WEBVTT - Robbie Robertson Learned Music on an Indian Reservation 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:14.400 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's the thing. 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:19.240 I'll ruled in another room. I will beating by hand 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:24.919 past and give me to find a place where I 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:31.600 can leave my head. And Mr Canna tell me where 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:37.320 a man I find it be. He just branded shook 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:43.559 my hand and new we're going to see. At age fifteen, 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:48.120 Robbie Robertson wrote his first two recorded songs. A year later, 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:50.880 he packed up his guitar and took a train from 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:54.320 Canada to the Mississippi Delta, what he calls the holy 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:57.800 Land of rock and roll. By the mid nineteen sixties, 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:01.080 he'd be touring the world with Bob Dylan, then taking 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:04.160 center stage with a group of his own, happily named 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:08.920 The Band. Operating out of a basement in upstate New York, 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:14.039 he penned classics like The Weight, still considered a masterpiece today. 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:16.640 A blend of country and rock and roll, the band's 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:21.160 music transcendent generations, pushed boundaries and changed the face of 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:26.800 music forever. In his new memoir Testimony, Robbie Robertson travels 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:29.880 back to the place it all began, the Six Nations 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:34.160 Indian Reservation, where his mother a mohawk was raised. That's 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:38.200 where I was introduced to music. It seemed to me 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:43.920 that everybody played an instrument, saying dance, did something because 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:47.000 there wasn't much entertainment coming through the Reds, so they 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:50.000 had to make their own and it and it felt 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:53.240 like a club, and I thought, I gotta get into 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:56.840 this club. Everybody plays something. How much time did you 0:01:56.880 --> 0:02:00.320 spend there? Oh, we spent lots of time there because 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:04.440 that's where you know, my mom's relatives were, so we 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:07.520 would go several times a year. And that was your 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:12.079 mother's side of the family. So yeah, yeah, and uh. 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:16.360 And it felt to me like I was. I was 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:20.840 that they allowed me into this world that I thought 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:24.480 was so special. So all of these things in music, 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:27.119 and it was the first time I ever saw anybody 0:02:27.160 --> 0:02:30.880 playing an instrument a few inches from me, and the 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:34.359 sound of it from that place that I thought, I've 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:38.400 got I've got to learn something about this. So some 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:41.480 of my cousins and uncles and every they would show 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:43.960 me a few little tricks on the guitar, a couple 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:49.040 of chords, and over time I liked it and liked it. 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:52.320 And then when I was about eleven or twelve years old, 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:55.079 I thought, I'm getting as good as they are at 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:59.600 this and they're grown ups. Something's happening here, all of 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:05.880 this coming out of the Indian Reservation where it's supposed 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:10.520 to be deprived. It was a glorious part of my 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:16.080 growing up. So then when I was thirteen years old, 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:21.840 I was standing there at the crossroads with a guitar. 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:26.800 Rock and Roll came along and I just reached puberty. 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:30.640 It was a setup. I had nowhere else to go. 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:34.360 I had to follow this path and so it was. 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:37.360 It was like it was laid out before me and 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:40.040 all I had to do was follow it. So I 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:43.240 started getting in the little groups and things. I had 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:46.360 a group called Robbie and the Robots, and I, you know, 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:50.080 we had another group called Thumper, Thumper and the Trambones, 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:54.560 and then Yeah, and then I played. I had a 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:58.240 group and we opened for Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:03.000 at a dance hall and they were amazing. They were 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:09.160 all from the South and it was pure, pure rockabilly, 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:13.200 hard hitting rock, the American stuff. Not South Toronto, No, 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:15.760 it was from the South. So for me, it was 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:22.960 authent Arkansas. They were all from Arkansas then, and and 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:25.560 in the group I was, and we played and I 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:29.000 tried to play good and everything and I and I 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:32.240 caught Ronnie Hawkins eye a little bit, and that it 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:35.800 gave me the opportunity to hang around a little bit. 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:37.839 I wanted some of this to rub off on me. 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:42.520 I wanted to learn this authenticity. But to interject this, 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:45.680 which is when you're there and you're at the reservation 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:47.720 and they're they're playing the music, and you start to 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:50.640 keep up with them, and then you say, quote unquote, 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:53.800 Ronnie Hawkins has his eye on you. Is that something 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:56.039 that you've benefited from? Which is people saw that you 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:59.200 stood out and they recognized that, they almost mentored you. 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:03.080 You know, there's something that happens, it's it's it's mysterious 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:05.640 and you don't know where it comes from, and you 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:09.160 don't know how. You just know something happens. And if 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:11.600 somebody pat you on the back for that, what was 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:13.960 Ronnie Hawkins patting you on the back? Four? He thought 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:19.080 this kid looks to me like he might have potential. Right. 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:25.080 And then when I was fifteen, which was at that time, 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:27.600 I was fifteen years old, I wrote two songs that 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:30.760 he recorded, and so that was kind of a big 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:33.760 thing to the first recordings that I had. And then 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:36.840 when I was sixteen, he said, I want to try 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:39.400 you out. I want you know, I want to see 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:42.040 if you can if you can handle it. And so 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:47.360 I went from Canada from Toronto on a train down 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:50.640 to the Mississippi Delta to the holy land of rock 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:53.520 and roll to join up with Ronnie Hawkins and the 0:05:53.560 --> 0:06:01.080 Hawks passed away. Yeah. My, my, my mother, she was horrified. 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:05.680 I was going to say six yeah, and and and 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:08.960 I'm going to the Mississippi Delta and describe Ronnie Hawkins 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:11.120 for people who know him, Was he uh in a 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:12.640 suit and tie they have a bow tie and a 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:16.160 crisp shirt on? Or was he? He was an amazing character, 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:21.839 an incredible showman, so funny and could get away with anything. 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:27.799 And to see him perform it was like some uncaged animal, 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:32.920 it was, but beautiful. You know. He would come leaping 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:37.240 through the air down and land on his knees behind 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:41.200 the piano player and start winding him up like as 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:43.760 if you know, it was like a monkey, you know 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:47.720 playing you know, and yeah, like the Oregon. He would 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:51.040 be binding him up and then come in singing at 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:54.120 the last second, and then you know, leap over here. 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:58.120 He was like and years ago when we played like 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:01.680 Alan Freed shows and that nobody wanted to go on 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:06.160 after Ronnie Hawkins. He was just one of those. Yeah, 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:09.800 he was just an exciting performer. So in my mother 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:13.600 I knew of Ronnie Hawkins having not well but had 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:17.280 met him. But when I said, I'm going down there, 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:20.440 I'm going to try out for Ronnie Hawkins and the 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:24.920 Hawks because if I don't do this, I'll be sorry 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:27.720 the rest of my life. And I've got to find 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:31.280 out whether this is my calling or not. She said, 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:35.320 all right, you can try it, but if it doesn't work, 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:38.600 you go right back to school. And I said, it's 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:41.160 a deal, right, But you never had to keep that too. 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:46.200 I was on a mission when Hawkins said, when you 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:47.680 wrote a couple of songs for him, and he was 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:50.160 going to use those songs before you got in the band, 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:54.200 describe for me, because you are a very uh you know, 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:58.080 famous for your songwriting. Because what was your performing? What 0:07:58.120 --> 0:07:59.600 was that like for you? I mean even as a 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:03.400 child to me, you're young kids are When he said that, 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:07.640 I kept looking for the key, the key to the highway. 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:12.120 I kept looking for some way to impress him. I 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:16.200 wanted into this world, and I thought, he said he 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:19.840 needs some songs. I had been writing songs, not very 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:23.240 good ones, but you know, I was. I was doing it, 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:26.640 and I thought, let me give it a shot, you know. 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:30.840 And I went and I wrote two songs, brought them 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:34.120 to him, played them for him, and he said, well, 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:38.199 I'll be damned, I'm going to record both those songs. Son. 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:41.040 You remember what the songs were. Yeah, one was called 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:44.679 someone Like You and another one was called Baba Lou 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:49.040 and I uh, and I just I wrote them like 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:52.680 in one sitting because I was anxious and I was young. 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:58.199 But here's the pepper in this. He goes records these songs, 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:04.040 makes a new album, brings me the album. I nervously 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:08.360 opened this record. I look on the label. There's my 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:13.240 name on the label, but it says Robertson and McGill. 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:18.280 So I said, there's no McGill there. When I wrote these, 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:21.800 who the hell's McGill? And he said, wow, it's a 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:23.320 kind of a long story. I don't know if you 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:26.560 want to and I said, no, there was nobody else there. 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:29.839 I even I wrote it. I wrote these, what's going on? 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:33.920 So he said, here's the real deal. This is a 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:39.240 pseudonym for Maurice Levy, my lawyer. He owns the record company. 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:44.560 He owns Roulette Records, and he's a hardcore mobster. And 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:48.360 he puts his vague and that's his vague, exactly half 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:52.840 the songwriting. And I thought, you can do that. You 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:55.160 can lie about this stuff, you can put it out 0:09:55.200 --> 0:10:00.679 there and nobody ever says anything. And so Ronnie explains, no, no, no, 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:04.480 you don't forget about it, Robbie, it's Chinatown, that's right. 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:08.200 It was like that. He said. Morris is famous for 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:12.280 having his guys hold somebody out his office window by 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:16.360 the ankles, saying either you sign this or we let 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:21.360 your very cuddly character. So so after the after this 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:26.240 songwriting thing, Ronnie brings me to New York. He said, 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:29.200 if you can write songs for me, maybe you would 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:32.760 have a good ear and hearing songs would be good 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:35.320 for me to record. So I meet Lieber and Stoller 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:39.640 and Thomas and Schumann and Otis Blackwell all of these writers, 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:42.640 and I sit in rooms and they play me songs, 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:46.160 and I think this is kind of like being in heaven. 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:51.280 So then Ronnie says to me, Now we're gonna go 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:53.920 up to Roulette Records. We're gonna go up to see 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:57.600 Morris Levy. Um, I have to, you know, do some 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:01.280 things with him. So I'll introduce you and everything. I'm 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:04.439 thinking to myself, Oh yeah, well, now we're going to 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:08.640 discuss this songwriting misunderstanding. I want to work with you, Morris. 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:11.920 You know, no, it's kind of like that I was 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:15.240 that young that I was thinking you weren't in the room. 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:17.160 You weren't there when I wrote these songs. You do 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:20.600 really want an explanation, Mars, right. So anyway, so we 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:24.280 go into his up to his office. It looks like 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:28.120 a scene out of a Damon Runyon thing. There are 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:33.959 gangster guys standing around with crooked noses and bulging mohair suits, 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:37.680 you know, where they're backing squares. There's good there's secretaries 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:40.480 with blonde hair over one eye. You know. It's like 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:45.240 this is a movie and we're a count. Basie's playing 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:49.360 in the background. We come in. Morris comes out of 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:52.960 his office and he says, Ronny, Ronnie, I love this guy. 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:56.120 What a crazy guy he is. Come on in here, Ronnie, 0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:58.200 you know, And he's saying to everybody there. You know, 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:01.280 I love this guy, and I think what happens to 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:04.640 gangsters when their kids said their voices go like this? 0:12:05.200 --> 0:12:07.559 Why does he talk, you know this way? So we 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:11.600 go into his office. Ronnie's doing the camel walk on 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:15.160 the rug and calling him hoss and and he just 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:19.560 he loves Ronnie, so it's it's really fun. And Ronnie 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:22.800 says to him, Morris, I just came up here just 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:25.640 to see if there's any papers you want me to sign, 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:30.000 right knowing the story about hanging people out there give 0:12:30.040 --> 0:12:33.920 you a pint of blood. So anyway, we sit down 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:36.600 and I'm thinking, all right, okay, you know, I see 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:41.160 how this is going. And he's talking to Morrison. He says, Morris, 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:43.320 this is the kid that I was telling you about 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:47.880 that I really think has some potential. Morris looks over 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:51.360 at me and he says, yeah, he's a nice looking kid. 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:53.880 If you ever have to do time, would be good 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:59.920 to have him with you. I thought, what what he said. 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:02.880 I bet you don't know whether to hire him or 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:06.079 just have sex with him, you know, And I think 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:10.199 I'm going to forego the songwriting dispute. I'm just gonna 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:15.520 let that go for now you know. Yeah, so you 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:18.600 leave Hawkins, Yes, and you're with him for how long? 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:23.160 A couple of years? Uh? When I joined him at sixteen, 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:30.199 left probably around yeah, something like that. And you leave 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:35.280 to form your bed. No, it is. Over the years 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:43.240 leave on. And I have helped hire people to replace 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:46.280 people that were leaving the Hawks, and they were all 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:49.839 Canadians because we were spending a lot of time up there. 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:52.640 Ronnie liked it because he made more money and the 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:56.240 hours were easier. So we were seeing all these really 0:13:56.320 --> 0:14:01.240 talented guys. And because I kind of opened that door 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:04.720 a little bit, and and we would see this other talent, 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:08.080 we'd say, oh my god, that guy is something special 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:11.400 about him. That Rick Danko, We better hire him. And 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:15.679 then boy, when this Richard Manuel sings, jeez, just there's 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:19.720 your heart out. And Garth Hudson there's never been a 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:23.160 keyboard player on that level ever. And if he was 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:26.600 in our group, we would learn more, we would be better. 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:31.080 Everybody gets better. Yeah. So anyway, we put together this 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:35.600 group and Ronnie has now an amazing band of music. 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:41.320 And we are young and growing up and we outgrow 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:44.680 what we were doing with Ronnie, and we just said 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:47.840 at some point, we gotta go do our own thing. 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:50.840 Where did you first meet leaving? I met leve On 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:55.560 Um when I first when my group opened for Ronnie 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:58.920 Hawkins and the Hawks. And then so Levan was with 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:02.240 Hawkins already. Ah yeah, yeah, yeah, he was one of 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:06.000 the original Hawks. So and he joined the group I 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:09.640 think when he was eighteen or something like that. Um. 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:14.040 But when I went south and Levon introduced me to 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:18.320 his family and everybody there, we we became very close, 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:21.720 just like a brotherhood. And so we were picking out 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:25.520 these other guys. And after we put this group together, 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:30.400 Levan was then the only Southerner left in the group. 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:33.880 And we had these guys and then we just felt 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:36.080 like we have to go out in the world and 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:39.680 discover our own thing now. And we did that, and 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:43.160 we were out there and playing the Chitland Circuit down 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:47.200 south and joined you know, in New York and Jersey, 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:52.400 and we were playing in a place in Jersey and 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:56.160 and that's when I got this call from Bob Dylan 0:15:56.840 --> 0:15:59.320 two that he wanted to talk to me about something 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:03.840 and how do he find you? He we had a 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:09.080 reputation of being a pretty you know, a good band, 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:12.160 a really good band. There was that, and he always 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:13.880 had his thinker in the win for that kind of thing. 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:19.040 He um, he was wanting to make this transition from 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:22.880 being a folk hero to being a guy that had 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:27.560 a band of you know, instruments, powerful rock and roll 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:30.880 band to turn it up a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:36.160 So so I I went. I met with him, and 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:39.000 I didn't know what this was going to be about, 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:42.240 but what the plan really was what they were thinking. 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:45.800 He needed a guitar player and wanted to hire me 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:49.480 to play guitar um on some dates he was doing. 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:53.680 And I said, I have a group. We don't do that, 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:57.680 you know, I said, but maybe for these two dates, 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:01.120 if we could have leve On come too, we might 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:04.480 be able to slip this in without making the other 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:07.280 guys feel left out. Or so we did these couple 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:10.719 of days. It was ridiculous. I mean we were playing 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:14.840 places and people were so upset about this music and 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:18.800 you know, this electric music from our folks man, and 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:25.600 it was like it wasn't working. It. It was not 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:29.560 what they wanted at all from him, from him, they 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:33.240 this is not so what was the venue? We played 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:36.760 Forest Hills Stadium here what forests and people literally are like, 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:41.119 when's Bob Dylan coming on? Know that people were charging 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:45.440 the stage and throwing things and trying to disrupt it 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:50.439 and booing and booing. So we played Forest Hills in 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:53.600 the Hollywood Bawl did these days. We thought about that 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:58.399 was weird. And then Bob says, we're gonna book a 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:01.280 whole tour. Now, let's do a whole tour. And I 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:03.800 was like, no, no, no, no, no. We have a group. 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:06.720 We are a group. We are not going off to 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:09.600 do this. And the only way that we could even 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:12.200 consider it if we did it with the whole group. 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:16.280 So he came and heard us play and said, yeah, 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:21.879 let's do this. And so we ended up touring of 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:27.760 North America, Australia, Europe, and people booed and threw stuff 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:32.080 at us every night. How does that possible? You could 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:35.960 hear people saying to him and his manager, you've got 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:39.080 to get rid of these guys. They're ruining everything. And 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:42.679 the people love you, but you've got to get rid 0:18:42.720 --> 0:18:47.000 of those guys. And Bob never budged, He never took 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:50.080 a step back, and we continued and we did this 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:54.879 whole tour and stuff. Back then we would listen sometimes 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:58.160 after the show to a tape of the show, just thinking, 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:02.119 you know, we're to see what's wrong. What do we 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:06.280 think that's happening with? Right? Right? How can they high? 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:10.400 And there was a point in all of that, and 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:12.800 because some of it was just helpful to put get 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:16.040 the music better and do this song slower and this 0:19:16.160 --> 0:19:19.399 one that there was one night we're listening to the 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:22.800 tape and I said to the other guys in the 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:29.920 Hawks and the Bob they're wrong. The world is wrong. 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:35.760 This is good, this is really powerful, and they are wrong. 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:39.200 And there was a boldness that came out of this 0:19:39.720 --> 0:19:44.280 that we felt like, oh yeah, really, I'll show you something, 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:47.520 you know. And it was like get him in the ears, 0:19:48.040 --> 0:19:50.800 you know, get him in the eyes. It was an 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:54.880 attitude that allowed us to carry on. All of these 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:59.520 concerts are as we speak, are coming out, they're being released, 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:02.320 all of them. I don't want to hear the music 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:05.160 that the band did with Bob Dylan was booed around 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:08.159 the world. That I've got to say. But then if 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:11.120 it's recorded on an album and no, it's all coming out, 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:14.880 god knows it wasn't released, then it wasn't released. Then 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:20.720 it's being released. Now, yeah, but eventually it stops. Ends. 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:25.440 Why what happened was after we finished the European tour, 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:29.960 we came back and they were booking more dates. They 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:31.879 were getting you know that he wanted to do a 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:35.400 tour of Russia. He wanted all kinds of things, you think, 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:37.359 and it was kind of like he wanted to be 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:42.200 booed in every corner of the world. Hello, Greenland. So 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:47.000 so he came back and he had an accident on 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:51.320 a motorcycle, accident, and he fractured his neck, and so 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:55.400 they had to cancel any upcoming dates and he never 0:20:55.440 --> 0:21:02.800 did another tour after that for eight years. They God Blessing, 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:12.399 keep you all that you wish is all they always do. 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:22.479 That you coming up? Why Martin Scorsese risked getting fired 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:25.119 from New York, New York to direct the band's final 0:21:25.200 --> 0:21:28.840 concert in nineteen seventy six, a film that would become 0:21:28.960 --> 0:21:33.520 the last waltz to hear Other musical legends explore the 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:37.600 Here's the Thing Archives. In nineteen sixty six, Herb Albert 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:41.880 and the Tijuana Brass did the unthinkable. They outsold the Beatles. 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:46.840 But that was just the start. In sixty uh seven, 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:50.800 were I was doing a special for NBC. Jack Hayley Jr. 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:53.040 Was directing. He said, why don't you sing a song? 0:21:54.400 --> 0:21:57.040 I said, well, if if I can find the right song, 0:21:57.080 --> 0:21:58.720 I'll give it a go. So, you know, I go 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:01.000 through my Barolla decks and I called Bert back rack. 0:22:01.600 --> 0:22:03.680 I said, Bert, is there a song that you have 0:22:04.720 --> 0:22:06.679 that do you think I could handle? That? You have 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:09.120 tucked away in your drawer someplace where you find yourself 0:22:09.200 --> 0:22:12.560 whistling in the morning, or you know a tune that 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:15.240 haunts you. Well. Three days later he sent me this 0:22:15.400 --> 0:22:18.240 Girl's in love with you. Take a listen, and here's 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:23.080 the thing. Dot Org, this is Alec Baldwin and you 0:22:23.119 --> 0:22:26.480 were listening to Here's the thing. Robbie Robertson and the 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:30.320 Band shook the foundation of America in the nineteen sixties, 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:34.119 weaving together the rustic and romantic into hits like the 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:37.399 Night they Drove Old Dixie Down. But if their sound 0:22:37.440 --> 0:22:41.760 was innovative, their first recording studio was the opposite. It 0:22:41.920 --> 0:22:45.040 was a house up in West Sagredis in New York. 0:22:45.080 --> 0:22:49.560 Who found it, um Rick Danko, And it said, guys, 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:52.159 I think I've found it because we were having a 0:22:52.200 --> 0:22:54.840 lot of trouble in the city finding a place where 0:22:54.840 --> 0:22:58.600 we could make music, because it was the business was 0:22:58.640 --> 0:23:01.480 still here that it had more moved to. Right, no, no, 0:23:01.720 --> 0:23:04.240 But but we'd be disturbing. They'd say, turn on the 0:23:04.400 --> 0:23:06.720 music in there. You know. It's like it was hard 0:23:06.760 --> 0:23:09.880 to find a place even a studio, well a studio, 0:23:09.920 --> 0:23:14.120 but we couldn't afford to lady or something like that. 0:23:14.280 --> 0:23:16.800 Right no, no, no. And this was to write and 0:23:16.840 --> 0:23:20.119 to create and to think of what we're gonna do next. 0:23:20.640 --> 0:23:25.080 So Albert Grossman, our manager, talks us into moving up 0:23:25.119 --> 0:23:27.760 to Woodstock. He said, you can get a place there 0:23:27.760 --> 0:23:30.760 and nobody will bother you. You won't bother anybody, bring 0:23:30.760 --> 0:23:34.600 your food, it'll be. It'll be just because I had 0:23:34.640 --> 0:23:38.399 this dream that I wanted to have a workshop, a 0:23:38.560 --> 0:23:43.040 clubhouse where we all congregate every day and we go 0:23:43.160 --> 0:23:46.639 there and we create, and we have a wonderful time 0:23:46.680 --> 0:23:51.280 together and we build some kind of a musical noise 0:23:51.680 --> 0:23:54.399 that we could send out around the world. So we 0:23:54.520 --> 0:23:57.400 find this place out in the middle of a hundred acres. 0:23:58.160 --> 0:24:03.159 Nobody to bother it is this horribly ugly pink house. 0:24:03.720 --> 0:24:06.720 What had it been? It was no, it was just 0:24:06.800 --> 0:24:11.760 a house. On a big profit. It was. It was both, 0:24:12.720 --> 0:24:15.200 but had not been a working farm, not a farm, 0:24:15.560 --> 0:24:21.280 just a house. But anyway, in this house, it had 0:24:21.320 --> 0:24:27.080 a basement, and I thought, that's it. That's what I've 0:24:27.119 --> 0:24:30.080 been looking for. We can set up our equipment down here, 0:24:30.760 --> 0:24:35.560 and we can have some microphones and we can and 0:24:35.680 --> 0:24:39.280 we can be way off the grid, we can have 0:24:39.560 --> 0:24:42.119 nothing to do with what's going on in the world 0:24:42.480 --> 0:24:46.760 and really discover what we're here for. It served that 0:24:46.880 --> 0:24:50.560 kind of purpose in my imagination. So we set it up. 0:24:50.600 --> 0:24:54.639 We got the things, the instruments in there, all organized 0:24:54.640 --> 0:24:57.080 in a certain way, a few mike's, a little mixer 0:24:57.119 --> 0:25:02.080 and everything. I bring this engineer, recording engineer, friend, sound 0:25:02.119 --> 0:25:05.199 mixure guy, and I said, look at this, this is 0:25:05.240 --> 0:25:07.119 what you know. I said, what do you think? He 0:25:07.200 --> 0:25:10.640 looks at it and he says, well, it's all concrete, 0:25:11.560 --> 0:25:15.440 glass windows, a big furnace over here. This is probably 0:25:15.480 --> 0:25:18.400 going to be the worst sounding place you've ever heard 0:25:18.440 --> 0:25:22.880 in your life. It's a disaster. And I said, acoustic nightmare. 0:25:23.000 --> 0:25:25.399 And I said, thank you, that's just what I was 0:25:25.480 --> 0:25:31.159 looking for. I want to break Yeah, And you know 0:25:31.200 --> 0:25:34.159 where you find the sound. It's like this, This is 0:25:34.160 --> 0:25:36.560 Frampton when he did the show with us, Frampton who 0:25:36.600 --> 0:25:40.440 like you sixteen years old on the road and uh, 0:25:40.840 --> 0:25:43.040 same thing. When you listen to Frampton, he was like 0:25:43.200 --> 0:25:45.439 he was when I was a kid. I was into 0:25:45.520 --> 0:25:48.760 sound you do well. I wanted was just sounds and 0:25:48.800 --> 0:25:51.280