Robbie Robertson (The Band)

0:03Hi, it's Robbie. How are you? I'm okay. How's it going? I'm good. This is Matt and Edmonton. Hey Matt and Edmonton How is it out west today? A little warmer really a little warmer than it's been the past few days Hallelujah, I think we're at plus one. Maybe really how is it and where are you Toronto? Yeah, how is it there? Well, it's actually beautiful Here today. It's a beautiful sunny day a little brisk, but that's to be expected How long you in Toronto for I mean I saw you at the judo's the other day I guess you're there for the week doing press. I am I am I'm here and then on the weekend They're inducting me into the Canadian songwriter Hall of Fame Wow. Yeah, very nice honor that it is and we'll try and get to that in a little bit actually

0:48But but I know we don't have much time So let's let's start with the the first solo disc in 13 years how to become clairvoyant out next week I guess why so long? Well, just because that's not What I do all the time. I don't you know, I'm not on that merry-go-round of you know, I need to make an album Every year or two or whatever that is. I got off that a long time ago and I You know, I try to do To the best of my ability. I try to do things when I feel inspired to do them And I find that if I do that I'm more inclined to do some good work rather than somebody, you know You know pounding on the door saying hurry up and you know, you got a deadline

1:39So so then what was the inspiration for this was did it just come down from the heavens like it like it tends to do with songwriting, you know, it's It is a mysterious thing, you know, you know, I could make a joke out of it But it really is that that you know you you know Some things just start flowing through you and you get this feeling and you think oh my god I'm I'm there's a path here and I'm gonna follow this path and And if it leads me somewhere, you know really Beautiful. I'm gonna take advantage of it and it's just it's just kind of like that That wasn't I didn't sit down and say oh my god. How long has it been? Oh, it's time, you know, none of that it was really about

2:25ideas were coming to me and people around me that I was gathering and Everything were you know, very excited about you know What I was on to and the songs I was writing and it just all builds and builds and builds until you know You feel like you're it's it's carrying you rather than you carrying it that makes it sound like it was almost all done recently This isn't a batch of songs from like the past 10 years of your life. No, no, no this this is The majority of these songs are things that I just I wrote in the last while, you know for this project There was a couple of seeds of ideas That were planted some years ago when Eric Clapton and I were kicking around some ideas

3:12And talking about someday the possibility that we would do something together And we pulled those ideas out and then finished Finished right in them like that. There's a song on the record called fear of falling I think that's my favorite on the record actually speaking. Oh, really? Yeah, it's got a nice It's got like it's very band-esque, but it's also got that 90s Clapton feel Uh-huh, like I don't know. It's it's there's the world. It's really acoustic. It's nice Yeah, that was something that Eric and I had you know, sometime back We had we got a little bit of a song structure on it We had one verse and then and then we won't then he was off doing other things And I was off doing other things and then when we came back to it, we said let's

4:01Let's see if we can finish up that song it was feeling pretty good and that's that's what this is How much influence did he have on the record? I read somewhere online that it was it was almost like a Collaboration between the two of you throughout the record is is that something that you just hear online or is that is that the truth? Well, is it just a few songs no he was tremendously supportive because he invited me to come to London and Go in the studio with him and we were just gonna see what happened I didn't know whether we were making an Eric record or duet record or a Robbie record and we went into the studio just him and I and the bass player and the drummer and then Steve Wynwood came in and helped us out on a few tracks and

4:49And we cut all the tracks for this For this album and after we cut the tracks and you know was Eric who said he said he thought that it was obvious That it was my record because I wrote most of the stuff and I had kind of the focus and and but he said that He was you know Thrilled to be able to just be you know Helping out supportive and do anything that I wanted him to do. He's he's really a dear old friend So anyway when I finished up over there then when I came back to California I had another project that I had to finish and then I came back to the record and at that point that's when I Had that I didn't have those guys with me then so I had to figure out

5:36The casting of who the characters were that I wanted to play these other parts That's when I brought in Tom Morello and Trent Reznor and Robert Randolph and Angela McCluskey and and To do specific things that I had in mind. Mm-hmm. I'm sure they were more than happy to do so as well Oh, we had a great time. It's a very guitar heavy record again for you I love it and I wonder if that's because Eric was part of it or is that something you had wanted to do It was something that I wanted to do but Eric and I playing together Helped set that groundwork for it that it needed to continue in that direction and I think that this is probably the most guitar playing that I've ever done on any of my records. It sounds like it

6:23Yeah Is it all you doing all the stuff like the even the tune he don't live here anymore the song we're playing a lot of The first single the acoustic solo comes out of nowhere. You don't expect an acoustic guitar in that. Yeah, that's that I did that you did it's fantastic. Eric plays the electric guitar. Okay, and I played the acoustic Why an acoustic solo because that really comes out of nowhere. I love it. Don't get me wrong, but it's so different I just I you know, I was just trying to avoid the obvious you know makes and and and It just this guitar that I played on that was used a lot on this record Eric played it on three songs and I played it on you don't live here no more in Tangle for Jank Oh And it's an old 1927 triple-oh 45 gut string. Oh wow and that Eric just loved playing and I love playing and it became just kind of our partner in

7:17In the whole thing we would just reach for it I want to keep going through some of the songs on the record when the night was young which I thought would be a Great title for the memoir when it comes out. So, um, well geez. Thank you very much You know there you will talk about the memoir in a second But I want to talk about the tune because it sets a tone for the record of looking back and and I don't know What brought you to the point of being comfortable to look back and especially look back on record and have it out there for the world to hear because this particular period There was something in the air then and it was a pivotal time in culture in North America and It's when I'm I'm referring I'm reflecting on a time when the Hawks Left Ronnie Hawkins and we went down south and we were playing all of these strange

8:07weird places and all the characters that we were intermingling with then and and it was a fascinating time and There was something in the air and we did this whole thing through the south and then we came back up and don't north And that's when we hooked up with Bob Dylan and I ended up living at the Chelsea Hotel with Edie Sedgwick and and that's how Andy Warhol comes into the picture because he was He was crazy about her and he would always show up in the hotel lobby and he would Call they would call my room and say is miss Sedgwick there mr. Warhol is down here looking for her She would say tell him I'm not here. I'm not here. So I'd have to make up some some story for but anyway what the point of all of this is is

8:57While we were on this kind of crazy carnival run of on this musical Odyssey that at that time music was becoming the voice of this generation and this generation was tremendously unified and Their voice was becoming stronger and stronger and more powerful Unto the point that they were really making changes and today when I look around You know, I find everything so fragmented and so dispersed that there is no voice of the generation and there is no unity of the generation and I I miss that and I know that a lot of a

9:44lot of young bands Without having been there miss that because they just don't know how to grasp on that thing because it does have a very deep on ongoing feeling you know that something like that when people talk about the late 60s and everything and in Musicality it was just growing out of the ground and everybody was doing Extraordinary things and one thing built something else stronger and stronger. And so anyway, it's just It's a time that I'm reflecting on that I just can't help but mess It's like the technology now is what's taken over the the mass culture and what's influencing the kids as opposed to the music

10:32It's almost sad. Well, but great things come out of it from every direction and Technology is making what's happening in the Middle East possible right now. That's a good point So, you know, there's there is a balance in this thing I'm just talking about the evolution of what's been happening in North America You know that all of a sudden it feels Stagnated it doesn't feel like anybody Really has that big of a point of view and if you do it sounds a little bit backward almost So it's like what you know, where have we gone here? I mean with you know, we were building something and now it just seems to be some ruins from the past What was um, you mentioned Bob Dylan in there and it got me thinking how important music was for people

11:22What was I was wondering if I get a memory from you about the Manchester show the Judas the infamous Judas show in 66 Were you guys scared? I talked to Garth a few months ago and he said he was he was a little frightened to be on the road at the time it was unpredictable we were in the middle of a musical revolution and Whenever there's extreme changes taking place, you know anything goes so One day you could laugh at it the next day Someone could be charging you with a pair of scissors, you know what I mean? So you had to You know you you couldn't dismiss this and the idea of playing all Over North America Australia and Europe and every night you go out there people boo you and throw stuff at you

12:13It builds character. Yeah, I was gonna say did it make you want to play even better for them to change their minds Yes, and we did hmm. We got better I'm sure you did in the beginning either they might have had a perfect right to be boy. It wasn't that good But we got better And I guess the epitome you get better would would be that last waltz concert a tune that you kind of reference in This is where I get off on the new record An end of touring so you're not gonna tour this record at all. You're not gonna do any shows Well, I'll do some things in support of the record. I'll probably you know, I'll do some television shows or things I don't want to be you know, this is respectful to this work because of I'm very proud of what we were able to accomplish on this record and And it's a record unlike anything I've ever made before so

13:03I want to do everything I can For that, but I won't be getting on the bus Yep, sounds good Then we do some on the show called five questions five quick questions one more dancers And I guess I know the answer the first one already rotor studio. What do you go studio? I figured Lennon or McCartney Lennon most important thing in a song lyrics melody or rhythm Rhythm song you've written you're most proud of. Oh, it's more than one word. That's okay rag mama rag and in one word Robbie Robertson hopeful I guess we talked about a few of the new songs I was wondering if I get a couple of just little storyteller bits from you the weight. Well, yeah when I wrote the weight

13:49it was a backup song in case Something else didn't work on the record It was not not like we all recognize This is a song that is going to be you know a center of our existence Forever it wasn't like that and then when we recorded it Then we recognize that we said, uh-huh It's always the B sides that always make the biggest hits us so weird Yeah, Dixie because it references my birthday makes me very happy your birthday's on what made it 10. Oh, really? Dixie is This came from my first experience when I was hired by Ronnie Hawkins

14:36They and I went from Toronto down to the Mississippi Delta where their headquarters were and it was like going to the Holy Land of rock and roll and The impressions that I got at that vulnerable age Impacted me so strongly that a few years later when I was sitting down to write songs This is what I reached for. This is what I had up in my attic stored away of things that I wanted to I wanted to write the new mythology of and Before I let you go Cripple Creek. Well Cripple Creek was somewhere between funny and desperate and

15:23Which is the way a lot of us feel nearly every day and so it really was a play on on On what was going on a lot in our lives at the time of the band And it was a place between You know everybody having a good laugh and everybody's saying whoa. This is a bit crazy Hang on. This is gonna be a bumpy ride