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Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's the thing.

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Speaker 1: I'll ruled in another room. I will beating by hand

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Speaker 1: past and give me to find a place where I

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Speaker 1: can leave my head. And Mr Canna tell me where

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Speaker 1: a man I find it be. He just branded shook

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Speaker 1: my hand and new we're going to see. At age fifteen,

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Speaker 1: Robbie Robertson wrote his first two recorded songs. A year later,

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Speaker 1: he packed up his guitar and took a train from

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Speaker 1: Canada to the Mississippi Delta, what he calls the holy

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Speaker 1: Land of rock and roll. By the mid nineteen sixties,

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Speaker 1: he'd be touring the world with Bob Dylan, then taking

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Speaker 1: center stage with a group of his own, happily named

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Speaker 1: The Band. Operating out of a basement in upstate New York,

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Speaker 1: he penned classics like The Weight, still considered a masterpiece today.

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Speaker 1: A blend of country and rock and roll, the band's

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Speaker 1: music transcendent generations, pushed boundaries and changed the face of

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Speaker 1: music forever. In his new memoir Testimony, Robbie Robertson travels

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Speaker 1: back to the place it all began, the Six Nations

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Speaker 1: Indian Reservation, where his mother a mohawk was raised. That's

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Speaker 1: where I was introduced to music. It seemed to me

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Speaker 1: that everybody played an instrument, saying dance, did something because

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Speaker 1: there wasn't much entertainment coming through the Reds, so they

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Speaker 1: had to make their own and it and it felt

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Speaker 1: like a club, and I thought, I gotta get into

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Speaker 1: this club. Everybody plays something. How much time did you

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Speaker 1: spend there? Oh, we spent lots of time there because

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Speaker 1: that's where you know, my mom's relatives were, so we

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Speaker 1: would go several times a year. And that was your

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Speaker 1: mother's side of the family. So yeah, yeah, and uh.

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Speaker 1: And it felt to me like I was. I was

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Speaker 1: that they allowed me into this world that I thought

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Speaker 1: was so special. So all of these things in music,

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Speaker 1: and it was the first time I ever saw anybody

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Speaker 1: playing an instrument a few inches from me, and the

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Speaker 1: sound of it from that place that I thought, I've

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Speaker 1: got I've got to learn something about this. So some

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Speaker 1: of my cousins and uncles and every they would show

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Speaker 1: me a few little tricks on the guitar, a couple

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Speaker 1: of chords, and over time I liked it and liked it.

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Speaker 1: And then when I was about eleven or twelve years old,

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Speaker 1: I thought, I'm getting as good as they are at

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Speaker 1: this and they're grown ups. Something's happening here, all of

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Speaker 1: this coming out of the Indian Reservation where it's supposed

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Speaker 1: to be deprived. It was a glorious part of my

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Speaker 1: growing up. So then when I was thirteen years old,

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Speaker 1: I was standing there at the crossroads with a guitar.

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Speaker 1: Rock and Roll came along and I just reached puberty.

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Speaker 1: It was a setup. I had nowhere else to go.

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Speaker 1: I had to follow this path and so it was.

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Speaker 1: It was like it was laid out before me and

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Speaker 1: all I had to do was follow it. So I

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Speaker 1: started getting in the little groups and things. I had

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Speaker 1: a group called Robbie and the Robots, and I, you know,

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Speaker 1: we had another group called Thumper, Thumper and the Trambones,

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Speaker 1: and then Yeah, and then I played. I had a

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Speaker 1: group and we opened for Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks

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Speaker 1: at a dance hall and they were amazing. They were

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Speaker 1: all from the South and it was pure, pure rockabilly,

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Speaker 1: hard hitting rock, the American stuff. Not South Toronto, No,

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Speaker 1: it was from the South. So for me, it was

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Speaker 1: authent Arkansas. They were all from Arkansas then, and and

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Speaker 1: in the group I was, and we played and I

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Speaker 1: tried to play good and everything and I and I

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Speaker 1: caught Ronnie Hawkins eye a little bit, and that it

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Speaker 1: gave me the opportunity to hang around a little bit.

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Speaker 1: I wanted some of this to rub off on me.

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Speaker 1: I wanted to learn this authenticity. But to interject this,

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Speaker 1: which is when you're there and you're at the reservation

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Speaker 1: and they're they're playing the music, and you start to

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Speaker 1: keep up with them, and then you say, quote unquote,

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Speaker 1: Ronnie Hawkins has his eye on you. Is that something

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Speaker 1: that you've benefited from? Which is people saw that you

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Speaker 1: stood out and they recognized that, they almost mentored you.

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Speaker 1: You know, there's something that happens, it's it's it's mysterious

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Speaker 1: and you don't know where it comes from, and you

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Speaker 1: don't know how. You just know something happens. And if

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Speaker 1: somebody pat you on the back for that, what was

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Speaker 1: Ronnie Hawkins patting you on the back? Four? He thought

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Speaker 1: this kid looks to me like he might have potential. Right.

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Speaker 1: And then when I was fifteen, which was at that time,

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Speaker 1: I was fifteen years old, I wrote two songs that

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Speaker 1: he recorded, and so that was kind of a big

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Speaker 1: thing to the first recordings that I had. And then

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Speaker 1: when I was sixteen, he said, I want to try

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Speaker 1: you out. I want you know, I want to see

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Speaker 1: if you can if you can handle it. And so

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Speaker 1: I went from Canada from Toronto on a train down

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Speaker 1: to the Mississippi Delta to the holy land of rock

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Speaker 1: and roll to join up with Ronnie Hawkins and the

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Speaker 1: Hawks passed away. Yeah. My, my, my mother, she was horrified.

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Speaker 1: I was going to say six yeah, and and and

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Speaker 1: I'm going to the Mississippi Delta and describe Ronnie Hawkins

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Speaker 1: for people who know him, Was he uh in a

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Speaker 1: suit and tie they have a bow tie and a

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Speaker 1: crisp shirt on? Or was he? He was an amazing character,

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Speaker 1: an incredible showman, so funny and could get away with anything.

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Speaker 1: And to see him perform it was like some uncaged animal,

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Speaker 1: it was, but beautiful. You know. He would come leaping

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Speaker 1: through the air down and land on his knees behind

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Speaker 1: the piano player and start winding him up like as

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Speaker 1: if you know, it was like a monkey, you know

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Speaker 1: playing you know, and yeah, like the Oregon. He would

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Speaker 1: be binding him up and then come in singing at

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Speaker 1: the last second, and then you know, leap over here.

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Speaker 1: He was like and years ago when we played like

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Speaker 1: Alan Freed shows and that nobody wanted to go on

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Speaker 1: after Ronnie Hawkins. He was just one of those. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he was just an exciting performer. So in my mother

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Speaker 1: I knew of Ronnie Hawkins having not well but had

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Speaker 1: met him. But when I said, I'm going down there,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to try out for Ronnie Hawkins and the

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Speaker 1: Hawks because if I don't do this, I'll be sorry

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Speaker 1: the rest of my life. And I've got to find

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Speaker 1: out whether this is my calling or not. She said,

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Speaker 1: all right, you can try it, but if it doesn't work,

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Speaker 1: you go right back to school. And I said, it's

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Speaker 1: a deal, right, But you never had to keep that too.

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Speaker 1: I was on a mission when Hawkins said, when you

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Speaker 1: wrote a couple of songs for him, and he was

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Speaker 1: going to use those songs before you got in the band,

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Speaker 1: describe for me, because you are a very uh you know,

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Speaker 1: famous for your songwriting. Because what was your performing? What

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Speaker 1: was that like for you? I mean even as a

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Speaker 1: child to me, you're young kids are When he said that,

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Speaker 1: I kept looking for the key, the key to the highway.

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Speaker 1: I kept looking for some way to impress him. I

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Speaker 1: wanted into this world, and I thought, he said he

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Speaker 1: needs some songs. I had been writing songs, not very

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Speaker 1: good ones, but you know, I was. I was doing it,

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Speaker 1: and I thought, let me give it a shot, you know.

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Speaker 1: And I went and I wrote two songs, brought them

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Speaker 1: to him, played them for him, and he said, well,

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Speaker 1: I'll be damned, I'm going to record both those songs. Son.

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Speaker 1: You remember what the songs were. Yeah, one was called

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Speaker 1: someone Like You and another one was called Baba Lou

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Speaker 1: and I uh, and I just I wrote them like

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Speaker 1: in one sitting because I was anxious and I was young.

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Speaker 1: But here's the pepper in this. He goes records these songs,

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Speaker 1: makes a new album, brings me the album. I nervously

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Speaker 1: opened this record. I look on the label. There's my

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Speaker 1: name on the label, but it says Robertson and McGill.

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Speaker 1: So I said, there's no McGill there. When I wrote these,

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Speaker 1: who the hell's McGill? And he said, wow, it's a

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Speaker 1: kind of a long story. I don't know if you

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Speaker 1: want to and I said, no, there was nobody else there.

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Speaker 1: I even I wrote it. I wrote these, what's going on?

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Speaker 1: So he said, here's the real deal. This is a

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Speaker 1: pseudonym for Maurice Levy, my lawyer. He owns the record company.

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Speaker 1: He owns Roulette Records, and he's a hardcore mobster. And

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Speaker 1: he puts his vague and that's his vague, exactly half

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Speaker 1: the songwriting. And I thought, you can do that. You

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Speaker 1: can lie about this stuff, you can put it out

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Speaker 1: there and nobody ever says anything. And so Ronnie explains, no, no, no,

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Speaker 1: you don't forget about it, Robbie, it's Chinatown, that's right.

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Speaker 1: It was like that. He said. Morris is famous for

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Speaker 1: having his guys hold somebody out his office window by

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Speaker 1: the ankles, saying either you sign this or we let

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Speaker 1: your very cuddly character. So so after the after this

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Speaker 1: songwriting thing, Ronnie brings me to New York. He said,

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Speaker 1: if you can write songs for me, maybe you would

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Speaker 1: have a good ear and hearing songs would be good

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Speaker 1: for me to record. So I meet Lieber and Stoller

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Speaker 1: and Thomas and Schumann and Otis Blackwell all of these writers,

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Speaker 1: and I sit in rooms and they play me songs,

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Speaker 1: and I think this is kind of like being in heaven.

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Speaker 1: So then Ronnie says to me, Now we're gonna go

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Speaker 1: up to Roulette Records. We're gonna go up to see

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Speaker 1: Morris Levy. Um, I have to, you know, do some

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Speaker 1: things with him. So I'll introduce you and everything. I'm

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Speaker 1: thinking to myself, Oh yeah, well, now we're going to

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Speaker 1: discuss this songwriting misunderstanding. I want to work with you, Morris.

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Speaker 1: You know, no, it's kind of like that I was

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Speaker 1: that young that I was thinking you weren't in the room.

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Speaker 1: You weren't there when I wrote these songs. You do

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Speaker 1: really want an explanation, Mars, right. So anyway, so we

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Speaker 1: go into his up to his office. It looks like

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Speaker 1: a scene out of a Damon Runyon thing. There are

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Speaker 1: gangster guys standing around with crooked noses and bulging mohair suits,

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Speaker 1: you know, where they're backing squares. There's good there's secretaries

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Speaker 1: with blonde hair over one eye. You know. It's like

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Speaker 1: this is a movie and we're a count. Basie's playing

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Speaker 1: in the background. We come in. Morris comes out of

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Speaker 1: his office and he says, Ronny, Ronnie, I love this guy.

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Speaker 1: What a crazy guy he is. Come on in here, Ronnie,

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Speaker 1: you know, And he's saying to everybody there. You know,

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Speaker 1: I love this guy, and I think what happens to

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Speaker 1: gangsters when their kids said their voices go like this?

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Speaker 1: Why does he talk, you know this way? So we

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Speaker 1: go into his office. Ronnie's doing the camel walk on

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Speaker 1: the rug and calling him hoss and and he just

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Speaker 1: he loves Ronnie, so it's it's really fun. And Ronnie

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Speaker 1: says to him, Morris, I just came up here just

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Speaker 1: to see if there's any papers you want me to sign,

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Speaker 1: right knowing the story about hanging people out there give

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Speaker 1: you a pint of blood. So anyway, we sit down

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Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, all right, okay, you know, I see

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Speaker 1: how this is going. And he's talking to Morrison. He says, Morris,

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Speaker 1: this is the kid that I was telling you about

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Speaker 1: that I really think has some potential. Morris looks over

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Speaker 1: at me and he says, yeah, he's a nice looking kid.

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Speaker 1: If you ever have to do time, would be good

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Speaker 1: to have him with you. I thought, what what he said.

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Speaker 1: I bet you don't know whether to hire him or

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Speaker 1: just have sex with him, you know, And I think

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Speaker 1: I'm going to forego the songwriting dispute. I'm just gonna

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Speaker 1: let that go for now you know. Yeah, so you

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Speaker 1: leave Hawkins, Yes, and you're with him for how long?

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Speaker 1: A couple of years? Uh? When I joined him at sixteen,

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Speaker 1: left probably around yeah, something like that. And you leave

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Speaker 1: to form your bed. No, it is. Over the years

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Speaker 1: leave on. And I have helped hire people to replace

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Speaker 1: people that were leaving the Hawks, and they were all

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Speaker 1: Canadians because we were spending a lot of time up there.

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Speaker 1: Ronnie liked it because he made more money and the

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Speaker 1: hours were easier. So we were seeing all these really

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Speaker 1: talented guys. And because I kind of opened that door

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Speaker 1: a little bit, and and we would see this other talent,

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Speaker 1: we'd say, oh my god, that guy is something special

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Speaker 1: about him. That Rick Danko, We better hire him. And

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Speaker 1: then boy, when this Richard Manuel sings, jeez, just there's

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Speaker 1: your heart out. And Garth Hudson there's never been a

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Speaker 1: keyboard player on that level ever. And if he was

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Speaker 1: in our group, we would learn more, we would be better.

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Speaker 1: Everybody gets better. Yeah. So anyway, we put together this

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Speaker 1: group and Ronnie has now an amazing band of music.

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Speaker 1: And we are young and growing up and we outgrow

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Speaker 1: what we were doing with Ronnie, and we just said

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Speaker 1: at some point, we gotta go do our own thing.

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Speaker 1: Where did you first meet leaving? I met leve On

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Speaker 1: Um when I first when my group opened for Ronnie

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Speaker 1: Hawkins and the Hawks. And then so Levan was with

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Speaker 1: Hawkins already. Ah yeah, yeah, yeah, he was one of

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Speaker 1: the original Hawks. So and he joined the group I

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Speaker 1: think when he was eighteen or something like that. Um.

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Speaker 1: But when I went south and Levon introduced me to

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Speaker 1: his family and everybody there, we we became very close,

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Speaker 1: just like a brotherhood. And so we were picking out

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Speaker 1: these other guys. And after we put this group together,

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Speaker 1: Levan was then the only Southerner left in the group.

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Speaker 1: And we had these guys and then we just felt

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Speaker 1: like we have to go out in the world and

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Speaker 1: discover our own thing now. And we did that, and

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Speaker 1: we were out there and playing the Chitland Circuit down

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Speaker 1: south and joined you know, in New York and Jersey,

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Speaker 1: and we were playing in a place in Jersey and

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Speaker 1: and that's when I got this call from Bob Dylan

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Speaker 1: two that he wanted to talk to me about something

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Speaker 1: and how do he find you? He we had a

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Speaker 1: reputation of being a pretty you know, a good band,

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Speaker 1: a really good band. There was that, and he always

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Speaker 1: had his thinker in the win for that kind of thing.

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Speaker 1: He um, he was wanting to make this transition from

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Speaker 1: being a folk hero to being a guy that had

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Speaker 1: a band of you know, instruments, powerful rock and roll

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Speaker 1: band to turn it up a little bit. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So so I I went. I met with him, and

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Speaker 1: I didn't know what this was going to be about,

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Speaker 1: but what the plan really was what they were thinking.

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Speaker 1: He needed a guitar player and wanted to hire me

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Speaker 1: to play guitar um on some dates he was doing.

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Speaker 1: And I said, I have a group. We don't do that,

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Speaker 1: you know, I said, but maybe for these two dates,

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Speaker 1: if we could have leve On come too, we might

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Speaker 1: be able to slip this in without making the other

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Speaker 1: guys feel left out. Or so we did these couple

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Speaker 1: of days. It was ridiculous. I mean we were playing

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Speaker 1: places and people were so upset about this music and

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Speaker 1: you know, this electric music from our folks man, and

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Speaker 1: it was like it wasn't working. It. It was not

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Speaker 1: what they wanted at all from him, from him, they

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Speaker 1: this is not so what was the venue? We played

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Speaker 1: Forest Hills Stadium here what forests and people literally are like,

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Speaker 1: when's Bob Dylan coming on? Know that people were charging

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Speaker 1: the stage and throwing things and trying to disrupt it

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Speaker 1: and booing and booing. So we played Forest Hills in

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Speaker 1: the Hollywood Bawl did these days. We thought about that

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Speaker 1: was weird. And then Bob says, we're gonna book a

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Speaker 1: whole tour. Now, let's do a whole tour. And I

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Speaker 1: was like, no, no, no, no, no. We have a group.

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Speaker 1: We are a group. We are not going off to

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Speaker 1: do this. And the only way that we could even

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Speaker 1: consider it if we did it with the whole group.

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Speaker 1: So he came and heard us play and said, yeah,

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Speaker 1: let's do this. And so we ended up touring of

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Speaker 1: North America, Australia, Europe, and people booed and threw stuff

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Speaker 1: at us every night. How does that possible? You could

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Speaker 1: hear people saying to him and his manager, you've got

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Speaker 1: to get rid of these guys. They're ruining everything. And

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Speaker 1: the people love you, but you've got to get rid

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Speaker 1: of those guys. And Bob never budged, He never took

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Speaker 1: a step back, and we continued and we did this

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Speaker 1: whole tour and stuff. Back then we would listen sometimes

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Speaker 1: after the show to a tape of the show, just thinking,

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Speaker 1: you know, we're to see what's wrong. What do we

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Speaker 1: think that's happening with? Right? Right? How can they high?

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Speaker 1: And there was a point in all of that, and

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Speaker 1: because some of it was just helpful to put get

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Speaker 1: the music better and do this song slower and this

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Speaker 1: one that there was one night we're listening to the

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Speaker 1: tape and I said to the other guys in the

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Speaker 1: Hawks and the Bob they're wrong. The world is wrong.

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Speaker 1: This is good, this is really powerful, and they are wrong.

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Speaker 1: And there was a boldness that came out of this

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Speaker 1: that we felt like, oh yeah, really, I'll show you something,

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Speaker 1: you know. And it was like get him in the ears,

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Speaker 1: you know, get him in the eyes. It was an

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Speaker 1: attitude that allowed us to carry on. All of these

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Speaker 1: concerts are as we speak, are coming out, they're being released,

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Speaker 1: all of them. I don't want to hear the music

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Speaker 1: that the band did with Bob Dylan was booed around

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Speaker 1: the world. That I've got to say. But then if

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00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:11,120
Speaker 1: it's recorded on an album and no, it's all coming out,

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Speaker 1: god knows it wasn't released, then it wasn't released. Then

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Speaker 1: it's being released. Now, yeah, but eventually it stops. Ends.

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Speaker 1: Why what happened was after we finished the European tour,

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Speaker 1: we came back and they were booking more dates. They

317
00:20:29,960 --> 00:20:31,879
Speaker 1: were getting you know that he wanted to do a

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Speaker 1: tour of Russia. He wanted all kinds of things, you think,

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Speaker 1: and it was kind of like he wanted to be

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Speaker 1: booed in every corner of the world. Hello, Greenland. So

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Speaker 1: so he came back and he had an accident on

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Speaker 1: a motorcycle, accident, and he fractured his neck, and so

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Speaker 1: they had to cancel any upcoming dates and he never

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Speaker 1: did another tour after that for eight years. They God Blessing,

325
00:21:03,080 --> 00:21:12,399
Speaker 1: keep you all that you wish is all they always do.

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Speaker 1: That you coming up? Why Martin Scorsese risked getting fired

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Speaker 1: from New York, New York to direct the band's final

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Speaker 1: concert in nineteen seventy six, a film that would become

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Speaker 1: the last waltz to hear Other musical legends explore the

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Speaker 1: Here's the Thing Archives. In nineteen sixty six, Herb Albert

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Speaker 1: and the Tijuana Brass did the unthinkable. They outsold the Beatles.

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Speaker 1: But that was just the start. In sixty uh seven,

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Speaker 1: were I was doing a special for NBC. Jack Hayley Jr.

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Speaker 1: Was directing. He said, why don't you sing a song?

335
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Speaker 1: I said, well, if if I can find the right song,

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Speaker 1: I'll give it a go. So, you know, I go

337
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Speaker 1: through my Barolla decks and I called Bert back rack.

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00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:03,680
Speaker 1: I said, Bert, is there a song that you have

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Speaker 1: that do you think I could handle? That? You have

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00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:09,120
Speaker 1: tucked away in your drawer someplace where you find yourself

341
00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:12,560
Speaker 1: whistling in the morning, or you know a tune that

342
00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:15,240
Speaker 1: haunts you. Well. Three days later he sent me this

343
00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:18,240
Speaker 1: Girl's in love with you. Take a listen, and here's

344
00:22:18,280 --> 00:22:23,080
Speaker 1: the thing. Dot Org, this is Alec Baldwin and you

345
00:22:23,119 --> 00:22:26,480
Speaker 1: were listening to Here's the thing. Robbie Robertson and the

346
00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:30,320
Speaker 1: Band shook the foundation of America in the nineteen sixties,

347
00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:34,119
Speaker 1: weaving together the rustic and romantic into hits like the

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00:22:34,240 --> 00:22:37,399
Speaker 1: Night they Drove Old Dixie Down. But if their sound

349
00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:41,760
Speaker 1: was innovative, their first recording studio was the opposite. It

350
00:22:41,920 --> 00:22:45,040
Speaker 1: was a house up in West Sagredis in New York.

351
00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:49,560
Speaker 1: Who found it, um Rick Danko, And it said, guys,

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00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:52,159
Speaker 1: I think I've found it because we were having a

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Speaker 1: lot of trouble in the city finding a place where

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Speaker 1: we could make music, because it was the business was

355
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Speaker 1: still here that it had more moved to. Right, no, no,

356
00:23:01,720 --> 00:23:04,240
Speaker 1: But but we'd be disturbing. They'd say, turn on the

357
00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:06,720
Speaker 1: music in there. You know. It's like it was hard

358
00:23:06,760 --> 00:23:09,880
Speaker 1: to find a place even a studio, well a studio,

359
00:23:09,920 --> 00:23:14,120
Speaker 1: but we couldn't afford to lady or something like that.

360
00:23:14,280 --> 00:23:16,800
Speaker 1: Right no, no, no. And this was to write and

361
00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:20,119
Speaker 1: to create and to think of what we're gonna do next.

362
00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:25,080
Speaker 1: So Albert Grossman, our manager, talks us into moving up

363
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Speaker 1: to Woodstock. He said, you can get a place there

364
00:23:27,760 --> 00:23:30,760
Speaker 1: and nobody will bother you. You won't bother anybody, bring

365
00:23:30,760 --> 00:23:34,600
Speaker 1: your food, it'll be. It'll be just because I had

366
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Speaker 1: this dream that I wanted to have a workshop, a

367
00:23:38,560 --> 00:23:43,040
Speaker 1: clubhouse where we all congregate every day and we go

368
00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:46,639
Speaker 1: there and we create, and we have a wonderful time

369
00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:51,280
Speaker 1: together and we build some kind of a musical noise

370
00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:54,399
Speaker 1: that we could send out around the world. So we

371
00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:57,400
Speaker 1: find this place out in the middle of a hundred acres.

372
00:23:58,160 --> 00:24:03,159
Speaker 1: Nobody to bother it is this horribly ugly pink house.

373
00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:06,720
Speaker 1: What had it been? It was no, it was just

374
00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:11,760
Speaker 1: a house. On a big profit. It was. It was both,

375
00:24:12,720 --> 00:24:15,200
Speaker 1: but had not been a working farm, not a farm,

376
00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:21,280
Speaker 1: just a house. But anyway, in this house, it had

377
00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:27,080
Speaker 1: a basement, and I thought, that's it. That's what I've

378
00:24:27,119 --> 00:24:30,080
Speaker 1: been looking for. We can set up our equipment down here,

379
00:24:30,760 --> 00:24:35,560
Speaker 1: and we can have some microphones and we can and

380
00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:39,280
Speaker 1: we can be way off the grid, we can have

381
00:24:39,560 --> 00:24:42,119
Speaker 1: nothing to do with what's going on in the world

382
00:24:42,480 --> 00:24:46,760
Speaker 1: and really discover what we're here for. It served that

383
00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:50,560
Speaker 1: kind of purpose in my imagination. So we set it up.

384
00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:54,639
Speaker 1: We got the things, the instruments in there, all organized

385
00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:57,080
Speaker 1: in a certain way, a few mike's, a little mixer

386
00:24:57,119 --> 00:25:02,080
Speaker 1: and everything. I bring this engineer, recording engineer, friend, sound

387
00:25:02,119 --> 00:25:05,199
Speaker 1: mixure guy, and I said, look at this, this is

388
00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:07,119
Speaker 1: what you know. I said, what do you think? He

389
00:25:07,200 --> 00:25:10,640
Speaker 1: looks at it and he says, well, it's all concrete,

390
00:25:11,560 --> 00:25:15,440
Speaker 1: glass windows, a big furnace over here. This is probably

391
00:25:15,480 --> 00:25:18,400
Speaker 1: going to be the worst sounding place you've ever heard

392
00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:22,880
Speaker 1: in your life. It's a disaster. And I said, acoustic nightmare.

393
00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:25,399
Speaker 1: And I said, thank you, that's just what I was

394
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:31,159
Speaker 1: looking for. I want to break Yeah, And you know

395
00:25:31,200 --> 00:25:34,159
Speaker 1: where you find the sound. It's like this, This is

396
00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:36,560
Speaker 1: Frampton when he did the show with us, Frampton who

397
00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:40,440
Speaker 1: like you sixteen years old on the road and uh,

398
00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:43,040
Speaker 1: same thing. When you listen to Frampton, he was like

399
00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:45,439
Speaker 1: he was when I was a kid. I was into

400
00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:48,760
Speaker 1: sound you do well. I wanted was just sounds and

401
00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:51,280
Speaker 1: what kind of sounds I want? And you're fascinated by that,

402
00:25:51,320 --> 00:25:54,760
Speaker 1: like you just said that, that kind of uh, you know,

403
00:25:54,840 --> 00:26:00,840
Speaker 1: savantage thing. So you're up there and Dylan comes. He

404
00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:05,399
Speaker 1: lives up there. So one day I say to him, Bob,

405
00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:08,000
Speaker 1: you gotta come and see the setup we got out here.

406
00:26:08,240 --> 00:26:13,719
Speaker 1: You see, yeah, it's you know, And and he's, you know,

407
00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:18,200
Speaker 1: he's just recorded in studios, you know, traditional recording and everything.

408
00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:21,480
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, I don't know whether you know, he's gonna

409
00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:24,800
Speaker 1: think I'm crazy and this is meaningless or whatever. So

410
00:26:24,840 --> 00:26:29,639
Speaker 1: we drive out there and we're driving and driving, and

411
00:26:29,640 --> 00:26:32,960
Speaker 1: then up this side road and we're driving. We're driving.

412
00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:35,280
Speaker 1: He says, where the hell is this? He said, you're

413
00:26:35,400 --> 00:26:38,399
Speaker 1: right about nobody bought out here, I can say. And

414
00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:42,040
Speaker 1: we go in and we go into this house and

415
00:26:42,359 --> 00:26:45,399
Speaker 1: it's it's hard to put your finger on it, and

416
00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:48,480
Speaker 1: said one of the guys is making some coffees, and

417
00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:52,280
Speaker 1: they got checkerboards set up on these tables and he's

418
00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:54,960
Speaker 1: looking it over and I said, come on, check this out.

419
00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:59,280
Speaker 1: And we go down into the basement and he goes, WHOA,

420
00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:05,240
Speaker 1: look at this. Can you can you record stuff down here?

421
00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:07,480
Speaker 1: I said, we got a little tape recorder right there.

422
00:27:08,200 --> 00:27:11,439
Speaker 1: We're gonna record stuff. And we're you know, this is

423
00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:15,359
Speaker 1: where we are going to experiment and make some discoveries.

424
00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:20,440
Speaker 1: How long did that go? So he said, listen, I've

425
00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:24,000
Speaker 1: got a couple of songs that I've been messing around with.

426
00:27:24,200 --> 00:27:28,840
Speaker 1: Maybe we could try them together here. So we said, yeah, sure,

427
00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:34,440
Speaker 1: we're all set up. So anyway, we ended up recording

428
00:27:34,640 --> 00:27:38,000
Speaker 1: the basement tapes there. I don't know, there's something like

429
00:27:38,040 --> 00:27:41,760
Speaker 1: a hundred and forty songs or something in the course

430
00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:44,560
Speaker 1: of this. And what we would do is every day

431
00:27:44,840 --> 00:27:47,920
Speaker 1: we would go to Big Pink, We'd have some coffee,

432
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:51,080
Speaker 1: play some checkers. Bob would write. He wrote on a

433
00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:57,760
Speaker 1: typewriter all the songs. He would just ding ding, you know,

434
00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:00,520
Speaker 1: And I'd seen him do that before. It was just

435
00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:03,800
Speaker 1: and I didn't know people wrote that way, but but

436
00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:07,240
Speaker 1: he did. And so he would type something up. We'd

437
00:28:07,280 --> 00:28:11,600
Speaker 1: go down into the basement grab everybody would grab whatever

438
00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:14,720
Speaker 1: instrument was close, might even not be the one you

439
00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:18,879
Speaker 1: play anything, because there was no rules. We'd sit on,

440
00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:23,639
Speaker 1: we'd mess around, play through a tune and would say, wow,

441
00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:26,399
Speaker 1: that felt kind of good. We'd listen to it, and

442
00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:31,639
Speaker 1: then pretty soon it would turn into a combination of

443
00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:36,560
Speaker 1: new material that he was writing, that we were writing,

444
00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:42,400
Speaker 1: and a lot of songs that I discovered that he

445
00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:48,239
Speaker 1: had a memory of lyrics that no person in the

446
00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:51,120
Speaker 1: world could have. This to remember the lyrics to his

447
00:28:51,200 --> 00:28:56,160
Speaker 1: own songs was a phenomenon, right, And it was an

448
00:28:56,240 --> 00:29:00,840
Speaker 1: amazing time and amazing and it was private. And so

449
00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:04,400
Speaker 1: in the course of that, he was getting songs to

450
00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:08,120
Speaker 1: send to his publisher, because people recorded Bob Dylan songs,

451
00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:11,360
Speaker 1: right and they needed some new material. So we would

452
00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:13,800
Speaker 1: lay down some songs you could send to the publisher,

453
00:29:14,360 --> 00:29:18,520
Speaker 1: and then we would record songs that nobody should ever hear.

454
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:22,760
Speaker 1: It was just private, just between us, and some of

455
00:29:22,800 --> 00:29:28,120
Speaker 1: it was so hilarious, brilliantly funny, and we and it

456
00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:31,440
Speaker 1: was cool because it was just us. We were hurting

457
00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:37,360
Speaker 1: anybody doing this. And then and then the first bootleg

458
00:29:37,440 --> 00:29:40,680
Speaker 1: record that I ever knew of came out with some

459
00:29:40,800 --> 00:29:43,920
Speaker 1: of these songs on it, and it was like somebody

460
00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:48,360
Speaker 1: peeking in your closet was like, whoa wait a minute here,

461
00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:52,280
Speaker 1: this isn't right, especially on a bootleg re. Explain to somebody,

462
00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:54,719
Speaker 1: how does that happen? You record this stuff with never

463
00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:56,640
Speaker 1: already any intention because a lot of people think the

464
00:29:56,640 --> 00:29:59,800
Speaker 1: bootleg takes are leaked by you. No no, no, no no,

465
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:01,600
Speaker 1: I'm saying you did, But a lot of people think

466
00:30:01,600 --> 00:30:04,520
Speaker 1: that the guys like you and Dylan and the band

467
00:30:04,600 --> 00:30:07,680
Speaker 1: and leave on everybody you do the leaking because you're like, well,

468
00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:08,960
Speaker 1: we don't want this stuff to come out. This is

469
00:30:09,080 --> 00:30:12,520
Speaker 1: very proprietary. My god, if you're up there and again

470
00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:14,640
Speaker 1: it's it's in your in a vault in the middle

471
00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:16,360
Speaker 1: of nowhere and nobody can get to you, how does

472
00:30:16,360 --> 00:30:19,760
Speaker 1: that material get leaked? As your guests. So what was

473
00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:24,680
Speaker 1: happening was some of the material that was legitimate that

474
00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:27,680
Speaker 1: other people could cover, and a lot of people did.

475
00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:32,760
Speaker 1: That was sent to the publishing company and they would

476
00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:34,280
Speaker 1: they and you hand the tapes over to people that

477
00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:39,520
Speaker 1: you trusted, but only certain things. There was like I said, whatever,

478
00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:42,320
Speaker 1: there was a hundred and forty tracks or something that

479
00:30:42,360 --> 00:30:47,080
Speaker 1: we had recorded, and so they sent out maybe fifteen

480
00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:50,360
Speaker 1: that was for people to cover. That's what it was.

481
00:30:51,240 --> 00:30:54,040
Speaker 1: Because people heard these tapes and said, oh my god,

482
00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:58,000
Speaker 1: this is amazing this stuff. So they started sharing it

483
00:30:58,040 --> 00:31:02,080
Speaker 1: as kind of a cool underground actor and then bootleggers

484
00:31:02,120 --> 00:31:04,800
Speaker 1: came along, and then they put it out and tried

485
00:31:04,840 --> 00:31:07,560
Speaker 1: to sell it. But we still had all of this,

486
00:31:07,840 --> 00:31:11,120
Speaker 1: tons of other stuff that nobody ever heard because a

487
00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:13,200
Speaker 1: lot of it was covers. A lot of it wasn't

488
00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:20,000
Speaker 1: yeah originally. So so now years later they release all

489
00:31:20,040 --> 00:31:24,800
Speaker 1: of it because nowadays it's all out there. It's everything.

490
00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:30,720
Speaker 1: There's no point in sitting on anything anymore. Um it

491
00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:35,479
Speaker 1: ends with him? How I mean you're recording? Uh Pink House?

492
00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:42,800
Speaker 1: Did that wind down? It wound down in Uh? Why no, No,

493
00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:45,640
Speaker 1: it was because it was time for us to go

494
00:31:45,760 --> 00:31:50,760
Speaker 1: and record music from Big Pink, the first album by

495
00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:54,760
Speaker 1: the band, right, and then Bob went on. The band

496
00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:58,680
Speaker 1: had never recorded. We had recorded songs here and there

497
00:31:58,800 --> 00:32:01,760
Speaker 1: as the Hawks, not as the best the band, but

498
00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:08,960
Speaker 1: now the band's debut album, Yeah Yeah. Sixty seven was

499
00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:11,960
Speaker 1: the Basement tapes, and sixty eight was music from Big Paint.

500
00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:16,440
Speaker 1: Dylan perform on the on the on the album. No,

501
00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:19,880
Speaker 1: he painted the cover, He did a painting for the cover,

502
00:32:20,360 --> 00:32:23,960
Speaker 1: and then he went off to make another record in Nashville,

503
00:32:24,520 --> 00:32:27,440
Speaker 1: and we went off to do our thing, and then

504
00:32:27,520 --> 00:32:33,120
Speaker 1: the band became recognized as the band. And and then

505
00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:37,000
Speaker 1: a few years later we did a tour together, the

506
00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:41,240
Speaker 1: Bob Dylan the Band Tour in nineteen four and he

507
00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:45,040
Speaker 1: hadn't done a tour until then. So when you go

508
00:32:45,160 --> 00:32:51,239
Speaker 1: from Hawkins to the to the Basement tapes and then

509
00:32:51,280 --> 00:32:53,800
Speaker 1: on to do your own album, does the personnel change?

510
00:32:53,800 --> 00:32:57,680
Speaker 1: Where's the same unit that becomes the band? It never changes,

511
00:32:57,880 --> 00:33:00,480
Speaker 1: never changes. And when we when you well right up

512
00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:05,120
Speaker 1: into Last Waltz, it's the same guy, same keyboards and everything.

513
00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:09,720
Speaker 1: And when you do last Waltz, and so the story

514
00:33:09,760 --> 00:33:13,840
Speaker 1: goes that you pitched Marty. Yeah, I was trying to

515
00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:18,920
Speaker 1: figure out who because this thing kept growing, the idea

516
00:33:18,920 --> 00:33:21,600
Speaker 1: of it and it became it was becoming a real

517
00:33:21,800 --> 00:33:27,400
Speaker 1: musical celebration with all of these people coming together, your friends. Yeah,

518
00:33:27,560 --> 00:33:30,520
Speaker 1: you knew up front this was a farewell show. It

519
00:33:30,600 --> 00:33:33,160
Speaker 1: was the show. This was it, this this we were

520
00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:36,120
Speaker 1: going to bring all of this to a conclusion. The

521
00:33:36,160 --> 00:33:40,080
Speaker 1: band had been together for sixteen years, and we had

522
00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:44,200
Speaker 1: seen it all up and down that highway. We had

523
00:33:44,240 --> 00:33:48,600
Speaker 1: been to the grungiest places. We played Jack Ruby's club

524
00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:54,520
Speaker 1: in Fort Worth, Texas, right just before he has assassinated Oswald,

525
00:33:54,800 --> 00:33:58,800
Speaker 1: and we had played Woodstock and Watkins Glen, the biggest

526
00:33:58,840 --> 00:34:01,280
Speaker 1: concert in the world in the isle of what We

527
00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:04,160
Speaker 1: had done everything that you could do under the sun.

528
00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:11,280
Speaker 1: And during that period two in the seventies in ninety six,

529
00:34:11,719 --> 00:34:15,359
Speaker 1: it became very dark out there. There's a lot of

530
00:34:15,440 --> 00:34:18,640
Speaker 1: drug abuse, there was a lot of madness. It was

531
00:34:19,239 --> 00:34:22,200
Speaker 1: just crazy in the air. And what we were trying

532
00:34:22,239 --> 00:34:27,000
Speaker 1: to do is think, how do we survive this? So

533
00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:31,520
Speaker 1: why don't we bring this episode to a conclusion and

534
00:34:31,600 --> 00:34:35,040
Speaker 1: then we can get out of the spotlight and figure

535
00:34:35,080 --> 00:34:39,640
Speaker 1: out creatively what comes next for us. That's what the

536
00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:45,800
Speaker 1: plan was for us or individually, the individually, and I

537
00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:48,000
Speaker 1: don't want to pry, but there was no acrimony, There

538
00:34:48,040 --> 00:34:51,160
Speaker 1: was no nobody, just everybody collectively said it's time for

539
00:34:51,200 --> 00:34:53,200
Speaker 1: a change. Yeah, we're all gonna go do our own thing.

540
00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:55,040
Speaker 1: And what a beautiful way to do it in this

541
00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:58,400
Speaker 1: in this celebration of music, but in the name of

542
00:34:58,560 --> 00:35:01,400
Speaker 1: music in the name of the band and and respect

543
00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:04,600
Speaker 1: for one another. And all of these people that brought

544
00:35:04,600 --> 00:35:08,080
Speaker 1: different flavors of the music you know out for us

545
00:35:08,600 --> 00:35:12,000
Speaker 1: Dr John from the New Orleans Sound, Muddy Waters from

546
00:35:12,440 --> 00:35:16,360
Speaker 1: the Chicago Blues, and Eric Clapton from the British Blues,

547
00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:19,919
Speaker 1: and the Canadians Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. So all

548
00:35:19,960 --> 00:35:24,359
Speaker 1: of this is it's growing. Then certain people were saying, God,

549
00:35:24,440 --> 00:35:28,360
Speaker 1: you gotta document this somehow. This is one of those things,

550
00:35:28,480 --> 00:35:30,880
Speaker 1: is you know, something like this may never happen again.

551
00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:33,560
Speaker 1: So it starts out We're gonna have a couple of

552
00:35:33,680 --> 00:35:37,319
Speaker 1: video cameras black and white. Then they say, well, that's

553
00:35:37,320 --> 00:35:40,080
Speaker 1: not gonna look very good. Why don't we do it

554
00:35:40,120 --> 00:35:44,360
Speaker 1: in sixteen millimeter like all of these music let it

555
00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:47,920
Speaker 1: be everything, Yeah, everything in sixteen And it's growing, and me,

556
00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:52,520
Speaker 1: being a movie bug, I started thinking who would be

557
00:35:52,719 --> 00:35:57,520
Speaker 1: terrific to do this? There Hall Ashby and and George

558
00:35:57,600 --> 00:36:01,799
Speaker 1: Lucas you know with America and graffiti, and I'm going

559
00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:04,799
Speaker 1: down the list and I feel bold like I could

560
00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:08,200
Speaker 1: ask anybody you know to do this. But there was

561
00:36:08,320 --> 00:36:12,480
Speaker 1: one guy that I saw something in his instincts for

562
00:36:12,719 --> 00:36:17,040
Speaker 1: music and movies that was different than everybody else. There

563
00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:21,839
Speaker 1: was something so powerful about this that I couldn't let

564
00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:24,480
Speaker 1: it go. So when I started to make a list

565
00:36:24,640 --> 00:36:27,440
Speaker 1: of these directors that I was going to ask, I

566
00:36:27,480 --> 00:36:31,040
Speaker 1: wrote down Martin Scorsese, and I thought, let me talk

567
00:36:31,080 --> 00:36:36,080
Speaker 1: to him first. Music in mean streets. There was something

568
00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:40,360
Speaker 1: really special about this, and and on and on and

569
00:36:40,440 --> 00:36:44,160
Speaker 1: on in his movies. So I met up with him

570
00:36:44,200 --> 00:36:47,880
Speaker 1: and I asked him if he would be interested in

571
00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:51,840
Speaker 1: in directing this, and he said, all of these people,

572
00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:57,680
Speaker 1: these are all my favorites. Oh my god, he said,

573
00:36:57,920 --> 00:37:01,600
Speaker 1: but I'm in the middle of shooting a movie and

574
00:37:01,640 --> 00:37:03,920
Speaker 1: they don't like it when you go and make another

575
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:07,840
Speaker 1: movie while you're shooting a movie. Movie was the shooting

576
00:37:07,840 --> 00:37:12,280
Speaker 1: at the time, New York, New York. So he said,

577
00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:16,840
Speaker 1: you know, I, you know, I don't know how to

578
00:37:16,880 --> 00:37:20,360
Speaker 1: do this. And so we hung out that evening. We

579
00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:23,719
Speaker 1: talked about it, and we talked about you know, Eric

580
00:37:23,800 --> 00:37:26,759
Speaker 1: Clapton is going to be coming and where you know,

581
00:37:26,840 --> 00:37:30,600
Speaker 1: all of these musical ideas that that we have, and

582
00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:34,359
Speaker 1: finally says, the hell with it. They can fire me,

583
00:37:34,680 --> 00:37:37,920
Speaker 1: they can crucify me. I don't care. I have to

584
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:41,279
Speaker 1: do this. We have to find a way for me

585
00:37:41,400 --> 00:37:45,480
Speaker 1: to do this. So we had to put this together underground,

586
00:37:46,080 --> 00:37:50,320
Speaker 1: and nobody could know that Martin Scorsese was going to direct.

587
00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:54,440
Speaker 1: You know, capturing was a top secret project, it really was.

588
00:37:54,480 --> 00:37:57,560
Speaker 1: It was completely underground and recording over what period of time,

589
00:37:57,760 --> 00:38:05,040
Speaker 1: four days, no one, take one we recorded and so

590
00:38:05,560 --> 00:38:11,319
Speaker 1: then through these cinematographers as Kovacs and Bilimo Sigmund, they're saying,

591
00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:14,160
Speaker 1: we don't want to shoot this in sixteen millimeter. We

592
00:38:14,239 --> 00:38:19,439
Speaker 1: gotta shoot it int you know. Yeah, yeah, we're making

593
00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:23,040
Speaker 1: a movie. And so they said, but the problem is

594
00:38:24,360 --> 00:38:30,719
Speaker 1: that Michael Chapman, who became the DP. Yeah, Michael Chapman says,

595
00:38:30,760 --> 00:38:34,120
Speaker 1: these cameras won't run for the length of this concert.

596
00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:38,919
Speaker 1: They will melt, they will break. Yeah, it's they'll never

597
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:41,160
Speaker 1: make it. So we got so we had to figure

598
00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:43,879
Speaker 1: out a system of certain songs out there so they

599
00:38:43,880 --> 00:38:48,560
Speaker 1: could reload, change batteries. There's no digital happening here. This

600
00:38:48,760 --> 00:38:53,799
Speaker 1: is real film. And Marty directed this thing on what

601
00:38:53,920 --> 00:38:56,480
Speaker 1: he wanted to capture in the whole. It wasn't like

602
00:38:56,520 --> 00:39:00,520
Speaker 1: everybody shooting and we'll see how it cuts together. No, no, no,

603
00:39:00,840 --> 00:39:04,919
Speaker 1: it was scripted, but take one when when you saw

604
00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:08,399
Speaker 1: the film, knowing Marty as I do. You probably saw

605
00:39:08,400 --> 00:39:11,320
Speaker 1: the film nine years after you finished, because he's cutting

606
00:39:11,320 --> 00:39:14,400
Speaker 1: for nine years in them. But when you saw the film,

607
00:39:14,680 --> 00:39:17,240
Speaker 1: did you just did you just kill you to see

608
00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:23,960
Speaker 1: memorialized by Scorsese. You're great Bow, you know you're a

609
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:26,759
Speaker 1: great sign off with that band. Well, first of all,

610
00:39:26,920 --> 00:39:29,560
Speaker 1: very few people have had that moment, I know the

611
00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:35,520
Speaker 1: Beatles unintentionally. Yeah. No, what happened was when Marty saw

612
00:39:35,880 --> 00:39:40,000
Speaker 1: the footage the thirties, some of the thirty five millimeter footage,

613
00:39:40,400 --> 00:39:45,520
Speaker 1: he said, I think we've got something here, but we

614
00:39:45,680 --> 00:39:49,239
Speaker 1: have to We're making a movie and and we have

615
00:39:49,320 --> 00:39:51,920
Speaker 1: to know what this is about. So I want to

616
00:39:52,080 --> 00:39:56,240
Speaker 1: shoot you guys telling stories, telling tales of the road.

617
00:39:56,840 --> 00:39:59,800
Speaker 1: What is this about? How did we get here? What's

618
00:40:00,040 --> 00:40:06,600
Speaker 1: happening in this? And and then I said to him,

619
00:40:06,719 --> 00:40:09,759
Speaker 1: here's something that I feel is missing too, because there

620
00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:12,520
Speaker 1: was you know, we had all these flavors of music

621
00:40:12,640 --> 00:40:15,640
Speaker 1: that kind of make up what we're all of, what

622
00:40:15,680 --> 00:40:18,759
Speaker 1: we're all about. But I said, we didn't get to

623
00:40:18,840 --> 00:40:26,520
Speaker 1: pay honor to gospel music or country music. And I've

624
00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:30,600
Speaker 1: written a theme a theme from the last waz, why

625
00:40:30,600 --> 00:40:33,960
Speaker 1: don't we shoot those three things on a sound stage

626
00:40:34,440 --> 00:40:37,480
Speaker 1: so you can move, so you can move the camera

627
00:40:37,600 --> 00:40:42,520
Speaker 1: the way you move the camera. He's famous for where

628
00:40:42,600 --> 00:40:46,480
Speaker 1: how he moves the camera. So we did that and

629
00:40:46,560 --> 00:40:49,640
Speaker 1: that put the icing on the cake. We told the

630
00:40:49,760 --> 00:40:54,000
Speaker 1: stories and then he cut it together like it was

631
00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:59,800
Speaker 1: a movie and not a concert documentary with him. Interesting

632
00:40:59,800 --> 00:41:02,920
Speaker 1: to that, you didn't do your first solo album until seven.

633
00:41:03,840 --> 00:41:07,600
Speaker 1: That's why is that I was doing other things. There

634
00:41:07,680 --> 00:41:10,440
Speaker 1: was a lot of film projects that people were coming

635
00:41:10,920 --> 00:41:13,960
Speaker 1: to me with, and in this pretty much immerse yourself

636
00:41:13,960 --> 00:41:16,800
Speaker 1: in movies and Marty's movies. You do after the Last Walls,

637
00:41:17,360 --> 00:41:20,799
Speaker 1: I went off to do Carney and Marty went off

638
00:41:20,800 --> 00:41:23,319
Speaker 1: to do Raging Ball, and you did music for Raging Bull,

639
00:41:23,440 --> 00:41:27,960
Speaker 1: King of Comedy, Color of Money, then Onto a Casino,

640
00:41:28,120 --> 00:41:31,759
Speaker 1: then Crossing Guard, Phenomenon, Any Given Sunday, Gangs of New York,

641
00:41:32,400 --> 00:41:35,799
Speaker 1: onto Latter forty nine, The Departed, Shutter Island, Wolf of

642
00:41:35,800 --> 00:41:38,919
Speaker 1: Wall Street. And you're asking me, you know, how come

643
00:41:39,040 --> 00:41:43,799
Speaker 1: you didn't Wren when weren't you doing But no, no, no,

644
00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:47,080
Speaker 1: but I'm well, But but my point is that when

645
00:41:47,120 --> 00:41:49,320
Speaker 1: you're doing that kind of work with him you're doing

646
00:41:49,600 --> 00:41:54,480
Speaker 1: score or soundtrack or both all of the above and

647
00:41:54,600 --> 00:41:56,840
Speaker 1: every movie. So when he asked you for us to

648
00:41:57,120 --> 00:41:59,840
Speaker 1: he'll have you right incidental music or a full pe

649
00:42:01,120 --> 00:42:05,280
Speaker 1: orchestral or otherwise, or you're writing in in another style

650
00:42:05,320 --> 00:42:09,080
Speaker 1: as an orchestral. It's that's what I'm saying. It's it's

651
00:42:09,120 --> 00:42:14,799
Speaker 1: always a different experience, and and sometimes we just collaborate

652
00:42:14,840 --> 00:42:18,160
Speaker 1: on ideas and I suggest things and it's oh, that's good,

653
00:42:18,200 --> 00:42:20,799
Speaker 1: that's good, Okay, let's put some of this and there.

654
00:42:20,800 --> 00:42:22,600
Speaker 1: Did he come to you and say, in terms of soundtrack,

655
00:42:22,640 --> 00:42:25,560
Speaker 1: will you say, what's a song, an extant song that

656
00:42:25,560 --> 00:42:27,640
Speaker 1: that can be city, What do you think would play

657
00:42:27,640 --> 00:42:30,960
Speaker 1: well there? Because he's obsessed with that of us, right, So,

658
00:42:31,239 --> 00:42:34,960
Speaker 1: but I'm saying that it's the whole gamut of different

659
00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:39,840
Speaker 1: things with music. It sounds, it is like what makes

660
00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:42,640
Speaker 1: this thing come to life in that way? And it

661
00:42:42,719 --> 00:42:46,520
Speaker 1: just feels so real you can't deny it. And it

662
00:42:46,560 --> 00:42:50,000
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if I write it, if I find it,

663
00:42:50,520 --> 00:42:54,080
Speaker 1: if I you know, if I disturb it and do

664
00:42:54,239 --> 00:42:58,120
Speaker 1: something beautiful with it that works for the movie. All

665
00:42:58,160 --> 00:43:01,120
Speaker 1: good You were a guy that was this leading man.

666
00:43:01,400 --> 00:43:05,480
Speaker 1: Good looking women were crazy about you, and but you

667
00:43:05,520 --> 00:43:08,919
Speaker 1: didn't play that, and it was just about the music man,

668
00:43:09,120 --> 00:43:11,360
Speaker 1: and I hope so you never lost sight of the

669
00:43:11,400 --> 00:43:14,560
Speaker 1: fact that really all you cared about was music. Damn

670
00:43:14,719 --> 00:43:36,000
Speaker 1: true enough. Robbie Robertson and the band influenced everyone from

671
00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:39,680
Speaker 1: Pink Floyd to Elton John, the latter of whom said

672
00:43:39,719 --> 00:43:42,640
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eleven that the group's first album,

673
00:43:42,800 --> 00:43:46,800
Speaker 1: Music from Big Pink, changed his life. He's not alone.

674
00:43:49,440 --> 00:43:52,280
Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you were listening to Here's

675
00:43:52,280 --> 00:44:00,120
Speaker 1: the Thing. M