Robbie Robertson
Pencil Portrait by Antonio Bosano.
Shopping Basket
The quality of the prints are at a much higher level compared to the image shown on the left.
Order
A3 Pencil Print-Price £45.00-Purchase
A4 Pencil Print-Price £30.00-Purchase
*Limited edition run of 250 prints only*
All Pencil Prints are printed on the finest Bockingford Somerset Velvet 255 gsm paper.
P&P is not included in the above prices.
Recommended listening
Music from Big Pink (1968)
The Band (1969)
Stage Fright (1970)
Northern Lights – Southern Cross (1975)
Robbie Robertson (1987)
Recommended reading
Testimony (2016) Robbie Robertson
Never an admirer of rock journalism, Frank Zappa once witheringly described those inquisitive individuals as ‘People who can’t write, ghosting for people who can’t talk, targeting people who can’t read.’ Ouch – that hurts, and in any any event I can’t agree with his readership assertion.
We are assured by Penquin Random House that every word of ‘Testimony’ is Robbie’s own, but we can’t be sure and in any event, the anecdotes liberally sprinkled throughout keep the narrative flowing. Regrettably though, there doesn’t seem much of a point to many of them, but compensation is at hand in the form of Robbie’s childhood reminiscences on the Six Nations Indian Reserve and the streets of Toronto.
The two pictorial spreads hint at the book’s historical focus, events essentially winding up at the Band’s 1976 Thanksgiving concert. It was Robertson’s decision to call time on The Band after sixteen years, a decision met with some incredulity by Dylan himself. “Is this going to be one of those Frank Sinatra retirements where you come back a year later.” “No” was the reply “The Band has to get off the road. It’s become a danger zone ans we’re afraid of what might happen.”
“I loved these guys beyond words, until it hurt inside,” says Robbie. “But this beast was wounded, and we were unsure of its recovery.”
Glossing over some of the ugliness, such as his strained relationship with drummer Levon Helm, who died in 2012 of throat cancer, Robertson simply tells his side of the story while repeatedly calling Mr. Helm his best friend. Richard Manuel and Rick Danko would both die in the 90’s.
Picked up my copy second hand for £2.50. Don’t complain though Robbie; somebody had previously paid the full asking price of £20!
Comments
Last update: 23/9/17
Released in time for Xmas 2016, a new deluxe audio/visual box set allows us once again to revel in one of the top three all time rock concert films.
At Thanksgiving 1976, The Band gave their final concert in their original lineup, a massive swan song that the Canadian troubadours turned into an all-star spectacle. Calling the event “The Last Waltz,” the group’s de facto leader Robbie Robertson – who’d grown tired of being a rock & roll road warrior – and San Francisco promoter Bill Graham, staged a no-expense-spared adieu that started with a Thanksgiving feast and ended with everyone from Neil Diamond to Neil Young accompanying the quintet. As far as farewells go, this one was major, yet it might have been relegated to the “you had to like have been there man” history books had a bearded, jittery Martin Scorsese not decided to ditch some responsibilities and call in some favours.
The idea was to simply record the evening for posterity, though the then-35-year-old filmmaker had a few ideas of his own to add in to the mix. What he ended up with was the definitive document of these American-music scholars, an epitaph to a specific era of rock history, and a movie that had me captivated at the cinema. When Eric Clapton’s guitar strap gives way on “Further on up the road,” Levon Helm throws in a quick drum shuffle and Robbie tails the remaining intro with a blistering solo. These were seasoned multi instrumentalist pros, and it shows throughout.