From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sat Jul 5, 2003  1:25 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Robbie Robertson
 
ROBBIE ROBERTSON (By Phil Davies)

Born Jaime Robbie Robertson, 5 July 1944, Toronto, Canada

Robbie's work with The Band in the late 60s/early 70s has earned him a stellar
reputation in the Rock world as a singer,songwriter and guitarist, but for the
more musically educated, his early work as a Hawk (in Ronnie Hawkins seminal
group) is of equal importance.We will therefore concentrate this biog on the
rompin' rockin' roadhouse days.

His dad was a Jewish gambler with mob connections, and his mother a Mohawk
native, who had been raised on the 6 nations Reservation near Hagersville,
north of Lake Erie.His father was killed in a mob shooting (an uncle did time
for a major jewel theft) and his mother re-married and the young Robbie lived
in Cabbagetown in Toronto, which was as glamarous as it sounds! He spent summer
on the Reservation with his mam's family. He was introduced to the guitar at 7,
and apart from one lesson was self taught.

He recalls being around 14 when rock n roll changed his life.He loved listening
to DJs like George Lorenz in Buffalo. R&B greats like Bo Diddley and Little
Willie John, rockers like Eddie Cochran and fellow Indian guitarist Link Wray,
were particular favs. He played in cool sounding local combos like Thumper &
the Trombones and Lil Caesar & the Consuls. He started hanging out on the
fringes of Toronto's hottest group(probably the hottest group anywhere in late
58/59), the Hawks, always anxious to impress big boss man Ronnie Hawkins. Two
songs written by our teenage rage were featured on the legendary second
Roulette album Mr Dynamo, check out Hey Boba Lou and Someone Like You. Much
cooler than a certain young Mr Zimmerman briefly (allegedly) being Bobby Vee's
pianist!!!! 

By 1961, Robbie had the nerve wracking job of filling the Hawks guitar
slinger's role, following the fingerprints of Jimmy Ray Paulman, Fred Carter
Jnr as road/studio Hawks and even Hank Garland and Grady Martin as album/studio
Hawks!! Following on from a rather bland Nashville overproduced and predictable
Hank Williams tribute album, the Hawk got back to rocking in a NY studio with
Levon Helm, Rick Danko and our lil Robbie on September 13th -18th 1961. Check
out the very highly recommended (nay essential) Sequel Ronnie Hawkins and the
Hawks 2cd set for goodies like Sexy Ways, Come Love, Susie Q, Matchbox and I
Feel Good. The 2cd has the two songs with Levon on vocals, Further On Up The
Road and 19 Years Old. Feb 1962 saw Arkansas and Mojo Man laid down and was
there a better 1963 session anywhere than the January 63 NY session where the
most blistering indeed scorchingest Diddley covers of all time were laid down
for immortality. The bass player was Roy Buchanan. Any Shaker worth his salt
must have Bo Diddley/Who Do You Love locked in the vinyl/shiny vault. American
teens were too wrapped up in Motown and Mersybeat to notice and this stunning
45 pegged out at 117 in Billboard. Fast forward to 1976 and the Band's Scorcese
produced Last Waltz movie, where the cuddly and bearded Ronnie H. fans Robbie's
Who Do You Love guitar solo with his stetson. Brilliant.

63 saw one more rompin r&b session, Bossman, High Blood Pressure and There's A
Screw Loose, then it was El and Pris time, Seperate Ways for Mr Dyamo and his
disciples. Robbie and Levon were apparently unhappy with the wages. Ronnie
trained up several new versions of the hawks over the decades and happily is
still rompin in Canada to this day.The Hawks later met Mr ZImmerman, evolved
into The Band (originally called The Crackers!!), cut some cool stuff (to my
60s tuned ears) both with Dylan and especially on their own. Their oldies album
Moondog Matinee is a personal fav, with a song list reminiscent fo their days
as youngblood Hawks, but perfomed in their later laid back style, they became
one of the most highly rated and influential groups of the late 60s and 70s.

Robbie went on to score movies and produce introspective solo albums after The
Band split, he even dabbled in acting. Bet he still remembers Ronnie telling
him " You won't earn much, but you'll get more pussy than Frank Sinatra!"

Ah'll get me coat.

ps Robbie had the good taste to induct both Elmore James and Allen Toussaint
into the RnR Hall Of Fame.

Here's the AMG section on his later career 

"In 1958, he hooked up with rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins' backing band the
Hawks, joining fellow sidemen Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson and Richard
Manuel. After remaining with Hawkins through 1963, the Hawks began working on
their own; they soon came to the attention of Bob Dylan, and became the support
unit on the singer's now-legendary 1965-1966 world tour. Continuing their
affiliation with Dylan, the group, renamed simply the Band, went on to become
one of rock's seminal acts; propelled by Robertson's acute, evocative
examinations of American mythology and lore, they made a series of seminal LPs,
including 1968's Music From Big Pink and the following year's self-titled
masterpiece. The Band dissolved on Thanksgiving Day, 1976 following an all-star
concert filmed by director Martin Scorsese and later released as The Last
Waltz. The project marked the beginning of Robertson's long affiliation with
Scorsese, as well as an interest in dramatic acting; in 1980, Robertson
produced and starred in Carny, co-starring Jodie Foster and Gary Busey. 
Also in 1980, he composed the score to Scorsese's brilliant Raging Bull, and
continued to confine his musical activity to the film medium for the next
several years, later working with Scorsese on the acerbic 1983 satire The King
of Comedy and 1986's The Color of Money, the sequel to The Hustler. Finally, in
1987 Robertson released his self-titled solo debut, which included guest
appearances from onetime Band mates Danko and Hudson as well as U2, Peter
Gabriel, Daniel Lanois and Gil Evans. Storyville, a conceptual piece steeped in
the sounds and imagery of a famed area of New Orleans, followed in 1991. In
1994, Robertson returned to his roots, teaming with the Native American group
the Red Road Ensemble for Music for "The Native Americans," a collection of
songs composed for a television documentary series. Contact From the Underworld
of Redboy followed in 1998. - Jason Ankeny"

Recommended Reading:

The Hawk -Story of Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks - written by good egg and long
time fan Ian Wallis, pub Quarry Rocks 1996.

A superb book, very highly recommended. Introduction by one former President
Bill Clinton

This Wheel's On Fire - Levon Helm (insight into the long term feud between Helm
and Robbie)

Recommended Listening:

Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks The Roulette Years, Sequel 2cd -1994, get it while
you can

For the non purist:

Dylan & the Band/Hawks -Live 1966, Albert Hall, has the folk set followed by
the electric rock set, the Judas tour! No Levon

Dylan & Band - the Basement Tapes

The Band , Music Fom Big Pink/The Band/Stage Fright/Cahoots/Rock Of Ages
(live), Moondog Matinee, Last Waltz (also on dvd)

His solo work leaves me cold.