a recent post paid tribute to the 40th anniversary of the band’s great film, ‘the last waltz’. coincidentally, the main driver of that film also recently released his autobiography, ‘testimony’.

from his young childhood learning guitar on his mother’s mohawk reservation in toronto, to running off to play lead guitar with ronnie hawkin’s band at 16, to touring with bob dylan on his electric tour in 1966, being part of forming the band and recording the famous basement tapes, although the way up to their final concert chronicled in ‘the last waltz’, this is robbie’s version of a period of musical history that helped shape the music of the late sixties and early seventies.

a criticism i have seen of the book is that robbie toots his own horn here a bit too much, and that is true. but you often don’t get to the top unless you have a bit of an ego. another snipe is his defense of how he got the lion share of the recording royalties, even though it is clear even in robbie’s telling that the band used a collaborative effort when laying down tracks. levon helm was the most vocal about this in later years, but robbie’s side of the story is compelling here, and i have read other sources to back him up to a certain degree. quite frankly, other than garth hudson, all of the other members of the band got caught up in the rock and roll life and stopped caring as much about the music after the first few albums. in my opinion it is not a coincidence that garth and robbie are the only surviving members of the band. out of all of them, levon has always been my favorite, but i think he was not exactly 100% truthful in his side of the story, and he took that bitterness to his grave. robbie visited him in the hospital in his last days before succumbing to throat cancer, and he won’t reveal what they talked about, but i think it says something that he made the effort to be there to help get closure on a subject that had divided such a soulmate friendship.

if you are a fan of this period and this genre, then this is a must read, if only for the inside dope from a guy who lived through all of it. it is a remarkable story, one fraught with tales of unbelievable musical genius but also tales of the excesses of the rock and roll lifestyles that eventually killed a few and limited the careers of others, including the members of the band. i consider myself to be fairly knowledgeable about the band and early dylan, but i can tell you that i learned an awful lot by digesting this book. i devoured it in a couple of sittings, and will probably need to tackle it again soon just to make sure i didn’t miss anything.

longtime reader bill vv suggests this podcast as some useful background: