(Toronto) Robbie Robertson, the former leader of the Canadian music group The Band died Wednesday at the age of 80.
He died surrounded by his family in Los Angeles “after a long illness,” his agent Ray Costa said in a statement.
In lieu of sending flowers, the family asked for donations to be made to the Six Nations Indian Reserve in southern Ontario to support the new Woodland Cultural Centre. Robertson’s mother was raised in this community.
The Ontario group recorded some landmark records of the country rock movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, including Music from Big Pink and their self-titled album.
Robbie Robertson was the band’s lead guitarist and songwriter, responsible for such hits as The Weight, Up on Cripple Creek and The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.
He was also a member of the group that accompanied Bob Dylan on his first tour in 1965. Robbie Robertson also participated in the recording of the legendary Basement Tapes.
Among the tributes paid to him was that of Canadian actor Kiefer Sutherland, who referenced a “heartbreaking” loss in a post on social network X (formerly Twitter). He said “Canada has lost an icon, and music has lost a poet and a scholar.”
Musician Ron Sexsmith has praised Robbie Robertson’s lasting impact, noting that “he changed the direction of music in the late 60s, steeped in the psychedelic, inspiring instead a style that relied on going back to basics”, he wrote on X.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also paid tribute to him in a tweet, accompanied by a photo where the two men hug each other.
” Guitarist. Songwriter. Storyteller. Robbie Robertson has played an important role in Canada’s immense contribution to the arts. I think of his family, his friends and his admirers who mourn his death. Thanks for the music and the memories, Robbie,” said Prime Minister Trudeau.
From their years as Bob Dylan’s backing band to their own stardom, The Band had a profound influence on popular music in the 1960s and 1970s, first drawing on Dylan’s influence, then shaping a new sound immersed in the American past.
“Long before we met, his music played a central role in my life – for me and millions of others around the world,” said American actor and director Martin Scorsese, close friend and frequent collaborator. of Robbie Robertson, in a press release.
“The band’s music, and Robbie’s solo music later, seemed to come from the deepest place in the heart of this continent, its traditions, its tragedies and its joys,” he said. .
A native of Toronto, Robbie Robertson was part Jewish, part Mohawk and part Cayuga. He dropped out of high school, but loved exploring different sounds and his adopted home, the United States, which he wrote about in awe at a time when the Vietnam War alienated millions of young Americans.
Robertson was lucky enough to find himself among many rock-era giants, receiving guitar advice from Buddy Holly, attending early performances of Aretha Franklin and the Velvet Underground, smoking marijuana with the Beatles, reviewing the songwriting duo Leiber and Stoller writing and talking to Jimi Hendrix at the time the musician called himself Jimmy James.
In the early 1960s, The Band was a backing band for rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins, but they also played bars and jukeclubs, creating a depth and versatility that allowed them to perform virtually anywhere. any type of music event, in any setting.
In addition to Robertson, the band features Arkansas drummer-vocalist Levon Helm and three other Canadians: bassist-vocalist-songwriter Rick Danko, keyboardist-songwriter Richard Manuel and multi-instrumentalist Garth Hudson. Originally, the band was called the Hawks, but they ended up changing to The Band because that’s what viewers referred to them when they were with Dylan.
The group remains defined by its first two albums, Music from Big Pink and The Band, both released in the late 1960s. sound effects and long jams.
Music from Big Pink, named after the old house near Woodstock, New York where members of The Band lived and gathered, was for many the sound of coming home. The atmosphere was intimate, the lyrics alternately playful, enigmatic and nostalgic, drawn from blues, gospel, folk and country music. The group itself seemed to represent selflessness and a shared, vital history, with all five members making distinctive contributions and appearing in publicity photos in simple, dark clothing.
Through the Basement Tapes made with Bob Dylan in 1967 and their own albums, The Band has been widely recognized as a founding source of Americana or roots music.
The Band and Robertson parted ways in the early 1980s, the latter pursuing a long career as a solo artist and composer of soundtracks. His 1987 self-titled album was certified gold and included the hit single Show Down at Big Sky and the ballad Fallen Angel, a tribute to Manuel, who was found dead in 1986 in what was believed to be a suicide (Danko died of heart failure in 1999 and Helm in cancer in 2012).
Robbie Robertson has won several Juno Awards and has been honored twice on Canada’s Walk of Fame. He was also inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, made an Officer of the Order of Canada and received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award.
