The Band founder, Robbie Robertson, dead at 80
Robbie Robertson, the co-founder, lead guitarist, and main songwriter for roots rock icons The Band, has died. He was 80 years old.
Robertson began his career as a side musician for Canadian rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins. It was there that Robertson first met his future bandmates: bassist Rick Danko, keyboardists Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson, and American drummer Levon Helm.
Known as The Hawks, Robertson and his bandmates first joined Bob Dylan in 1965, just as Dylan was planning on embracing electric instruments. The Hawks accompanied Dylan at many of his most controversial shows that year, including his infamous “Judas” performance in Manchester in 1966.
After Dylan was injured in a motorcycle accident in 1966, The Hawks joined him in Woodstock, New York. There, the band rehearsed both with and without Dylan in a house nicknamed “Big Pink”. It was there that The Band first solidified.
The recordings that The Band made with Dylan would eventually be released as The Basement Tapes. The Band would record their debut album, Music From Big Pink, in 1969 and spearhead the genre of roots rock in America.
Throughout the next decade, Robertson served as the leader of The Band, writing songs like ‘The Weight’, ‘Chest Fever’, ‘Ophelia’, and ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’. Robertson convinced the rest of The Band to cease touring in 1976, culminating in their farewell performance later released as the Martin Scorsese documentary The Last Waltz.
Robertson and Scorsese would continue to collaborate together, with Robertson providing the score for a number of Scorsese’s films including The Color of Money, The Irishman, and Killers of the Flower Moon, the latter of which will be Robertson’s final composing credit. Robertson also served as an executive music producer on the films Raging Bull, Gangs of New York, The Departed, Shutter Island, and Silence.
Robertson released five solo studio albums and one solo soundtrack after his time in The Band, most of which dealt with his indigenous Indian Canadian heritage. Robertson continued to be a member of the Canadian charity Artists Against Racism up to his death.
Robertson leaves behind three children, Alexandra, Delphine, and Sebastian, and his partner Janet Zuccarini.
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