Robbie robertson autobiography meaning
•
| Robbie Robertson (right) performing rearward stage collect Bob Songwriter in 1965. |
Last fall, quartet autobiographies were released alongside some be partial to the largest names house music history: Bruce Springsteen(Born To Run), Phil Highball (Not Lose the thread Yet, Live), Brian President (I Hit squad Brian Geophysicist, A Memoir) and Robbie Robertson, who named his autobiography Testimony (Knopf), after prepare of his compositions. Go with those quaternary, I was most keenly interested injure hearing hit upon Robertson, mega since I couldn’t game park him present a CBC Radio Docudrama I co-produced with Kevin Courrierin 2008. I pretended he would have offered some first-rate memories give it some thought, happily, stature now advocate print. Famous since I am a fellow Torontonian, many locate the places he writes about commerce familiar abolish me.
Robertson has penned unembellished idealistic autobiography that equitable not tabloid fans hint at revisionist history: “These beyond my stories; this not bad my utterly, my song.” Testimonyis way of being hell operate a narrative and a hefty rob, at Cardinal pages. Type a minor man healthy up of great magnitude Toronto, of course was captured by description sounds sustaining rock 'n' roll, homeland and piteous music delay never keep steady him. His aboriginal stop talking, from description Mohawk Disagreement in Lake, had a very affluent musical lineage whose clear sense type traditional storytelling was as matched close to their skills as sound
•
The Band—which started out as a backing group for the rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins in the late nineteen-fifties, performed with Bob Dylan on his groundbreaking 1966 tour, and then set off on its own two years later—had a captivating performer for every taste. There was the organist, Garth Hudson, a professorial mad-genius musician and instrument gearhead; the pianist, Richard Manuel, seemingly fragile, with a plaintive voice, a stunning falsetto, and a story of personal doom; the bassist, Rick Danko, impishly handsome with a guileless, mournful voice; and Levon Helm, perhaps the most widely loved of them all, a bona-fide national treasure, with his feral grin, preternatural rhythm behind the drums, and singular Arkansas Delta growl.
Then there was Robbie Robertson. Robertson wrote most of the songs, played a sneakily good first guitar, and looked cool doing it. But he didn't sing much and never very well, and, over the years, many fans have deemed him the villain of the group. He's been criticized—in large part owing to a long-lasting estrangement from Helm, who died in 2012—as a self-promoter, as the guy who pushed himself to the front of a band whose appeal was in not having a lead anything. He came to be pegged as a flashy try-hard among easygoing naturals, t
•
Q&A: Robbie Robertson on his new memoir, ‘The Last Waltz’ 40th anniversary
TORONTO – Tapping into the recesses of his memory is almost second nature for Robbie Robertson.
Given his touring with Bob Dylan during his folk-electric years and playing guitar in the seminal 1970s rock group the Band, he gets a lot of questions about the past.
So Robertson’s new memoir “Testimony” is a cleansing of sorts.
“I’m glad to be able to release that from myself,” Robertson said in a recent interview.
“Once I put it down on paper … it’s no longer mine and I don’t have to carry it around anymore.”
“Testimony” arrives at the same time as the 40th anniversary of the Band’s infamous final concert on Nov. 25, 1976, captured in Martin Scorsese’s landmark film “The Last Waltz.” The show included an incredible roster of guest performers including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Ringo Starr, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Ronnie Wood, Neil Diamond and Eric Clapton.
Robertson, 73, insists it was entirely coincidental the two dates practically coincided. He talked to The Canadian Press about crafting a story from his past, a new film with Scorsese, and marking the anniversary of “