Watch Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band cover ‘The Weight’
The Band’s classic track, ‘The Weight’, is one of the defining efforts of the 1960s, loved for its rich storytelling and alternating lead vocals performed by Levon Helm and Rick Danko. However, the song was predominantly written by Robbie Robertson, who took inspiration from people he’d met in real life.
According to Helm, who was speaking via This Wheel’s On Fire: Levon Helm and the Story of The Band, “The song was full of our favourite characters. ‘Luke’ was Jimmy Ray Paulman. ‘Young Anna Lee’ was Anna Lee Williams from Turkey Scratch. ‘Crazy Chester’ was a guy we all knew from Fayetteville who came into town on Saturdays wearing a full set of cap guns on his hips and kinda walked around town to help keep the peace, if you follow me.”
He added: “We recorded the song maybe four times. We weren’t really sure it was going to be on the album, but people really liked it. Rick, Richard, and I would switch the verses around among us, and we all sang the chorus: Put the load right on me!”
Robertson was also greatly inspired by cinema, particularly the works of surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel, with the musician stating that his “scripts for Nazarín and Viridiana, which examine the impossibility of sainthood, also captivated me”.
Naturally, the beautiful song has been covered many times by artists from across genres. In 1969, Aretha Franklin put her own spin on the song, as did The Supremes and The Temptations. Dionne Warwick, Joe Cocker and even Weezer have performed the song, cementing its status as one of the ’60s most enduring pieces.
However, in 1989, Ringo Starr had the privilege of performing the track with his All Starr Band, which just so happened to feature The Band’s full lineup (at the time). The Beatle hadn’t toured since he was a member of the Fab Four, but with the help of producer David Fishof, Starr assembled a supergroup based around the idea that “everybody on stage is a star in their own right”.
While the band has changed lineups over the years, his first run with the All Starr Band saw him play with artists such as Joe Walsh, Clarence Clemons, Nils Lofgren, and, of course, The Band. During a show at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, they all played a touching rendition of ‘The Weight’, with Helm, Danko and Dr John singing the words. With some of music’s most talented figures on stage, the performance, which involved three drumkits and plenty of guitars, has an incredibly celebratory quality.
Check out the video of Ringo and his All Starr Band playing ‘The Weight’ below.
