance. He felt that some 1970 concerts could have recreated the feel of The Basement Tape sessions. Bob may have agreed with Tony, for at the conclusion of the 1974 tour, Dylan expressed dissatisfaction. He felt he was playing a star role more than making music. Dylan tired of people praising the “energy” of the concerts. Hard driving energy is something the Isle of Wight performance could not be accused of.
After the 1974 tour, Dylan recorded Blood on the Tracks and, in 1975, formed the Rolling Thunder Review. The Band played their own concerts during this time and continued to record albums. By 1976, group members were each struggling with various demons and no longer got along. Robertson decided to stop touring. The Band agreed to split-up but wanted to end their partnership in a memorable way.
They decided to stage a final concert in San Francisco, calling it The Last Waltz. They invited various guest musicians who had some connection to their legacy to perform with them. The Band served as the backing group for Van Morrison, Bobby Charles, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters, Dr. John, Ronnie Hawkins, Paul Butterfield and Bob Dylan.
As the Martin Scorsese film of the concert shows, all members of the Band were healthy and in fine form. Robertson’s guitar was often incendiary. His instrumental duel with Eric Clapton on “Further on Up the Road” is a highlight, especially when a guitar-strap malfunction forces some unplanned improvisation. Van Morrison’s impressive set makes us remember why we tolerate some of his nonsense.
I said earlier that the Band was a group of accomplished accompanists. They never proved this more convincingly than at The Last Waltz. Some of their guests were not bringing normal tunes with blues structure to the party. Joni Mitchell sang challenging music from her Hejira album. I’m sure the Band had to rehearse hard to prepare for this show. Both the album and the film hold up well today, almost 50 years after the event.
Dylan was the final guest to appear at The Last Waltz concert. His set summarized both of his tours with the Band. He lead them through “Baby Let Me Follow You Down” and “I Don’t Believe You,” both staples of the 1966 shows; “Forever Young” represented the 1974 tour. Dylan also called up the song “Hazel,” from Planet Waves. I’m convinced Bob is just messing with them here. Yes, Bob recorded the song with these guys, but it was never in any set list of a 1974 show. Right to the end, Bob was still reminding them who is calling the shots.
But wait. When listing The Last Waltz’s guest performers, I left one out. Neil Diamond was also there, and he too performed with the Band. This was a head scratcher for many. Some wondered if Diamond was cool enough to even be in the audience for this gala. But his connection was solid and recent: Those head scratchers didn’t know that a few months before this 1976 farewell concert Diamond had released an album called Beautiful Noise. The record was produced by Robbie Robertson.
The LP was seen as a comeback and simultaneously as a departure for Diamond. The comeback was the three hit singles the album charted; the departure was the instrumentation and arrangements that Robertson used on the songs. The Band does not appear on this Diamond album, but Robbie plays guitar on some tracks and Garth Hudson’s accordion is heard on a carnival-themed song. It’s rare for a major artist to give album cover credit to a producer, but on the front of Beautiful Noise, Robbie Robertson’s name is almost as prominent as the performer’s. Neil must have been happy with the record.
Following The Last Waltz, the Band was finished, at least as far as Robertson was concerned. After a few years hiatus, the other members of the group reconvened without Robertson for more studio albums and some road work. Robbie continued to produce other musicians’ projects and to write movie scores He released a few solo albums which he had clearly put some effort into, but I can’t pretend that I know them well. I didn’t try to keep track of him after the Band split, but I wished him well.
As I said at the beginning of this piece, my real interest in Robertson was his relationship with Bob Dylan. With that in mind, it seemed to me that if Robbie were ever going to join his former colleagues in a Band reunion it would have been at Dylan’s 30th anniversary event held in 1991 at Madison Square Garden – what Neil Young dubbed “Bobfest.” But Robbie wasn’t there. It could be argued that the Band wasn’t there either: The three surviving members almost appeared as specters of what they had been. Robertson did attend 1994’s Rock & Roll induction ceremony for the Band, but there were no subsequent appearances with his old colleagues.
I was glad that Dylan and Robertson appeared to remain on good terms. Dylan’s respectful eulogy after the guitarist’s death seemed to reinforce this. In a 2020 interview with Rolling Stone, Robertson talked about how Bob had asked him to play on the sessions that would result in Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways album. Robbie told Dylan that he would love to work on his new album but was swamped with various projects — a solo album of his own and the score for Scorsese’s film The Irishman. Robertson felt he had to say no. To Bob Dylan. Priorities, Robbie!
I know this essay is as much about Bob Dylan as it is about Robbie Robertson. Perhaps I should have written more about the competitive nature of the Band’s individual members or how fame fractured their creative and collegial beginnings. I could have assessed Robertson’s solo albums. But I think I’ll leave that for others. Robbie Robertson won’t be remembered for group infighting, nor for his solo work or film scores. He will be remembered for his musical contributions to the Band and his work with Bob Dylan.
For me, Robertson’s life is noteworthy because he was the first electric guitarist to tour with Dylan. Robbie Robertson’s death is unsettling because I am again reminded that he won’t be the last musician from this era we must soon lose.
- ‘Cold War Country,’ by Joseph M. Thompson: Books - December 2, 2024
- Acknowledging an Influence? Or Grounds for a Lawsuit? - August 9, 2024
- Dickey Betts’ Star Rose as the Allman Brothers Band Grieved - April 19, 2024
