RIP Robbie Robertson

 

Robbie Robertson, best known for his work as a member of the Band, died in Los Angeles, California on August 9. 2023, surrounded by family, according to his manager. “In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to the Six Nations of the Grand River to support the building of their new cultural center.” He was 80.

Robertson was born Jamie Royal Robertson in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on July 5, 1943. He learned music from his mother’s side of the family, who were Mohawk and lived on the Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve. As a teenager, he met the lively Ronnie Hawkins and his group the Hawks on the bar band circuit around Toronto. Robertson took up with the group as a guitarist alongside Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Garth Hudson.

The Band had hits with “The Weight,” “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” and “Up on Cripple Creek.” Music from Big Pink, 1969’s The Band, and 1970’s Stage Fright were critical and commercial hits, with Robertson taking the bulk of the songwriting credit and thus getting a larger share of the group’s money. As the group grew exhausted of their time together with 1973’s Moondog Matinee and 1975’s Northern Lights – Southern Cross, the Band eventually decided to call it quits.

Robertson maintained a long-term relationship with Scorsese after The Last Waltz, contributing to films like Raging Bull, Casino, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Irishman, and several others. In 2020, Scorsese produced Once Were Brothers, a documentary about the Band based mostly on Robertson’s accounts. Robertson’s final album was 2019’s Sinematic. Scorsese’s new movie Killers of the Flower Moon, due this year, was scored by Robertson.

Robertson scored the 1994, French produced television documentary production “The Native Americans” and was the narrator on the 2018 four-part U.S.A., Canadian, Italian, Mexican, Peruvian documentary TV mini-series “Native America.