Robbie Robertson, R.I.P.

Guitarist and songwriter Robbie Robertson, who was best known for his tenure with The Band before turning his attention to scoring films in a long-term collaboration with Martin Scorsese, passed away today following a yearlong battle with prostate cancer. He was 80. 

With Robertson's passing, Garth Hudson is now the last surviving member of The Band. Ironically, he is the eldest member of the group having turned 86 earlier this month. 

Born in Toronto to an Aboriginal mother and a Jewish father, Robertson began his musical career as a teenager with Ronnie Hawkins and The Hawks. Later renamed Levon and The Hawks after parting ways with Hawkins, The Hawks would gain prominence in the mid-1960's as Bob Dylan's backup band when he went electric. 

In 1968, the group consisting of Robertson, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson were christened The Band and would release two critically acclaimed albums to end the decade - Music from Big Pink and The Band (a.k.a. The Brown Album). Five more albums would follow during the 1970's though these works were less well received. While Robertson wrote a majority of The Band's songs, his authorship has been disputed by both Levon Helm and Rick Danko who said the songs were written collaboratively, a claim rejected by Robertson. 

The Band formally disbanded in November 1976 following a concert at The Winterland Ballroom in what became known as The Last Waltz. It marked the beginning of a nearly half-century with Martin Scorsese. Robertson also scored Scorsese films such as Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, Casino, The Departed, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Irishman and the forthcoming Killers of the Flower Moon due to be released in October. 

On a personal note, I saw Robertson here in Cambridge, Massachusetts back in November 2016 while he was promoting his autobiography, Testimony. I won't dwell on it at length, but as I described it at the time it was a weird evening. Robertson commandeered the bathroom as part of his personal green room, we were not allowed to ask questions or take pictures and were to leave "quickly and quietly." A lot of people ended up walking out on the event. 

The one interesting thing Robertson said that evening was that he was in the midst of producing a TV documentary on the history of rock 'n roll with Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis. Alas this did not come to pass. Nearly seven years later they are all gone and now so is he. R.I.P.