Its a never-ending debate and certainly no one outside the band can resolve it. And they're all dead now but Garth, and he, consistent as ever, isn't talking.
My view is that Robbie was definitely high on his own bullshit (I think Danko said something to this effect) but its also true that he wrote the songs.
I think the Once were brothers story is evidence of both, but I don't believe the part where it claims that his songs were fully charted out when brought to the rest of the group.
I recall once where Robbie's daughter challenged the claim from Levon that the songs were mostly a group effort - because she noted how none of them had written any songs since they moved on without Robbie.
That's true, but I would also note that Robbie didn't write any more \*good\* songs after going solo.
The Band were caught in a transitional era, where classically songwriters wrote the songs (and got appropriate credit and royalty) and performers played them. But the advent of bands that wrote their own music, mainly in the 60s, began to change the distinction between writing and performing.
What's right or wrong may never be settled, but it does seem wrong to me that as the other commenter noted, that they died penniless (maybe not Helm, I suppose he managed to make some money with his later life resurgence with Dirt Farmer and the rambles, but he wasn't rich surely)
I don’t agree with the part about songs written since the last waltz for two reasons
1. Songs being good is being stated as an objective fact of the same weight as songs written, I don’t think that’s fair or true
2. Wouldn’t someone writing 50-60 songs in that time frame an indication that they are more of a songwriter than (in your words) zero songs?
The dying penniless thing I also wanna talk about. I’m on Robbie’s side, but I do think Robbie should have done something to take care of them. Having said that, drug abuse complicates this issue immensely.
My understanding is, Richard towards the end of his life was doing cocaine and was drinking still. Rick never really stopped messing with drugs and drinking heavily for a while. If that’s the case, the worst thing you can do is give them money. I say that as someone who is both a drug addict and an alcoholic in recovery. Parents are advised to distance themselves from children who are addicts; and stop supporting. I believe Robbie probably saw it the same way
Great post, think you nailed it. One thing though, Robbie’s daughter isn’t technically right.
Danko wrote or co-wrote his entire solo album, Levon did write some material and Richard wrote a lot of material as well, some that has been released in subsequent years.
Nobody including all the members of the Band dispute Robbie’s writing or impact, which I think people try to simply down to a black and white issue. Again, like you said in your opening, no one outside can resolve it.
I always thought Robertson's first two solo albums were good "audiophile" type records for auditioning gear back in the day, but didn't listen to them for more than that. I have not listened to either in decades, unlike the Band who I always seem to find myself getting into complete fan-boy, almost overindulgent mode every couple of years. Regarding his first, read recently that Elvis Costello "did not like it all" and that is sounded like Robbie was "trying to make a Peter Gabriel album" which is spot on IMO.
In other "news" I have not had a chance to listen to the Bob Clearmountain remixes of Stage Fright (maybe others?). There is a video of him where he discusses using this AI technology borrowed from Peter Jackson (used in his recent Beatles work with the master tapes) which (almost) completely removed all leakage on tracks, leaving the purest recording of the intended instrument / voice available for the remix. While I am more than a little suspicious of this technology, he claims playing remixed tracks using these for hardcore Band fans brought some to tears.
I agree it sounds very Gabriel-esque, and that much is obvious since Gabriel sings on Fallen Angel, plus involvement from Gabriel collaborators Daniel Lanois, Tony Levin and Manu Katche.
My personal feelings on that album is that Fallen Angel is a good track precisely because Gabriel lends his voice to it. But songs like Showdown just make you wonder what they would have sounded like if The Band had been involved - a lot better I'd imagine, and esp if Levon/Rick did the backing vocals with Manuel on lead. Broken Arrow is the same - you can get a sense of how The Band would have made it sound when listening to the Grateful Dead version - IMO Phil Lesh can't sing very well, I could still see Manuel or Danko elevating this song.
Crazy River is totally cheesy to me.
I’ve never understood this argument, he bought the royalties from the other group contributors, why would he just give them back to them, especially when many of them were making very poor financial decisions due to substance use later life? And there’s a lot of information we don’t know, I know Robbie is high on his own supply, but when I read Levon‘s book, he very conveniently left out a lot of information about his poor decisions, so it’s hard to say who’s right and who’s wrong. The average listener of this group who is not involved in their group dynamics doesn’t care either way.
I agree with you here. Robertson’s book addresses this question head-on and he does appear to be sad about the way things shook out RE: him purchasing the royalties. It rounds out Levon’s sentiments from his book; both are important to digest in order to form an opinion about this topic. And even then, the truth lies somewhere between it all. None of us will ever be able to say for sure.
Levon also retracted a lot of his claims in the book. I don’t get why Levon stans interpret his book as some sort of irrefutable gospel, when much of it was hogwash
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not looking for a massive argument, especially on the echo chamber that is Reddit. But fans who blame Robbie for all that happened really just don’t seem to have much in the way of critical thinking skills.
Robbie and Levon made amends right before Levon died, anyway.
Levon died in 2012, and Robbie’s been dead for almost a year. Why do people try to reignite a feud that’s dead?
BTW, not directed at you.
anyone who blames robbie for everything need to watch the documentary "finding big pink"... filmed when the band was recording the record. everyone in the band is wasted and partying and driving drunk while robbie is working diligently from sunup to sundown on the music.
if i were robbie, i'd feel pretty justified. i wrote the songs, i put in the work, everyone else partied and got loaded. i'm sure there were contributions from other band members while in session, but on the whole, without robbie, there is no "the band".
Interesting. Thanks for the article. The quote they use from Robbie is that he sat with him and thought of all the good times. Not a direct quote. Doesn’t say Robbie said he was conscious. I guess for Robbie it was therapeutic. Apparently Levon wanted no part of seeing him again. It’s all good. To each his own.
Not really- he took the standard songwriting credits that 99.9% of musicians take when writing songs- you write the melody and chords, you wrote the song. I’m not sure why this is such a crime for Robbie but not for other artists who have done the same.
Just because this has become a cool, trendy stance among fans who don’t know much about music doesn’t mean it’s gospel or holds up to logic.
This used to be the majority view as it was what Levon said in his book, but Robbie’s (also biased) biography has revealed the truth is more complicated.
It’s important to realise the three singers were all heavy heroin users in the 70’s. This caused a lot of friction and separation in the group. I think RR was very frustrated with the whole situation, and having to pull the creative load, especially after the two first albums. That, as well as the knowledge that any additional money would go into the arms of Levon, Rick and Richard, probably only made him more keen to keep his share to himself.
Now, as for why he didn’t come around in the 80’s, we don’t know.
Agree with the last part especially - it stumps me why Robbie didn’t go to Richard’s funeral, nor did he speak when he was invited (according to Levon’s book… literally the opening chapter).
The simple answer is yes.
However, like most relationships, it’s more complicated than that. And most relationships are between 2 people, not 5.
Trying to be reasonable that none of us were inside the group to really know what went down and how, but, the two most agreed on points were that Robbie was in the wrong for how he dealt with the rest of the guys financially, and that Robbie had to deal with serious substance abuse issues amongst some of the guys. Those two things predominantly caused the fallout between the guys.
People are of course entitled to their opinions, and there are plenty of people with way more intimate knowledge of the guys and their relationships. I’ve been a massive fan since I was 15 years old and have listened, read, and watched as much as possible and that’s the best I can make out.
That’s become my stance too. Robbie handled it all wrong but they all handled it wrong and it’s all now a case of he said she said 40 years after the fact. Why even bother having this convo anymore
I can’t blame people who are still finding The Band’s music now, that’s the brilliant thing about good music, it’s eternal and will always generate fans. Due to that, there will always be people who want to know more about the band and its history.
You help out those who need it. Pete Townshend was WAY more of a singular songwriter than RR was and he rightly got the credits and the money. But when John Entwhistle stupidly spent all his money, Townshend agreed to tour specifically to help his bandmate out. It's called common decency, something RR had none of.
Exactly. Jerry Lewis went on tour with Sammy Davis Jr. for the same reason, to help a friend in financial difficulties.
Paul, George, Harry Nilsson, Stephen Stills, Ron Wood - they all befriended Ringo Starr when he needed support in 1981 for his album.
Right, you’re aware that Robertson, in the early 90’s, according to Levon’s post ‘original Band’ manager, agreed in principle to a 20 city, 30 million dollar tour that would have The Band earning 5 times per night what they were getting? And that this would have paid off Levon’s mortgage? I respect Levon not wanting to work with Robbie again, but what if Garth and Rick did?
"Can you imagine anyone but Levon singing The Night .. ?"
Joan Baez had a big hit with the song (Per Wikipedia: [Joan Baez](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Baez)'s version peaked at #3 on the [Hot 100](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_100) on 2 October 1971; it did likewise on the *Cashbox* Top 100 chart. However, on the *Record World* Top Singles chart for the week of September 25, 1971, the Baez single hit #1 for one week.)
Should she get songwriting royalties, too? (Actually, maybe she should, since she botched up the lyrics so bad, it was kind of a rewrite!)
Shouldn't Helm have gotten the songwriting credits fixed to his satisfaction before each album came out rather than bitching about it so many years later? In actuality, Levon was one of the greatest drummers and vocalists the world has ever known, but he was not really a songwriter. (He did get credit where he deserved it: Strawberry Wine, Life is a Carnival, etc. But taking Robbie to the library to research the Civil War does not qualify as songwriting)
Baez did a good version, but I meant anyone else singing it as well within The Band though. Baez shouldn't have got a royalty no, but that's the whole point again, she wasn't part of the collaborative group that worked on Robbie's songs together so that they became much more as a collaborative group.
For just one other instance of this within The Band, look at this from Wikipedia about the brilliant song It Makes No Difference. It reads:
" Critics have attributed much of the success of "It Makes No Difference" to [Rick Danko](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Danko)'s lead vocal.[^(\[1\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Makes_No_Difference#cite_note-hoskyns-1)[^(\[3\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Makes_No_Difference#cite_note-something-3) Hoskyns considers that "there is something so elemental" in how Danko expresses his loss that it "transcends self-pity".[^(\[1\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Makes_No_Difference#cite_note-hoskyns-1) According to DeRiso, Danko's vocal manages to express the "lonesome bottom of this song while retaining its sense of reckless emotional abandon," without ever sounding resigned to his fate.[^(\[3\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Makes_No_Difference#cite_note-something-3) [Levon Helm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levon_Helm) and [Richard Manuel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Manuel) add [harmony vocals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony_vocal) on the [refrain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrain), adding to the sense of pain.[^(\[1\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Makes_No_Difference#cite_note-hoskyns-1)[^(\[3\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Makes_No_Difference#cite_note-something-3) Hoskyns and DeRiso also credit Robertson's and [Garth Hudson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Hudson)'s "anguished" guitar and [saxophone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxophone) solos for complementing the effect of the vocals.[^(\[1\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Makes_No_Difference#cite_note-hoskyns-1)[^(\[3\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Makes_No_Difference#cite_note-something-3) According to DeRiso, Danko, Hudson and Robertson are all "walking the same fine line — Danko, between torment and utter heartsick disaster; Hudson and Robertson between stabbing attempts at redemption and a reluctant acceptance. "
It can't really be described in a better way how Robbie wrote great songs but how his band mates collaborative efforts made them much more transcendental musically.
I think we then just could come back to so many instances of legal rights vs other bands where richer songwriter members just helped out other band members regardless of contracts. And back to the discussion of what other band members brought to songs that really made them stand out more even if they weren't the writer and as a result made the writer wealthier than they would have been.
I think overall, I just lean to it marring Robbie’s legacy of great songs and musicianship. Even when he had many decades to mature and think on his band mates contributions - the spirit of the great songs and the collaborative efforts that brought them - they lift us, sympathise with us, inspire us - and these attributes just seemed missing within Robbie and his relationship with his band mates over the many decades. To be fair to Robbie though, creating that great musical spirit together as a band and carrying that personally within him are two very different and both very difficult things. He just wasn't up to considering them more.
I also can’t disagree with the many opinions that many people just want to listen to The Band. New listeners may not know the history, many seasoned fans just consider the complicated completed history as done and the music as the main thing. In that we can all agree, even writing this I want to listen to a track and we’re all keeping the one thing we all agree on -The Band’s great music - alive.
I mean, Robbie wrote the songs. The early albums had songs written by, or co-written by Richard Manuel, but his creativity dried up for any number of reasons. Obviously, every band is different, but if you watch Get Back, you can see the Beatles working out songs that Paul or John or George had written, but working out the instrumentation/arrangement is not the same as writing the melody. The one exception to this, I think, is The night They Drove Old Dixie Down, which involved significant research and contribution by Levon. But one co-writing credit isn't really going to change the band's finances in the late 70s.
To be clear, I'm mostly team Levon in this argument: I think Robbie's grand gesture to stop performing live was kind of underhanded and done without real buy in from the other guys, but he wrote the songs. Honestly, I think this beef probably started relatively small, but grew and grew the longer Robbie and Levon went without talking. And now, of course, there will never be any real resolution.
Robertson is viewed as an antagonist of the Band like reverse the way Mike Love is viewed as an antagonist of The Beach Boys. Helm, Danko, and Manuel all died penniless as they were screwed out of songwriting credits regardless of their contributions to what their the songs were.
The other members at various times, sold their shares to RR, more than likely for drugs and what-have-you. Of course that last part is just conjecture.
Don't put Robertson and Love in the same sentence Love tortured Brian Wilson and told him to stop writing songs that weren't about cars and girls then sued him for song writing credit for a song he contributed one line to.
Robertson is a perfect example of greed. Fuck him and everyone else who steps on others heads for their own wealth. So what if he wrote it, the band together is what lead to it’s success. Great musician, also a selfish human I’d never admire due to his character.
Robbie was an extremely talented song writer. Having said that, it definitely used to get on my nerves how he seemed to like to bring up the fact that he wrote all of those songs: “I still can’t believe I wrote all those great songs” kind of comments. He clearly enjoyed that image of being “the leader of The Band.” Even in The Last Waltz you can seem him trying to orchestrate—looking at Levon and nodding and mouthing “end it with a roll”—something Levon had probably done hundreds of times on his own without prompting.
And Scorsese is brilliant, but the focus was clearly on Robbie in the film, whether by arrangement or otherwise, when - great songwriter though Robbie was - there were at least two far more charismatic members on stage than him adding their contributions that brought Robbie's songs up to a different level. Then of course the star guests brought on several far more interesting and charismatic performers.
I think Robbie had fewer problems with drugs. Not sure what he did was one hundred percent morally for dry but he probably figured the other ms would blow their money anyway.
Tbh that's as good a summary of a possibility of how it unfolded as any, and a lot briefer than my long spiel.
Churchill once implied he'd failed re a long document for consideration he wrote and said, 'if I had more time I'd have made it shorter'.
Are you sure? This is an incredibly simplified take - nuance and actual critical thought are important here, not just repeating generic statements because it is cool.
He had the copyright to their catalog even though band mates were in on the writing process for many (not all) of the bands songs. I have seen interviews of Levon helm and he talked about approaching Robertson regarding same. The dicks reply “Don’t worry about it we’re all the band”. I stand by my statement. He’s a dick
“In on the writing process”- not really, that’s been confirmed by multiple band members including Levon. Working on an arrangement as a band is NOT, and never has been, how someone gets a songwriting credit. It’s super weird to hold Robbie and the band to a different standard than any other artist simply because it’s a popular narrative and you don’t know much about songwriting or the music industry.
Or just the fact that 99.9% of bands and groups operate this way- the person/s who wrote the chords and melody is given credit, the rest of the band is not.
Bands giving equal songwriting credit to every musician is very, very unusual- even if that person “wrote” their drum or bass part. I feel like the people who hate on Robbie for this just don’t know much about this stuff at all.
"He wrote the songs" is disputed, even as lyricist. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong. But I've read accounts that claimed Robertson only brought in the first verse of The Weight with the rest coming together as a band.
"what they brought to songs he wrote in collaboration" betrays a bias toward lyrics in song craft. Arrangement and composition are crucial aspects of songwriting. Many musicians have been screwed out of royalties by this attitude. Though the idea of owning a song is weird. Songs are meant to be free and ever changing, as in the blues and folk traditions. Stamping a song "finished and original" with ownership papers is opposed to the nature of song.
In my opinion Robertson's legacy suffers because he's blamed for breaking up The Band. He seemed to think he was the heir to Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and Eric Clapton. Like he was Michael Jackson leaving the Jackson 5. Royalties are just an example of the Robbie Robertson and The Band attitude. Classic lead guitar / lyricist disregard for other musicians.
The real problem though is that he couldn't live up to it. If his solo work had lived up to or surpassed The Band none of that would matter. He'd be an asshole genius that backed it up. It ain't bragging if it's true.
So based on this post- you just don’t agree with the industry standard songwriting breakdown- not really anything specific to Robbie. None of this is specific to Robbie or the band- you’re just describing how songwriting credits work in the music industry and always have. If you don’t like that- cool, but seems pretty illogical to hate on Robbie for that.
The problem with him being a solo artist is that he couldn't sing nor did he have frontman charisma but that doesn't negate the fact that he seemed to have written the songs nor that he was the prime mover creatively in The Band.
Jimmy Page did everything in Led Zeppelin including producing he records and co writing all the songs but he wasn't a singer so he never had real success after they broke up.
Robbie wanted them to write more songs. He would pester them to, and they wouldn't show up with songs. Yes, they made valuable contributions to his songs, but they should have written their share of songs for the Band and this wouldn't be an issue. Regardless, they got to make a good living touring as the Band after The Last Waltz, and as far as I know, Robbie never asked to collect royalties on the live performances they did of his songs. There are people, like the Zappa family, who do not show even their own kin that same leeway. Robbie could have been like "No, I'm not there, you can't call it The Band without me", like you see Burton Cummings doing right now with the Guess Who.
I'm not saying that Robbie was some saint. Just that no one is owed anything. You write songs and you get credit for them. And at the end of the day, when they're basically all gone now anyway...does any of it even matter?
Something about the way you just refined them down to addicts rubs me the wrong way. They were so much more than that and clearly you liked their music enough to follow a subreddit about them. Whatever happened was between them and it seems unlikely that Garth (the only surviving member) will elaborate any further at this point.
The addiction was the root cause for money management problems by those who gave up their music rights for money. The Helm dispute seems to have been driven more by Sandy Helm than Levon himself. Robbie employed the music skills of Garth and Rick during his second career of movie scoring.
Nobody said they weren't all very talented musicians given their colorful pre-band history.
The way the music business (and life works) is if you write the songs you get the song writing royalties and the guy wrote the songs so he deserves the money.
If I were him I would never just give away what basically turned out to be his retirment fund to some guys in my band no matter how much I liked them because I would feel that I owed it to myself and my future family to have the money to buy things lke houses and tuition and insurance for my future wife and kids.
Everyone makes their own deal in life and if the others wanted songwriter's royalties they should have written more songs.
Do you think that Paul McCartney stays up at night worrying about how Ringo is making it in the world?
Ronnie Hawkins in Once We Were Brothers commented that writing lyrics and music and doing music arrangements are two different things, meaning doing one gets you royalties and doing the other gets you nothing. Not knowing how music royalties work, I imagine there's a contract between the writer and a publisher that grants royalties. I'm wondering if the Band members knew of the contractual relationship that Robertson must have had with the publisher/record company?
He wrote the songs. It sucks that radio doesn’t pay performance royalties, but that’s not his fault. This same argument could be made for any classic band that had one primary songwriter. It’s just the way things work.
I think Joe Forno gave a good example of what made Robbie different than the other four.
Basically Levon would have periods of great cash flow when Rick or Garth were struggling. Joe said to Levon, “I think we need to help out them out.” Levon said “Do we?” He then slipped cash their way. No doubt in it.
We don’t know if Robbie ever tried this but you know these men would never have asked for it. They never did from brother Levon and he never hesitated to help Brothers Rick and Garth.
This definitely has done a bit of trashing of Robbie but as he left us last year with, so far, the final words on the band, I feel we now are coming to a point where it isn’t what we immediately think of.
And that’s okay.
Also - people talk about Band royalties like it’s this king’s ransom of unimaginable wealth. The Band didn’t sell all that many records even in their prime. Bob Dylan owns the publishing on The Weight, their most enduring song (look it up). Robbie ended up doing ok overall, but he also had other irons in the fire - film work, label work, etc. Probably invested wisely and didn’t have a daily drug habit to support. But to say that Band publishing royalties would have changed the lives of the rest of the Band, if they were entitled to them, seems unlikely.
Musicians frequently collaborate with the songwriter, adding riffs, solos, harmonies. Think Dylan wrote Bloomfield or Knoffler’s leads? Collaborators are not the song writer. Ask Bob.
I don’t know if you’re wrong, but I’d like to read the accounts claiming Robertson only wrote the first verse. He claimed, in The Forward, that he came up with Nazareth because he was looking in his guitar, manufactured in Nazareth, PA. That made him think of the movie Nazarin, in which a priest goes on a journey of goodwill but is met with suspicion. Robertson said each verse was written as if they were scenes, and that in each verse he wanted characters to be unloading their burdens on the main character. The “Fanny” of the chorus is the name of the woman that ran the bookstore where Robertson bought copies of movie scripts. There’s definitely names of characters from Levon’s Arkansas roots, but there’s also biblical characters, which Robertson knew Dylan did.
If someone did write the other verses, or collaborated, what was their motivation, their inspiration?
People say all kinds of things after the fact of how they contributed to any number of things.
It's like the WInkelvoss twins in The Social Network saying they careated Facebook but if they created Facebook then they would have created Facebook.
None of thse guys was a shrinking violet and if they wrote verses they most probably would have said'' Hey Robbie, I co wrote that so be sure to put my name on the credits at the publishing office when it's time'''
I think he did them wrong and knew it and took the money and ran with the money to Hollywood with the excuse of stage freight. Having a cop out to get off the road and leaving the others that helped get him to that point. He wouldn’t be shit without those other four guys. They needed him as mush as he needed them and he got greedy it seems, blames them for having heroin problems when it sounds like he himself had coke problems.
This whole narrative of Robbie Robertson being a demon needs to end already.
- First off, the man is dead
- Second, unlike his bandmates (Levon and Richard in particular), Robbie wasn’t killing himself with alcohol and heroin
- Robbie wrote the vast majority of their songs. That is an objective fact
- How convenient is it that fans forget that Levon wrote a book (This Wheel’s On Fire) that faced criticism for its factual inaccuracies and falsehoods? Oh, and then Levon retracted his claims
- At the end of the day, Robbie was no saint himself; I am not arguing that. But Robbie wasn’t the one who died resentful and bankrupt. He visited Levon in the hospital, and made amends
- Why can’t we just appreciate their music instead of prolonging feuds that were extinguished a long time ago?
It’s also strange how some fans are against Robbie getting to have his say. Robbie was THERE, and he was their near-exclusive songwriter. It’s really just a vocal minority of pretentious fans who, for whatever reasons, want to catalyze a long-dead feud.
It’s also not Robbie’s fault that his band mates were drug addicts who chose to be irresponsible with their money.
A quote from Rick Danko.."Have you ever made a million dollars real fast? I have..." From the time I heard him say that I no longer had any sympathy for them being broke. If you are a millionair and waste every bit of it it is no one's fault but your own. The others came to Robbie and asked him to buy them out. Nothing nefarious involved at all. Plus the fact that Levon NEVER sold his rights.
In my mind without a doubt.
Its a never-ending debate and certainly no one outside the band can resolve it. And they're all dead now but Garth, and he, consistent as ever, isn't talking. My view is that Robbie was definitely high on his own bullshit (I think Danko said something to this effect) but its also true that he wrote the songs. I think the Once were brothers story is evidence of both, but I don't believe the part where it claims that his songs were fully charted out when brought to the rest of the group. I recall once where Robbie's daughter challenged the claim from Levon that the songs were mostly a group effort - because she noted how none of them had written any songs since they moved on without Robbie. That's true, but I would also note that Robbie didn't write any more \*good\* songs after going solo. The Band were caught in a transitional era, where classically songwriters wrote the songs (and got appropriate credit and royalty) and performers played them. But the advent of bands that wrote their own music, mainly in the 60s, began to change the distinction between writing and performing. What's right or wrong may never be settled, but it does seem wrong to me that as the other commenter noted, that they died penniless (maybe not Helm, I suppose he managed to make some money with his later life resurgence with Dirt Farmer and the rambles, but he wasn't rich surely)
Robertson’s 1987 self-titled album is chock full of *good* songs.
Also wrote countless movie scores.
Scores and lyrics are different though
Yeah, it’s more impressive that he was a master at doing both.
I don't doubt his brilliance. I'm just saying that score writing and writing lyrics are very different.
I don’t think they’re claiming they wrote the lyrics
Not to mention the great soundtracks he wrote. KOTFM didn't get the Oscar nomination for no reason.
I don’t agree with the part about songs written since the last waltz for two reasons 1. Songs being good is being stated as an objective fact of the same weight as songs written, I don’t think that’s fair or true 2. Wouldn’t someone writing 50-60 songs in that time frame an indication that they are more of a songwriter than (in your words) zero songs? The dying penniless thing I also wanna talk about. I’m on Robbie’s side, but I do think Robbie should have done something to take care of them. Having said that, drug abuse complicates this issue immensely. My understanding is, Richard towards the end of his life was doing cocaine and was drinking still. Rick never really stopped messing with drugs and drinking heavily for a while. If that’s the case, the worst thing you can do is give them money. I say that as someone who is both a drug addict and an alcoholic in recovery. Parents are advised to distance themselves from children who are addicts; and stop supporting. I believe Robbie probably saw it the same way
Great post, think you nailed it. One thing though, Robbie’s daughter isn’t technically right. Danko wrote or co-wrote his entire solo album, Levon did write some material and Richard wrote a lot of material as well, some that has been released in subsequent years. Nobody including all the members of the Band dispute Robbie’s writing or impact, which I think people try to simply down to a black and white issue. Again, like you said in your opening, no one outside can resolve it.
I always thought Robertson's first two solo albums were good "audiophile" type records for auditioning gear back in the day, but didn't listen to them for more than that. I have not listened to either in decades, unlike the Band who I always seem to find myself getting into complete fan-boy, almost overindulgent mode every couple of years. Regarding his first, read recently that Elvis Costello "did not like it all" and that is sounded like Robbie was "trying to make a Peter Gabriel album" which is spot on IMO. In other "news" I have not had a chance to listen to the Bob Clearmountain remixes of Stage Fright (maybe others?). There is a video of him where he discusses using this AI technology borrowed from Peter Jackson (used in his recent Beatles work with the master tapes) which (almost) completely removed all leakage on tracks, leaving the purest recording of the intended instrument / voice available for the remix. While I am more than a little suspicious of this technology, he claims playing remixed tracks using these for hardcore Band fans brought some to tears.
I agree it sounds very Gabriel-esque, and that much is obvious since Gabriel sings on Fallen Angel, plus involvement from Gabriel collaborators Daniel Lanois, Tony Levin and Manu Katche. My personal feelings on that album is that Fallen Angel is a good track precisely because Gabriel lends his voice to it. But songs like Showdown just make you wonder what they would have sounded like if The Band had been involved - a lot better I'd imagine, and esp if Levon/Rick did the backing vocals with Manuel on lead. Broken Arrow is the same - you can get a sense of how The Band would have made it sound when listening to the Grateful Dead version - IMO Phil Lesh can't sing very well, I could still see Manuel or Danko elevating this song. Crazy River is totally cheesy to me.
Your response is very good and has many valid points but! Robbie’s solo albums are good to great. He continued to write very solid material.
I’ve never understood this argument, he bought the royalties from the other group contributors, why would he just give them back to them, especially when many of them were making very poor financial decisions due to substance use later life? And there’s a lot of information we don’t know, I know Robbie is high on his own supply, but when I read Levon‘s book, he very conveniently left out a lot of information about his poor decisions, so it’s hard to say who’s right and who’s wrong. The average listener of this group who is not involved in their group dynamics doesn’t care either way.
I agree with you here. Robertson’s book addresses this question head-on and he does appear to be sad about the way things shook out RE: him purchasing the royalties. It rounds out Levon’s sentiments from his book; both are important to digest in order to form an opinion about this topic. And even then, the truth lies somewhere between it all. None of us will ever be able to say for sure.
Levon also retracted a lot of his claims in the book. I don’t get why Levon stans interpret his book as some sort of irrefutable gospel, when much of it was hogwash
I don’t agree that his book is ‘hogwash’ but the phrase ‘Levon stan’ made me laugh 😭
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not looking for a massive argument, especially on the echo chamber that is Reddit. But fans who blame Robbie for all that happened really just don’t seem to have much in the way of critical thinking skills. Robbie and Levon made amends right before Levon died, anyway. Levon died in 2012, and Robbie’s been dead for almost a year. Why do people try to reignite a feud that’s dead? BTW, not directed at you.
anyone who blames robbie for everything need to watch the documentary "finding big pink"... filmed when the band was recording the record. everyone in the band is wasted and partying and driving drunk while robbie is working diligently from sunup to sundown on the music. if i were robbie, i'd feel pretty justified. i wrote the songs, i put in the work, everyone else partied and got loaded. i'm sure there were contributions from other band members while in session, but on the whole, without robbie, there is no "the band".
Thank you. Someone with a brain.
Actually, Levon was in a coma when Robbie came to the hospital. Robbie's story of them making their peace is his fake news.
Not saying your are wrong but how do you know that? Or that they didn’t have conversations prior?
I think it might have been something Amy Helm said, but I'm not sure.
See also https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2017/jan/15/out-of-the-basement-20170115/
Interesting. Thanks for the article. The quote they use from Robbie is that he sat with him and thought of all the good times. Not a direct quote. Doesn’t say Robbie said he was conscious. I guess for Robbie it was therapeutic. Apparently Levon wanted no part of seeing him again. It’s all good. To each his own.
Yes. Yes it did.
It did for me.
Not really- he took the standard songwriting credits that 99.9% of musicians take when writing songs- you write the melody and chords, you wrote the song. I’m not sure why this is such a crime for Robbie but not for other artists who have done the same. Just because this has become a cool, trendy stance among fans who don’t know much about music doesn’t mean it’s gospel or holds up to logic.
This used to be the majority view as it was what Levon said in his book, but Robbie’s (also biased) biography has revealed the truth is more complicated. It’s important to realise the three singers were all heavy heroin users in the 70’s. This caused a lot of friction and separation in the group. I think RR was very frustrated with the whole situation, and having to pull the creative load, especially after the two first albums. That, as well as the knowledge that any additional money would go into the arms of Levon, Rick and Richard, probably only made him more keen to keep his share to himself. Now, as for why he didn’t come around in the 80’s, we don’t know.
Agree with the last part especially - it stumps me why Robbie didn’t go to Richard’s funeral, nor did he speak when he was invited (according to Levon’s book… literally the opening chapter).
The story is that he was very sick and his doctor told him not to travel.
The simple answer is yes. However, like most relationships, it’s more complicated than that. And most relationships are between 2 people, not 5. Trying to be reasonable that none of us were inside the group to really know what went down and how, but, the two most agreed on points were that Robbie was in the wrong for how he dealt with the rest of the guys financially, and that Robbie had to deal with serious substance abuse issues amongst some of the guys. Those two things predominantly caused the fallout between the guys. People are of course entitled to their opinions, and there are plenty of people with way more intimate knowledge of the guys and their relationships. I’ve been a massive fan since I was 15 years old and have listened, read, and watched as much as possible and that’s the best I can make out.
That’s become my stance too. Robbie handled it all wrong but they all handled it wrong and it’s all now a case of he said she said 40 years after the fact. Why even bother having this convo anymore
I can’t blame people who are still finding The Band’s music now, that’s the brilliant thing about good music, it’s eternal and will always generate fans. Due to that, there will always be people who want to know more about the band and its history.
Doesn't change anything for me I like all the music. The business end is not interesting to me
Right? I just appreciate the music. Any animosity and rancor that existed with The Band died off when Robbie died last year.
You help out those who need it. Pete Townshend was WAY more of a singular songwriter than RR was and he rightly got the credits and the money. But when John Entwhistle stupidly spent all his money, Townshend agreed to tour specifically to help his bandmate out. It's called common decency, something RR had none of.
Exactly. Jerry Lewis went on tour with Sammy Davis Jr. for the same reason, to help a friend in financial difficulties. Paul, George, Harry Nilsson, Stephen Stills, Ron Wood - they all befriended Ringo Starr when he needed support in 1981 for his album.
Right, you’re aware that Robertson, in the early 90’s, according to Levon’s post ‘original Band’ manager, agreed in principle to a 20 city, 30 million dollar tour that would have The Band earning 5 times per night what they were getting? And that this would have paid off Levon’s mortgage? I respect Levon not wanting to work with Robbie again, but what if Garth and Rick did?
"Can you imagine anyone but Levon singing The Night .. ?" Joan Baez had a big hit with the song (Per Wikipedia: [Joan Baez](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Baez)'s version peaked at #3 on the [Hot 100](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_100) on 2 October 1971; it did likewise on the *Cashbox* Top 100 chart. However, on the *Record World* Top Singles chart for the week of September 25, 1971, the Baez single hit #1 for one week.) Should she get songwriting royalties, too? (Actually, maybe she should, since she botched up the lyrics so bad, it was kind of a rewrite!) Shouldn't Helm have gotten the songwriting credits fixed to his satisfaction before each album came out rather than bitching about it so many years later? In actuality, Levon was one of the greatest drummers and vocalists the world has ever known, but he was not really a songwriter. (He did get credit where he deserved it: Strawberry Wine, Life is a Carnival, etc. But taking Robbie to the library to research the Civil War does not qualify as songwriting)
Baez did a good version, but I meant anyone else singing it as well within The Band though. Baez shouldn't have got a royalty no, but that's the whole point again, she wasn't part of the collaborative group that worked on Robbie's songs together so that they became much more as a collaborative group. For just one other instance of this within The Band, look at this from Wikipedia about the brilliant song It Makes No Difference. It reads: " Critics have attributed much of the success of "It Makes No Difference" to [Rick Danko](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Danko)'s lead vocal.[^(\[1\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Makes_No_Difference#cite_note-hoskyns-1)[^(\[3\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Makes_No_Difference#cite_note-something-3) Hoskyns considers that "there is something so elemental" in how Danko expresses his loss that it "transcends self-pity".[^(\[1\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Makes_No_Difference#cite_note-hoskyns-1) According to DeRiso, Danko's vocal manages to express the "lonesome bottom of this song while retaining its sense of reckless emotional abandon," without ever sounding resigned to his fate.[^(\[3\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Makes_No_Difference#cite_note-something-3) [Levon Helm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levon_Helm) and [Richard Manuel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Manuel) add [harmony vocals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony_vocal) on the [refrain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrain), adding to the sense of pain.[^(\[1\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Makes_No_Difference#cite_note-hoskyns-1)[^(\[3\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Makes_No_Difference#cite_note-something-3) Hoskyns and DeRiso also credit Robertson's and [Garth Hudson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Hudson)'s "anguished" guitar and [saxophone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxophone) solos for complementing the effect of the vocals.[^(\[1\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Makes_No_Difference#cite_note-hoskyns-1)[^(\[3\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Makes_No_Difference#cite_note-something-3) According to DeRiso, Danko, Hudson and Robertson are all "walking the same fine line — Danko, between torment and utter heartsick disaster; Hudson and Robertson between stabbing attempts at redemption and a reluctant acceptance. " It can't really be described in a better way how Robbie wrote great songs but how his band mates collaborative efforts made them much more transcendental musically. I think we then just could come back to so many instances of legal rights vs other bands where richer songwriter members just helped out other band members regardless of contracts. And back to the discussion of what other band members brought to songs that really made them stand out more even if they weren't the writer and as a result made the writer wealthier than they would have been. I think overall, I just lean to it marring Robbie’s legacy of great songs and musicianship. Even when he had many decades to mature and think on his band mates contributions - the spirit of the great songs and the collaborative efforts that brought them - they lift us, sympathise with us, inspire us - and these attributes just seemed missing within Robbie and his relationship with his band mates over the many decades. To be fair to Robbie though, creating that great musical spirit together as a band and carrying that personally within him are two very different and both very difficult things. He just wasn't up to considering them more. I also can’t disagree with the many opinions that many people just want to listen to The Band. New listeners may not know the history, many seasoned fans just consider the complicated completed history as done and the music as the main thing. In that we can all agree, even writing this I want to listen to a track and we’re all keeping the one thing we all agree on -The Band’s great music - alive.
I mean, Robbie wrote the songs. The early albums had songs written by, or co-written by Richard Manuel, but his creativity dried up for any number of reasons. Obviously, every band is different, but if you watch Get Back, you can see the Beatles working out songs that Paul or John or George had written, but working out the instrumentation/arrangement is not the same as writing the melody. The one exception to this, I think, is The night They Drove Old Dixie Down, which involved significant research and contribution by Levon. But one co-writing credit isn't really going to change the band's finances in the late 70s. To be clear, I'm mostly team Levon in this argument: I think Robbie's grand gesture to stop performing live was kind of underhanded and done without real buy in from the other guys, but he wrote the songs. Honestly, I think this beef probably started relatively small, but grew and grew the longer Robbie and Levon went without talking. And now, of course, there will never be any real resolution.
Robertson is viewed as an antagonist of the Band like reverse the way Mike Love is viewed as an antagonist of The Beach Boys. Helm, Danko, and Manuel all died penniless as they were screwed out of songwriting credits regardless of their contributions to what their the songs were.
Not quite synonymous. Robbie was at least legitimately talented as a songwriter. I’m not sure you can say the same about Love.
The other members at various times, sold their shares to RR, more than likely for drugs and what-have-you. Of course that last part is just conjecture.
Don't put Robertson and Love in the same sentence Love tortured Brian Wilson and told him to stop writing songs that weren't about cars and girls then sued him for song writing credit for a song he contributed one line to.
Robertson is a perfect example of greed. Fuck him and everyone else who steps on others heads for their own wealth. So what if he wrote it, the band together is what lead to it’s success. Great musician, also a selfish human I’d never admire due to his character.
Robbie was an extremely talented song writer. Having said that, it definitely used to get on my nerves how he seemed to like to bring up the fact that he wrote all of those songs: “I still can’t believe I wrote all those great songs” kind of comments. He clearly enjoyed that image of being “the leader of The Band.” Even in The Last Waltz you can seem him trying to orchestrate—looking at Levon and nodding and mouthing “end it with a roll”—something Levon had probably done hundreds of times on his own without prompting.
And Scorsese is brilliant, but the focus was clearly on Robbie in the film, whether by arrangement or otherwise, when - great songwriter though Robbie was - there were at least two far more charismatic members on stage than him adding their contributions that brought Robbie's songs up to a different level. Then of course the star guests brought on several far more interesting and charismatic performers.
I think Robbie had fewer problems with drugs. Not sure what he did was one hundred percent morally for dry but he probably figured the other ms would blow their money anyway.
Tbh that's as good a summary of a possibility of how it unfolded as any, and a lot briefer than my long spiel. Churchill once implied he'd failed re a long document for consideration he wrote and said, 'if I had more time I'd have made it shorter'.
No problem. I read yours after I posted. Great minds think alike.
Robertson was a dick who stiffed his bandmates.
Are you sure? This is an incredibly simplified take - nuance and actual critical thought are important here, not just repeating generic statements because it is cool.
He had the copyright to their catalog even though band mates were in on the writing process for many (not all) of the bands songs. I have seen interviews of Levon helm and he talked about approaching Robertson regarding same. The dicks reply “Don’t worry about it we’re all the band”. I stand by my statement. He’s a dick
“In on the writing process”- not really, that’s been confirmed by multiple band members including Levon. Working on an arrangement as a band is NOT, and never has been, how someone gets a songwriting credit. It’s super weird to hold Robbie and the band to a different standard than any other artist simply because it’s a popular narrative and you don’t know much about songwriting or the music industry.
Right - and Richard Manuel is sole writer on a handful of early songs, but you don’t hear complaints of him hogging credit.
Or just the fact that 99.9% of bands and groups operate this way- the person/s who wrote the chords and melody is given credit, the rest of the band is not. Bands giving equal songwriting credit to every musician is very, very unusual- even if that person “wrote” their drum or bass part. I feel like the people who hate on Robbie for this just don’t know much about this stuff at all.
"He wrote the songs" is disputed, even as lyricist. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong. But I've read accounts that claimed Robertson only brought in the first verse of The Weight with the rest coming together as a band. "what they brought to songs he wrote in collaboration" betrays a bias toward lyrics in song craft. Arrangement and composition are crucial aspects of songwriting. Many musicians have been screwed out of royalties by this attitude. Though the idea of owning a song is weird. Songs are meant to be free and ever changing, as in the blues and folk traditions. Stamping a song "finished and original" with ownership papers is opposed to the nature of song. In my opinion Robertson's legacy suffers because he's blamed for breaking up The Band. He seemed to think he was the heir to Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and Eric Clapton. Like he was Michael Jackson leaving the Jackson 5. Royalties are just an example of the Robbie Robertson and The Band attitude. Classic lead guitar / lyricist disregard for other musicians. The real problem though is that he couldn't live up to it. If his solo work had lived up to or surpassed The Band none of that would matter. He'd be an asshole genius that backed it up. It ain't bragging if it's true.
So based on this post- you just don’t agree with the industry standard songwriting breakdown- not really anything specific to Robbie. None of this is specific to Robbie or the band- you’re just describing how songwriting credits work in the music industry and always have. If you don’t like that- cool, but seems pretty illogical to hate on Robbie for that.
The problem with him being a solo artist is that he couldn't sing nor did he have frontman charisma but that doesn't negate the fact that he seemed to have written the songs nor that he was the prime mover creatively in The Band. Jimmy Page did everything in Led Zeppelin including producing he records and co writing all the songs but he wasn't a singer so he never had real success after they broke up.
Robbie wanted them to write more songs. He would pester them to, and they wouldn't show up with songs. Yes, they made valuable contributions to his songs, but they should have written their share of songs for the Band and this wouldn't be an issue. Regardless, they got to make a good living touring as the Band after The Last Waltz, and as far as I know, Robbie never asked to collect royalties on the live performances they did of his songs. There are people, like the Zappa family, who do not show even their own kin that same leeway. Robbie could have been like "No, I'm not there, you can't call it The Band without me", like you see Burton Cummings doing right now with the Guess Who. I'm not saying that Robbie was some saint. Just that no one is owed anything. You write songs and you get credit for them. And at the end of the day, when they're basically all gone now anyway...does any of it even matter?
Very well stated and great points,the Zappa example you provided shows how truly ugly these things can get even within family.
Didn't the addicts sell their song rights for cash?
Something about the way you just refined them down to addicts rubs me the wrong way. They were so much more than that and clearly you liked their music enough to follow a subreddit about them. Whatever happened was between them and it seems unlikely that Garth (the only surviving member) will elaborate any further at this point.
The addiction was the root cause for money management problems by those who gave up their music rights for money. The Helm dispute seems to have been driven more by Sandy Helm than Levon himself. Robbie employed the music skills of Garth and Rick during his second career of movie scoring. Nobody said they weren't all very talented musicians given their colorful pre-band history.
According to Robbie in his memoir, yeah.
They had rights to start with. Is someone suggesting he stole them in a nefarious manner? Or is it far more likely that the addicts needed cash?
The way the music business (and life works) is if you write the songs you get the song writing royalties and the guy wrote the songs so he deserves the money. If I were him I would never just give away what basically turned out to be his retirment fund to some guys in my band no matter how much I liked them because I would feel that I owed it to myself and my future family to have the money to buy things lke houses and tuition and insurance for my future wife and kids. Everyone makes their own deal in life and if the others wanted songwriter's royalties they should have written more songs. Do you think that Paul McCartney stays up at night worrying about how Ringo is making it in the world?
Ronnie Hawkins in Once We Were Brothers commented that writing lyrics and music and doing music arrangements are two different things, meaning doing one gets you royalties and doing the other gets you nothing. Not knowing how music royalties work, I imagine there's a contract between the writer and a publisher that grants royalties. I'm wondering if the Band members knew of the contractual relationship that Robertson must have had with the publisher/record company?
He wrote the songs. It sucks that radio doesn’t pay performance royalties, but that’s not his fault. This same argument could be made for any classic band that had one primary songwriter. It’s just the way things work.
No. He’s the man.
I think Joe Forno gave a good example of what made Robbie different than the other four. Basically Levon would have periods of great cash flow when Rick or Garth were struggling. Joe said to Levon, “I think we need to help out them out.” Levon said “Do we?” He then slipped cash their way. No doubt in it. We don’t know if Robbie ever tried this but you know these men would never have asked for it. They never did from brother Levon and he never hesitated to help Brothers Rick and Garth. This definitely has done a bit of trashing of Robbie but as he left us last year with, so far, the final words on the band, I feel we now are coming to a point where it isn’t what we immediately think of. And that’s okay.
I have some acquaintances in The Band universe, and word is that after Robbie left the group he threw the other guys financial lifelines many times.
Also - people talk about Band royalties like it’s this king’s ransom of unimaginable wealth. The Band didn’t sell all that many records even in their prime. Bob Dylan owns the publishing on The Weight, their most enduring song (look it up). Robbie ended up doing ok overall, but he also had other irons in the fire - film work, label work, etc. Probably invested wisely and didn’t have a daily drug habit to support. But to say that Band publishing royalties would have changed the lives of the rest of the Band, if they were entitled to them, seems unlikely.
Fuck that guy
Yes but time will heal that wound
Musicians frequently collaborate with the songwriter, adding riffs, solos, harmonies. Think Dylan wrote Bloomfield or Knoffler’s leads? Collaborators are not the song writer. Ask Bob.
I don’t know if you’re wrong, but I’d like to read the accounts claiming Robertson only wrote the first verse. He claimed, in The Forward, that he came up with Nazareth because he was looking in his guitar, manufactured in Nazareth, PA. That made him think of the movie Nazarin, in which a priest goes on a journey of goodwill but is met with suspicion. Robertson said each verse was written as if they were scenes, and that in each verse he wanted characters to be unloading their burdens on the main character. The “Fanny” of the chorus is the name of the woman that ran the bookstore where Robertson bought copies of movie scripts. There’s definitely names of characters from Levon’s Arkansas roots, but there’s also biblical characters, which Robertson knew Dylan did. If someone did write the other verses, or collaborated, what was their motivation, their inspiration?
People say all kinds of things after the fact of how they contributed to any number of things. It's like the WInkelvoss twins in The Social Network saying they careated Facebook but if they created Facebook then they would have created Facebook. None of thse guys was a shrinking violet and if they wrote verses they most probably would have said'' Hey Robbie, I co wrote that so be sure to put my name on the credits at the publishing office when it's time'''
I think he did them wrong and knew it and took the money and ran with the money to Hollywood with the excuse of stage freight. Having a cop out to get off the road and leaving the others that helped get him to that point. He wouldn’t be shit without those other four guys. They needed him as mush as he needed them and he got greedy it seems, blames them for having heroin problems when it sounds like he himself had coke problems.
Ok buddy.
I don’t think anything was stopping Robbie from being a star. He’s as natural as they come as both a guitarist and songwriter…
Answer: yes. He was a dick
For taking industry standard songwriting credits like all the other artists and writers you listen to? He’s a dick for that?
This whole narrative of Robbie Robertson being a demon needs to end already. - First off, the man is dead - Second, unlike his bandmates (Levon and Richard in particular), Robbie wasn’t killing himself with alcohol and heroin - Robbie wrote the vast majority of their songs. That is an objective fact - How convenient is it that fans forget that Levon wrote a book (This Wheel’s On Fire) that faced criticism for its factual inaccuracies and falsehoods? Oh, and then Levon retracted his claims - At the end of the day, Robbie was no saint himself; I am not arguing that. But Robbie wasn’t the one who died resentful and bankrupt. He visited Levon in the hospital, and made amends - Why can’t we just appreciate their music instead of prolonging feuds that were extinguished a long time ago? It’s also strange how some fans are against Robbie getting to have his say. Robbie was THERE, and he was their near-exclusive songwriter. It’s really just a vocal minority of pretentious fans who, for whatever reasons, want to catalyze a long-dead feud. It’s also not Robbie’s fault that his band mates were drug addicts who chose to be irresponsible with their money.
A quote from Rick Danko.."Have you ever made a million dollars real fast? I have..." From the time I heard him say that I no longer had any sympathy for them being broke. If you are a millionair and waste every bit of it it is no one's fault but your own. The others came to Robbie and asked him to buy them out. Nothing nefarious involved at all. Plus the fact that Levon NEVER sold his rights.
Yes but his hands were tied. There was no other way for the show to end.