ANNIVERSARY
ISSUE
COVER
Using
Humour to Stop Teenage Suicide
ANNIVERSARY ISSUE
Selected excerpts from
First Nations Drum Celebratory Issue
BIOGRAPHY
Acclaimed
Aboriginal Writer Passes Away
BUSINESS
Metis
Refuse Premier Doer Order of the Sash
GOVERNMENT
National
Chief Pleased with Meeting with Premiers, Territorial Leaders
HUMOUR
Bee in the Bonnet:
Bad
News from the Doctor
Who
Gives a Fish?
How to Beat a Woman
MUSIC
Here
to Stay: Thirty Years of Aboriginal Music
MODERN TREATIES
Supreme
Court Rejects Treaty Right to Log
Robbie
Robertson puts the Weight on Native Music
By
Len
O'Connor
The
Prince of Folk had only performed once with a band, and that was at the
Newport Folk festival where he scandalized the audience of folk purists
who felt they had been betrayed by their acoustic messiah. The Dylan tour
of 65, received the same response; a chorus of boos would fill the concert
hall the moment the band plugged in their instruments. New York Times
editor Robert Palmer wrote that only two cities (Memphis and Dallas) had
received Dylan and the band with applause.
"I was trying for a quality
of music, an emotional experience with dynamics," Robbie explained.
"This wasn't just thrashing around. And we finally discovered something
while performing live although they booed us all over the world. They
were really rough. And most of the time, if you were put in this position,
you would say, 'Wait a minute, I must be doing something wrong. All these
people must be right.'
But when we would listen to the tapes after the shows, we'd say, 'That's
not that bad.' It took a lot of blindness or courage - I don't know which
- to think that we were gonna persist out there. And eventually people
came around. We just stuck to our guns. I had a lot of respect for Bob
not giving in."
The
British concerts were the turning point for the band. The Albert Hall
performance was attended by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. After
the show, Robbie found himself talking with John Lennon and Keith Richards.
The British Press was more receptive to Dylan's electric persona, they
had high praise for Blonde on Blonde, the album that showcased his new
materiel, and kind words for his back-up group.
Everyone was happy to return to New York. The band had come to terms with Dylan's materiel, and a new vision was sowing in Robbie's mind. On the road, Dylan shared his new materiel with Robbie, making him part of the creative process. Now Robbie wanted to develop his writing that would set the stage for the band to develop its own destiny. The opportunity would come under the worst of circumstances; while waiting for the tour to resume stateside, Dylan was in a motorcycle accident.
The band moved to Woodstock so they could work on Bob's new materiel while he recuperating. They rented a suburban-looking pink house and set up a make-shift studio. For the next six months they worked on songs that Bob had started on the road; and for the first time Robbie contributed new songs, as did the other members, and co-wrote with Dylan.
The sessions lasted from spring until December 1967. For Robbie, they would be the mold for the band's first album...