“IT WAS A CRAZY RIDE, AN UNBELIEVABLE RIDE, A DANGEROUS RIDE”
Robbie Robertson is trying to write his second volume of autobiography, but he’s not finding it easy. “I’m about halfway in, give or take,” he says. “I’ve got my head down, but I’ve got a lot of other stuff going on. I just haven’t been able to do that isolation thing with it yet, finding that quiet room where I can go and shut off the outside world.”
Given his current workload, his predicament is understandable. First off, there’s the business of promoting Sinematic, his latest solo album. It’s a record that feels deeply personal and bracingly political in places, shot through with rich imagery and delivered in Robertson’s trademark leathery growl. He’s also been busy with the soundtrack to The Irishman (the new gangster epic directed by his friend Martin Scorsese), as well as helping prepare a 50th-anniversary edition of The Band’s self-titled classic second album. Then there’s Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson And The Band, a documentary based on his 2016 memoir, Testimony. All of these activities tend to inform one another, so what emerges is a portrait of Robertson’s creative life using different angles and multiple timelines.
And what a life it’s been. He was born on July 5, 1943. Raised in Toronto, Canada, Robertson began playing in bands in his early teens. The big break came in 1960, when rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins hired him for his backing band The Hawks, who included drummer Levon Helm. Alongside Richard Manuel, Rick Danko and Garth Hudson, The Hawks joined Bob Dylan on his infamous electric tour of 1966, before settling in at Woodstock in upstate New York to record Dylan’s The Basement Tapes.
Post-Dylan, The Hawks morphed into The Band and Robertson became their chief songwriter. Their inspired synthesis of R&B, gospel, country and blues redefined the parameters of roots-rock on timeless albums such as, and , before the original incarnation – beset by the drug addictions that would lead to a schism in their relationships – bade farewell with in 1976.
