Before His Death, Robbie Robertson Reveals Shocking Truth About Levon Helm
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- Опубликовано: 17 сен 2024
- Before his death, Robbie Robertson opened up about one of rock history's most talked-about and long-running feuds: his complex relationship with Levon Helm.
This A.I nonsense needs to stop.
There was no "shocking truth". Levon lost all his money...and didn't think Robbie helped him out enough.
Blew his money like a lot of these fellas. They have a great time but if they live long enough the money stops flowing and they run out. Look at Elvis. Parker was horrible but he made Elvis very rich. Elvis blew the money and now everyone blames Parker for his money problems and his bodyguards and doctor for the drugs. These are grown men that are thrown a life us normal people never get a whiff of. When they fuck it all up they only have themselves to blame.
That said I alway find Robbie very irritating and Levon seems really natural and likeable. I know who I’d wanna have a beer with!
@@tedbelmont I'd like to sit down and have a beer with either one of them. History hasn't been kind to Robertson where their relationship was involved. Some folks say Levon blew his money (@tedbelmont is not alone) and I've heard extensively that Robbie, being the songwriter in the band, cleaned up on publishing royalties and wasn't particularly over-sharing with it. Maybe sitting down with that beer would help us cut through the crap and find out who the real a$sh0le was. (side note:) With the political climate in the US being what it is right now in '24 - screwed - I also can't help but see the southern-accented American as a Republican first and a drummer second. That one's on me, obviously - but that's how the horrible Trump era has been. Republicans of today stand for nothing that the 1969 Band did. I understand that my last entry is unrelated political bullsh1T - but whatever.
I just am so thrilled that Leonardo Da Vinci gave thanks to such a great songwriter, wish he could have given him singing lessons, love Rick, Richard, Levon and Garth
I remember my first Band alum. There was nothing like it.
👍 Agreed.
I remember exactly where I was when I first heard "The Band," their masterpiece, playing through, beginning to end, on a college radio station.
I immediately became a fan and have been one ever since.
--That was about 55 years ago.
Music from Big Pink was their first, not The Band.I find these bio sketches that don't do their homework annoying.
Most their songs were written as a group effort not by robbie.
Big Pink changed my life
Love the Band
The Last Waltz was not 1978, but 1976.
Evactly, thats what I thought and got a bit confused when he said '76
I was unsure, despite having sold hundreds of them in the late 70s, so I Googled it and Wikipedia has it released in April 26, 1978. It was RECORDED in front of a live audience (obv) at The Winterland Ballroom in 1976.
20:11 Great story of Robbie, The Band and the challenges of friendship. Can’t wait for the upcoming Life is a Carnival tribute to Robbie at the Kia Forum.
I didn't know much about the band the 1st time I saw the last waltz, but I got a a vibe that Robertson seemed jive
I went to see The Band in about '95 or '96 and Levon was still so bitter towards Robbie and he slagged him off after nearly every song, saying how much he hated him and encouraging us not to be fans of Robbie etc - he said a lot more but what I don't understand is, they were still happy to tour and sing the songs Robbie had written - obviously I know they woulddn't have been The Band if they didn't sing those songs but they continued for years singing Robbie's songs. I know Robbie went to see Levon in hospital when he was dying as Levoln's daughter had phoned him, they didn't get to speak as Levon was too far gone to speak, Robbie said he held his hand and thought about the good times, if it had been the other way around I don't think Levon would've gone to see Robbie on his death bed. I find the whole thing very sad that Levon was so bitter and held on to that bitterness for so long. I don't know how it works when people sing the songs another artist has written when they leave the group, if they have to pay royalties to the songwriter, but if youre that bitter why continue ti sing his songs for so many years after. From what I remember of the concert it marred it in a way, Rick ended uo walking off stage and didn'r come back, he couldn't play, he kept missing his bass lines, apparently he was off his head on heroin, so many people queued at the box office demanding they got their money back (not sure if they did get their money back or not, myself and my friend just left). I know I didn't know Robbie personally but he seemed like a nice man, don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of The Band and especially both Levon and Rick, their singing ability was amazing. Robbie seemed to know who to give the song he'd written to sing. I love Levon's singing
Imo: "The Last Waltz", is one of the best Gigs ever.
Had great guest appearances by top notch Blues, RnR/RnB and Country Artist.
From a musical perspective, it was/is an excellent film.
Highly recommend viewing to Rock Music fans.
🎼🥁 🎸🎷🎹
👍🏻
The reason Levon was not happy with Robbie was when the "The Last Waltz" was made Robertson made the deal with Scorsese and signed his name and ONLY his name as owning the copy rights of the music. HE STOLE THE MUSIC from all the other members of The Band. No one else in the Band received any money from that point on. Robertson profited at everyone else's expense and it was a real SHITTY thing to do to his friends. Why is that not being disclosed in the propaganda?
Someone needs to sharpen up their history knowledge. Too many holes and mistakes.
You forgot about music from big pink. That's their first album.
I’m glad you mentioned that! I was skeptical of this because of that. How can you forget that album!?!?!?
No, they just called it by the wrong title, saying it was “self-titled,” but the songs mentioned were from Music From Big Pink. They even showed the cover when talking about the songs that were significant. But, it’s these kind of mistakes that make you question the accuracy of the video, although most of it rings true.
@@ChrisGibsonMeAsWe Thanks! I thought that was wrong. . Stopped watching halfway through. Clearly somebody didn’t proofread first!
As I understand, the band wrote their classic songs,together most of the time, during rehearsals maybe someone would come in with a idea,and they would work on it for days weeks,months sometime, they originally had co-written credits,but Robbie, after the split,started to buy the other members credits to the songs, and because they weren’t together touring they were broke, they sold him their rights to Robbie, today most songs are credited to Robbie alone with a few exceptions for Richard Manuel, ?
Very rose tinted from Robbie's point. The feud started long before the break up, with Robbie claiming all the song writing credits even though all members of the Band had a large input. Thisled to Robbie getting nearly all the money unless they played concerts which he didn't want to do because of his stage fright.
YES that is true
@@elee2chee Not quite. They ALL made a lot of money, some wasted it on drugs and bad money management. Robbie didn't claim all song writing credits, he wrote the songs, when one of the other members wrote a song and co-wrote a song, they were properly credited. When The Band had their first concert at Winterland, SF Robbie was very sick, he later wondered if it was part stage fright, although he had a high fever, and couldn't keep food down. Robbie and Levon were not really fighting while still in The Band. No, the first crack appeared when Levon was doing heroin and lied about it to Robbie. Richard and Rick did heroin as well. Robbie became the caretaker and de facto leader of The Band. By the time of The Last Waltz, Robbie was exhausted being the caretaker of 3 heroin addicts, while trying to maintain a stable family life with a wife and 3 small children. The Band had been together for 16 years, Robbie was tired of touring, wanted to spend more time with his family, he also felt that by continuing to tour would be pushing their luck. In The Last Waltz Robbie explains how the road had taken many of the great musicians, he felt by continuing to tour they would be pushing their luck. Levon couldn't handle money he spent it recklessly, whether he had it or not. He had built a house in Woodstock worth about $700.000, when it burned down, he got insurance money to rebuilt it. Levon continued to tour, wrote a book and was in several well known movies, he must have made some money.
The way it works apparently is the songwriter gets 50% of the royalties and then the other 50% is split between the 4 of them. So yeah if they did partly write the songs they got screwed but they still got money for performing the songs.
U2 although I don’t like them just split it all equally and are still getting along.
@@tedbelmont They all got 20 percent of the publishing rights. Except for Levon they all willingly sold their share to Robbie. Robbie wrote majority of the songs, only a few were written or co-written by the others. Writing songs is a talent someone is born with, so it is not a critic of the others. Richard wrote more than the others, I think if he had not been such an addict he could have written more. Levon and Garth contributed the least to the song writing effort. In an interview with Jon Taplin (The Band's manager for a few years) Taplin tells how he would go by Robbie's house early in the morning and Robbie was up writing songs, the other guys were still sleeping (Richard, Levon and Rick were doing heroin then) Taplin tried to wake up Levon and he came after him with a knife. There are all kinds of stories how credits are split. The Doors had a similar arrangement as U2 I believe. Creedence Clearwater had some of the same problems as The Band, but John Fogarty wrote most of their songs. The Eagles had some of the same issues as well. Robbie not only wrote the songs, he dealt with the business side of The Band, which no one else had any interest in. Accountants, publisher's, manager's the press.
No shocking truth. Skip this.
Money money money
In a way, you gotta understand. They were so broke at one time that they would tour and steal food from local supermarkets…Big chunks of money can trigger greed in a lot of people…
@@josephgonzalez4380 That was when they were touring with Ronnie Hawkins, and the club they played at had promised to pay them daily, then changed his mind, and said he wouldn't pay them until the end, when they were done. They were wondering if they would get paid at all. They did, but not as much as promised. I think the club was Jack Ruby's club if I remember correctly. Jack Ruby later became famous for shooting Lee Harvey Oswald who killed President Kennedy.
@@hannejeppesen1809
Yikes, I think you’re right…
Not good pronunciations actually terrible 😊
does it have to be this corny? ...
crap
Robertson took too much songwriting credit
For writing songs? He wrote songs for Ronnie Hawk, The Band And Dylan. Would love to know the reasons why he shouldn't take credit for that. He started writing songs when he was 14 FFS!. Ive been in music for 48 years and have never written a damn thing.
All about a guy that spent his money on drugs and a guy that didn't.
@@johnsummerhill8323 That is pretty much it. Also, Robbie made more money after The Band by composing music for Scorsese's movies. Levon was not good at handling money, his motto was "don't let your income dictate your lifestyle", then years after The Band broke up, when he had spent all his money he writes a book and blames Robbie, then when Robbie call him he back tracks, not cool. I love The Band always have, I'm of their generation. I love Levon's singing and drumming, but his bitterness towards Robbie is a turn off. RIck and Robbie are my 2 favorite Band members.
And what interaction did you have with band to know this?
@@giggycarol I read Barney Hoskyns biography of The Band "Across the Great Divide", I read Joe Forno Jr's book "Levon's Man", Forno was a Woodstock native, his parents were close to several members of The Band, especially Richard Manuel and Levon, he managed The Band from the mid eighties to the mid nineties, although close to Levon and liked him, he it is obvious from Forno's book as well as Hoskyns that Levon spend money recklessly, even his own dad scolded him for how he was careless with money.