Those that praise Robbie robertson

[CountryMile Cadillac]

"Big men, little men turned into dust,
Maybe it was all in fun, they didnt mean to ruin no one.
Could there be someone, someone here among this crowd
Whos been accused, had his name so misused
And his privacy refused?"


A verse from The Rumor off of Stage Fright

[Chief5959]

The whole songwriting thing is a can of worms. If I were to have a band I would split everything evenly. That being said I do not necessarily think that if you contribute a part to the arrangement you should get some of the songwriting. What happens to a song in a band like the Dead. Songs can change dramatically over time yet the credit is always to the original writers. With the Band I believe the truth is somewhere between Levon and Robbie's versions. Robbie does sound like he is up his own 95% of the time but none of the other guys ever produced anything on their own that would leave you to believe they were major songwriters. At the time of the second album when Robbie became the main credited songwriter Helm should have gotten the other players together and they could have forced a change if his version stands. The fact that they did not do anything shows a lot. Jagger and Richards always took the view that songs that came from the band's jamming were always going to be Jagger/Richards. Wood is the only guy I think to ever get a co-writing credit. Same with Paul Simon and Graceland. Los Lobos got session fees for the track they did together which came from a Simon/Los Lobos jam.

[dpmphoto]

In fact I do know them asshole,so in fact it is you who should get a life. Your input was meaningless, perhaps your talent is discussing phish.

[dpmphoto]

Gossip lol thats all this post is filled with.In fact I do know levon so perhaps its you who should get a life, and while your at perhaps replace the phish sticker on your mothers mini van.

[amyjared]

What do you like about his playing

Imho, like Clapton (who I know a lot of you dislike also), Robbie plays just what is needed, nothing more and nothing less, and makes it look effortless. He has 'the touch' and I like his sound and I especially love his pinch harmonics. He adds to songs, instead of playing over them, if you know what I mean.

[Tennessee Jedi]

Shhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Dont Mention SlowHands name 'round here.
Villagers might get angry...

[Mick]

Rightly or wrongly, the music industry has not generally paid writing royalties for arrangements. There was a case recently, in England, where the organist from Procol Harem sued for royalties on the song "Whiter Shade of Pale" even though he admits he didn't write the words or melody but thinks that his organ playing "added substantially to the popularity of the song" and therefore he deserves royalty. Apparently he has won a case in Britain, but I doubt he would be succesful in the US. If memory serves, the decision to grant him royalties is also in the process of appeals.

Anyway, that said, if someone writes the words and melodies to a group of songs that becomes an album, they alone are normally given the writing credit and therefore they alone get the royalties associated with the writing. The other members of the band should still get their share of royalties from the sale of the music in the recorded form.

I know nothing about the internal squabbles between the members of The Band, but I do know that this argument/disagreement/dissatisfaction is one of the most common one in the popular music business. I think a lot of young players simply don't understand that royalties paid when a song is played on the radio or is covered by another artist go ONLY to the writers of the songs and that if they don't write anything, they only get paid to play live or when recordings on which they played get sold. I can see how someone, like the Procol Harem organist, can FEEL that the music is "theirs" when they played on the original version that made the song popular, but present copyright law simply does not support those feelings. The legal view is that the organist got paid for his efforts to help make the song popular and he got the residuals from the sale of whatever number of millions of that version of the song sold.

[CountryMile Cadillac]

Gossip lol thats all this post is filled with.In fact I do know levon so perhaps its you who should get a life, and while your at perhaps replace the phish sticker on your mothers mini van.

Does Levon know you are spreading this stuff around? Don't seem like the friendly thing to do to me?

[Oscillation]

Gossip lol thats all this post is filled with.In fact I do know levon so perhaps its you who should get a life, and while your at perhaps replace the phish sticker on your mothers mini van.

Does Levon know you are spreading this stuff around? Don't seem like the friendly thing to do to me?

doesn't seem like a friendly thing to do to me either, and say whatever you want about how much levon hates robbie, he sure the fuck played the hell out of his songs, as did all those guys, and if that isn't respect i don't know what is.

and someone was calling robertson pretentious for not singing his own song? That i don't understand at all, who wrote these lyrics


See the man with the stage fright,
Just standin' up there to give it all his might.
He got caught in the spotlight,
But when we get to the end
He wants to start all over again.

If i had my choice between spending an hour with robbie robertson or spending an hour with your vitriolic ass guess who id choose?

[old man down]

Used to know The Weight and The Night they Drove Old Dixie Down.

But, I grew up with The Band and their music never really inspired me as a guitar player.

Certainly, Robbie Robertson never impressed me.

When I saw The Last Waltz I couldn't wait for the movie to end. They just don't cook. You take the song Who Do You Love, for example. How can someone get behind that movie version when Cippolina had done such an enduring version years before with Quicksilver.

[Chief5959]

Robbie can not sing to save himself. It was nothing to do with being pretentious. The funniest story in Levon's book is how during concerts they would shut off his mike when the song started. Then you watch the Last Waltz and he is doing all this emotive singing, hilarious.

[astroman99]

Robbie can not sing to save himself. It was nothing to do with being pretentious. The funniest story in Levon's book is how during concerts they would shut off his mike when the song started. Then you watch the Last Waltz and he is doing all this emotive singing, hilarious.

Slight correction, they only set a mike up in front of Robbie, only if they were filming and it was either turned down low or off.
kind of can you say EGOTISTACAL

but hey I can't sing either...

[tigerstrat]

In fact I do know them asshole,so in fact it is you who should get a life. Your input was meaningless, perhaps your talent is discussing phish.

Since you didn't specify a target for this scornful comment, perhaps its directed at ALL of us? FU2

[BlobWeird]

Levon lives a couple hours away in woodstock and hosts little jams at his house a few times a month called the midnight ramble.If you have a chance check out the site just google midnight ramble.

Actually he plays at a bar he owns in his hometown. He plays every sunday with random musicians. I think its Sunday anyways. Maybe friday though?

Anyways, RR I think is a good player. But the Band for me is all about Danko and Levon. Levon and Danko had great singing voices. And yeah I was never inspired by The Band to play music but I sure as hell love to listen to em.

[nkarnes]

I just gotta say that Robbie Robertson wouldn't be a famous songwriter if it weren't for The Band. His solo albums are pretty weak in my book. Whereas Rick's and Levon's records tended to be pretty good and the reunited Band w/out Robertson also tended to be pretty good. No doubt that Robertson wrote those great songs but it is bullshit that he gets more royalties than the other guys