Saturday matinee - Robbie Robertson

I know this post is a day early, but what the heck. Check back tomorrow and you'll see why.

Last week, I posted about The Band. This week, I'm posting about Robbie Robertson.

Robertson was lead guitarist for The Band, and exerted increasing artistic control over The Band's musical direction. When The Band broke up, Robertson went solo.

I bought his self-titled solo album when it came out, without having heard it. I bought it solely because I had been so impressed with The Band's final studio album, "Northern Lights - Southern Cross".

Boy was I impressed! "Robbie Robertson" was a real gem. The production values were amazing (not surprising - Robertson had already produced several albums for other artists), and the songs were great. Tracks included a heartfelt tribute to former Band-mate Richard Manual who committed suicide, a cautionary tale of gang violence ("Sonny Got Caught In The Moonlight"), a story that intermingled tales of James Dean, Elvis Presley, and Marilyn Monroe ("American Roulette"), and my personal favorite, "Somewhere Down That Crazy River". I can't embed it, so here's a link to the video of that.

I thought his self-titled album would be a tough act to follow, but he topped it with his next release - "Storyville", an album with tons of guest appearances (Neil Young, some of the Neville Brothers, former Band-mates Rick Danko and Garth Hudson, Bruce Hornsby, Ginger Baker, and a whole bunch of New Orleans musicians). There are no videos for this album, unfortunately.

"Storyville" was an incredible tour de force, and I listened to it a lot. Robertson (who is part Mohawk) followed it up with a soundtrack to a limited TV series called "The Native Americans". Robertson produced and sang and played on some tracks. Here's a video of "Ghost Dance":

Saturday matinee - The Band

I became a fan of The Band late in their career, at the point when they were about to break up. I'd heard 'em over the years on the radio and knew they'd become famous as Bob Dylan's backup band, but they just seemed too laid back for my taste. But one night I was watching television and saw them do a version of "Georgia on My Mind", and it just blew me away. So when their next album "Northern Lights - Southern Cross" came out, I bought it.

It was a wonderful album. Songs ranged from the funky "Ophelia" to "It Makes No Difference", and the incredible ode to the French Canadians, "Acadian Driftwood", which went on to become an earworm of mine - a song that haunts me to this day.

Shortly after the release of "Northern Lights - Southern Cross", The Band announced that they were breaking up. To commemorate the occasion, they released a movie called "The Last Waltz"; a documentary of their last concert. "The Last Waltz" was memorable for two things: (1) It was directed by Martin Scorsese, and (2) in post-production, several of the musicians decided to overdub their solos. So although the soundtrack was advertised as live, it really wasn't. The reaction to this news was interesting. Several other bands released concert albums shortly afterward, and titled them "Absolutely Live", "Guaranteed Live" and things like that.

There aren't many videos of The Band, but here are three:

I Shall Be Released:


The Weight:


Although this video doesn't shown the group, here's a video of Acadian Driftwood: