Robbie Robertson, beloved guitarist, songwriter and frontman of The Band, died after an unspecified lengthy sickness on Wednesday (Aug. 9). He was 80 years previous.
Robertson’s longtime supervisor, Jared Levine, shared the devastating information in a press release: “Robbie was surrounded by his household on the time of his demise, together with his spouse, Janet, his ex-wife, Dominique, her companion Nicholas, and his kids Alexandra, Sebastian, Delphine, and Delphine’s companion Kenny. He’s additionally survived by his grandchildren Angelica, Donovan, Dominic, Gabriel, and Seraphina. Robertson not too long ago accomplished his fourteenth movie music venture with frequent collaborator Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon. In lieu of flowers, the household has requested that donations be made to the Six Nations of the Grand River to help a brand new Woodland Cultural Centre.”
The Toronto, Ontario-born artist started enjoying guitar at age 10, and at simply 16 years previous he joined drummer Levon Helm in the Hawks, the backing band for Ronnie Hawkins. The Hawks went on to play with Bob Dylan on his legendary Going Electrical excursions in 1965 and 1966, and recorded the seminal “basement tapes” with the legend earlier than altering their group’s identify to The Band. They launched their debut Music From Huge Pink album in 1968, which featured the Robertson-penned traditional, “The Weight,” and the group carried out at Woodstock Pageant a 12 months later.
Robertson was the only real author of The Band’s first 4 hits on the Billboard Scorching 100 — “The Weight” (peaked at No. 63), “Up on Cripple Creek” (No. 25), “Rag Mama Rag” (No. 57), and “Time to Kill” (No. 77). He was additionally the only real author of the largest hit Joan Baez ever had, “The Night time They Drove Previous Dixie Down,” which reached No. 3 in 1971.
After eight years as a band, Robertson ended the group in 1976, culminating in The Band’s legendary farewell live performance, The Final Waltz. Dylan, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, Neil Younger and Joni Mitchell all joined the group for the efficiency at San Francisco’s Winterland and a corresponding live performance movie was directed by Martin Scorsese. The Final Waltz soundtrack was launched in 1978 and peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
Robertson additionally delved into the movie world, co-writing, producing, showing in and composing the supply music for Carny (1979), starring Gary Busey and Jodie Foster. He went on to create and produce music for Scorsese’s Raging Bull (1980), King Of Comedy (1983), and The Shade Of Cash (1986), which included “It’s In The Means That You Use It,” co-written with Clapton. Robertson scored, consulted for, produced or supervised music for quite a few iconic movies all through the years, together with American Magnificence (1999), Any Given Sunday (1999) Gangs Of New York (2002), The Departed (2006), Shutter Island (2009), The Wolf of Wall Avenue (2013), and Silence (2016).
Robertson made his solo album debut in 1987 along with his Grammy nominated self-titled album, that includes friends Peter Gabriel and U2 and the beloved monitor “Someplace Down The Loopy River.” His sixth and ultimate solo album, Sinematic, was launched in 2019.
The Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame in 1994 and acquired a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2008. Robertson by no means gained a Grammy in competitors, regardless of 5 nods through the years, however he gained 5 Juno Awards in his native Canada, together with three in 1989 — album of the 12 months (for his eponymous album), male vocalist of the 12 months and producer of the 12 months (in tandem with Daniel Lanois).
Extra reporting by Paul Grein.
This story first appeared on Billboard.com.
