In honor of Robbie Robertson’s passing on August 9, today’s classic song of the day is “The Weight.” Mr. Robertson wrote this and the Band recorded it at A&R Studios in Manhattan in January of 1968. They released it on their legendary Music from Big Pink album, which hit store shelves in August of 1968.
“The Weight” was the fifth and closing track on side one of Music from Big Pink. It’s probably the most famous song on the album, even if it peaked at just #63 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The album itself hit #30 on Billboard’s Pop Albums chart. Rolling Stone ranked Music from Big Pink as 34th on their list of 500 greatest albums of all time.
The song has had many interpretations over the years. On the surface it’s about a visitor to a town called Nazareth and the interesting people he meets while trying to do a favor for his friend Fanny. It may be about more than that, however.
One critic described “The Weight” as “a masterpiece of Biblical allusions, enigmatic lines, and iconic characters.” Certainly, the name Nazareth has Biblical connotations, right? Well, maybe not; Robertson says he came up with name of the town by looking inside his Martin guitar and seeing a stamp that said it was manufactured in Nazareth, Pennsylvania.
While that’s not very Biblical, Robertson did describe the song as being about “the impossibility of sainthood” as the lead character, trying to do good, goes about his tasks. In a word, it’s about the burdens—the weight—of the responsibilities that we all carry.
Not surprisingly, the characters mentioned in the song have real-world analogues, specifically:
- Fanny is based on Fanny Steloff, the owner of a bookstore in New York City that Robertson frequented
- Carmen was a resident of Helm’s hometown of Turkey Scratch, Arkansas
- Luke was Jimmy Ray “Luke” Paulman, former guitarist for the Hawks, where most of the Band came from
- Anna Lee is based on drummer Levon Helm’s longtime friend Anna Lee Amaden
- Crazy Chester was an eccentric resident of nearby Fayetteville, Arkansas; he used to carry a cap gun and singer Ronnie Hawkins would humorously tell him to “keep the peace” when he played a local club there
In case you’re wondering who sang what, that’s Levon Helm on the first three verses (pulling into Nazareth, meeting Carmen and the Devil, and interacting with Miss Moses and Anna Lee), Rick Danko on the fourth (Crazy Chester and his dog), and Helm and Danko sharing vocals on the final verse (catching the cannonball). Everybody chimed in on harmonies for the choruses.
According to Robertson, the structure and overall approach of the song was inspired by the movies of French filmmaker Luis Buñuel, which are known for their surreal imagery and episodic narratives. “The Weight” is certainly full of vivid imagery throughout its series of character-based vignettes, so there’s something to that.
How’s how Mr. Robertson described the song and the lead character’s journey:
“In ‘The Weight’ it was this very simple thing. Someone says, ‘Listen, would you do me this favor? When you get there will you say ‘hello’ to somebody or will you give somebody this or will you pick up one of these for me? Oh? You’re going to Nazareth, that’s where the Martin guitar factory is. Do me a favor when you’re there.’ This is what it’s all about. So the guy goes and one thing leads to another and it’s like ‘Holy shit, what’s this turned into? I’ve only come here to say ‘hello’ for somebody and I’ve got myself in this incredible predicament.’ It was very Buñuelish to me at the time.”
“The Weight” is truly a classic, interpreted by artists as diverse as Aretha Franklin, Jackie DeShannon, Diana Ross and the Supremes, and Weezer. It ranked as #41 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest songs of all time, Pitchfork Media named it the 13th best song of the 1960s, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named it one of the 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
By the way, there is some dispute over who exactly wrote “The Weight.” Robbie Robertson claimed it was all his, but Levon Helm insisted that it was a collaborative affair. Helm gave much of the music credit to Garth Hudson and said that Robertson probably wrote 60% of the lyrics with Rick Danko and Richard Manuel contributing 20% each. He took a small amount of credit himself for some of the lyrics.
Whoever wrote it, “The Weight” is a brilliant piece of work, both in its writing and in its execution by the Band. As great as the recorded version is, however, I actually prefer the joy-filled version that the Band did with Mavis Staples and the Staples Singers in The Last Waltz, a documentary (directed by Martin Scorsese, of all people) about the Band’s final star-studded concert on Thanksgiving Day in 1976. That version just kills—and I can never get enough of Levon’s swampy drumming on his set of antique Ludwigs.
Robbie Robertson, both with the Band and on his own, had a momentous career. As part of the Band, he backed up Bob Dylan in the mid-60s through the mid-70s. In addition to “The Weight,” he wrote such classics as “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and “Up on Cripple Creek.” On his own, he had solo hits with “Broken Arrow” and “Somewhere Down the Crazy River.” He collaborated with Martin Scorsese on several film soundtracks, including Raging Bull, Casino, The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Irishman. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Songwriters.
Robbie Robertson led a long and fruitful life. He passed away on August 9, 2023, at 80 years of age, after a year-long battle with prostate cancer. That leaves Garth Hudson as the only surviving member of the Band; Richard Manuel died in 1986, Rick Danko in 1999, and Levon Helm in 2012.
