Rhythms is sad to report guitarist-songwriter-singer Robbie Robertson, who led the Canadian-American group The Band to rock prominence in the 1970s and worked extensively with Bob Dylan and Martin Scorsese, has died in Los Angeles after a long illness. Robertson’s manager of 34 years, Jared Levine, confirmed the news in a statement.
Between 1968 and 1977 with The Band, Robertson had recorded 7 studio albums in eight years plus two live albums and been heard with Dylan on The Basement Tapes and Before The Flood. Along the way he wrote a brace of classic songs from ‘The Weigh’ and ‘Chest Fever’ on the first album Music From Big Pink to ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,’ ‘The Shape I’m In,’ ‘Rag Mama Rag,’ ‘Up On Cripple Creek’ …..and many more.
Subsequently Robertson released half a dozen well regarded solo albums, most recently 2019’s Sinematic. Since 1980 Robertson’s primary focus was working as composer, music supervisor, and music producer for film soundtracks. Consistently working with acclaimed directory Martin Scorsese on films including “Raging Bull,” “The King of Comedy,” “The Color of Money,” “Gangs of New York,” “The Departed,” “Shutter Island,” “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Silence,” and “The Irishman”. Robertson recently completed his fourteenth film music project with Scorsese, “Killers of the Flower Moon”.
Rhythms last spoke to Robbie Robertson in 2014 when Brian Wise interviewed him from Los Angeles to promote the release of his fifth solo album How To Become Clairvoyant.
In comparison with Robertson’s early output his solo career was hardly prolific. Brian asked if Roberston was hesitant or unsure if he wanted to make another solo album: “I thought that I would but I just didn’t know under what circumstances. I’ve just been working on a lot of various projects the last few years and things that I’ve really enjoyed and things that I think I’ve learned a lot and grown interesting ways. So I was really quite satisfied with what I was doing but I always felt like I needed to write songs and make records – it’s one of my favourite things in the whole wide world. So it was just a matter of feeling my way along and then something tapping me on the shoulder and saying this is the direction you should be going in.”
Although he made occasional guest and television appearances, Robertson effectively quit touring in the late Seventies, which Brian asked him about with any plans to tour behind How To Become Clairvoyant: “You know, I don’t do that anymore. I haven’t toured since The Last Waltz. I made a big statement at that movie thinking I was leaving the road behind. I really felt it was terrific when I was young. I really felt that – but it’s a young man’s game and I started when I was so young playing professionally on the road day in and day out that I felt like I discovered that and I knew what that was. I don’t know. There’s a lot of talk behind this record of trying to get me to go back out on the road but I haven’t got completely convinced yet. Getting on a bus is what scares me!”
In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to the Six Nations of the Grand River to support a new Woodland Cultural Center.