2023-08-10 00:03:25
The Canadian artist Robbie Robertson, composer, guitarist and singer of The Band, has died at the age of 80 in Los Angeles “after a long illness”, as reported on Wednesday by his representative, who added that “Robbie was surrounded by his family at the time of his death. “In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made to Six Nations of the Grand River to support the construction of their new cultural center,” the manager detailed.
Born in Toronto in 1943, Robertson was one of the founders of the mythical group of Canadian-American origin The Band, which he led to the pinnacle of rock in the 1970s with hits like ‘The Weight’ and ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie. Down’ and the band collaborated regularly with figures like Bob Dylan.
The band, which began as The Hawks and became known as Dylan’s opening act on his 1965 and 1966 tours, included other Canadians such as Rick Danko, Garth Hudson and Richad Manuel, as well as American Levon Helm. In 1968 they moved to New York and signed with Capital Records to materialize their first two albums, ‘Music From Big Pink’ and ‘The Band’, which captivated the industry, even influencing references such as Eric Clapton.
Their impact was such that in the late 1960s and early 1970s they collaborated with Dylan again and accompanied him at famous festivals such as Woodstock, which placed them among the elite of North American rock. However, the addiction problems of several members of the group caused the band to experience serious internal problems in the middle of that decade and Robertson himself dissolved the formation.
Before parting ways in 1976, The Band offered a massive concert in San Francisco on Thanksgiving Day, which was included in the documentary ‘The Last Waltz’ (1978), directed by Martin Scorsese. Along with his bandmates, Robertson was inducted into Canada’s Juno Hall of Fame in 1989 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.
The group got together to record three new albums in 1990, but they did not have Robertson, who nevertheless released six solo albums and collaborated with artists such as Tom Petty and Maria McKee throughout his career.
The guitarist and singer of The Band focused on his facet as a composer from 1980, forging a close relationship with Scorsese, with whom he collaborated as a composer for some of the soundtracks of his most popular films. Thus, he participated in the musical supervision of films such as ‘Raging Bull’, ‘Gangs of New York’, ‘Shutter Island’, ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ or ‘The Irishman’. In fact, this same year he worked on the new Scorsese film, ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’, which will be released in October.
His last years were also dedicated to writing his memoirs, his love of painting and reissuing the catalog of The Band.
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