With the news The Band legend Robbie Robertson has passed away at the age of 80 we’re making a brief tribute to his music.

A fantastic songwriter, Robertson spearheaded The Band’s creative output in the ’60s with classic records such as the Brown Album (1969).

Let’s have a listen to some of these tunes, which are steeped in Americana history and a folksy sense of time passing.

Robbie Robertson’s Finest Numbers

Unlike so many other ’60s bands, The Band didn’t sing many love songs or Sixties psychedelic drug-induced trips.

Boasting a fantastic bunch of musicians, their genres merged rock, folk rock, soul, and blues. So, yes, lead songwriter Robertson focussed his efforts on history.

Born in Canada in July 1943 he grew up around Toronto to a Cayuga and Mohawk mother, who married James Patrick Robertson in 1942. They worked in the same factory together and reared the young Robbie and taught him music.

In the ’50s and into the early ’60s Robertson was drawn to rock ‘n’ roll and R&B music, particularly focussing on guitar (although he was also a pianist).

With Ronnie Hawkins, he joined The Hawks and toured around the Toronto circuit of bars. This led him to work with the likes of Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Richard Manuel, and Garth Hudson.

They all gelled very well as musicians, so Bob Dylan hired them in 1965 to be his backing group. This went very well so the backing group became known as The Band and started producing their own music.

Robertson rapidly grew out of his guitarist role to become the figurehead of the group, with his songwriting skills flourishing in a very short space of time.

Have a listen to the very poignant The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (1969) and its brilliant lyrics.

The lyrics are just outstanding to this:

Back with my wife in Tennessee,
When one day she called to me,
“Virgil, quick, come see, there goes the Robert E. Lee!”

Now, I don’t mind chopping wood,
And I don’t care if the money’s no good,
You take what you need,
And you leave the rest,
But they should never,
Have taken the very best.

The night they drove old Dixie down,
And the bells were ringing,
The night they drove old Dixie down,
And all the people were singing,
They went, “Na, na, la, na, na, la.”

Like my father before me,
I will work the land,
And like my brother above me,
Who took a rebel stand,
He was just 18, proud and brave,
But a Yankee laid him in his grave,
I swear by the mud below my feet,
You can’t raise a Kane back up,
When he’s in defeat.

There’s a famous performance of this from The Last Waltz (1976), with drummer Levon Helm (who functioned as the band’s lead singer) belting this one out in spectacular fashion.

And that’s Robertson saying “Ah, it’s not like it used to be!” at the start.

The Band wasn’t the biggest group of their era, nor the most attention grabbing, but 50 years later we look at their music and think they were one of the best.

Robertson’s focus on history was key. All that Americana.

The songs now have that timeless quality about them, as opposed to peers whose music now seems very stuck in the Sixties

Now, there are lots and lots of tributes flooding in online so there’s plenty of them to read if you want to check out more of his excellent music.

Robertson’s passing marks a sad moment for that era of rock music, but listening to his songs is one way to take the edge off all this passage of time.

He celebrated that inevitable changing of eras in his music.