Robbie Robertson

Robbie Robertson shaped the Band from its origins as a onetime backing ensemble for Bob Dylan into a force that redirected popular music during the closing years of the 1960s through the impact of its opening pair of albums. Serving as the group’s main songwriter and guiding visionary, he advanced the concept of Americana by weaving episodes from North American history into mythic narratives supported by an amalgam of rock & roll, blues, folk, and country. He remained until friction inside the lineup grew unsustainable. The Band concluded its run with the lavish 1976 send-off The Last Waltz; the 1978 documentary of that event initiated a sustained collaboration between Robertson and director Martin Scorsese. Moving to Hollywood, Robertson supplied the soundtrack for Raging Bull and both produced and performed in his own feature Carny. Several years later he redirected his energies toward music and issued his first solo album under his own name in 1987. A standard solo trajectory did not follow. Storyville arrived in 1991 as an attempt to reach a broad audience, yet Robertson found greater appeal along less-traveled routes of popular music. He blended electronica with Americana on the 1994 release Music for the Native Americans and again on 1998’s Contact from the Underworld of Redboy; thereafter his own projects consistently leaned toward expansive, atmospheric textures, abilities that also proved valuable in his ongoing role as music producer for Scorsese across multiple films.

Born July 5, 1943, in Toronto, Ontario, Robertson grew up with a Jewish father and a Mohawk mother. His earliest encounter with live performance occurred at the Six Nations Reservation, his mother’s childhood home, while at age five he additionally absorbed the country sounds of rural America. Soon afterward he took guitar instruction from a cousin and began writing his own material. Over time his tastes shifted from country through big band to rock, prompting him to leave school in pursuit of a performing career.

In 1958 he joined rockabilly figure Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks alongside Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, and Richard Manuel. After parting from Hawkins in 1963, the Hawks operated independently and soon attracted Bob Dylan’s notice, serving as his backing unit during the singer’s storied 1965-1966 world tour. Retaining ties with Dylan, the musicians—now called simply the Band—emerged as one of rock’s foundational groups; driven by Robertson’s incisive, evocative treatments of American myth and history, they produced landmark albums such as Music from Big Pink in 1968 and the self-titled classic the following year.

The Band ended on Thanksgiving Day 1976 after an all-star concert filmed by Martin Scorsese and later issued as The Last Waltz. That undertaking launched Robertson’s extended association with Scorsese and also sparked an interest in acting; in 1980 he produced and starred in Carny, which featured Jodie Foster and Gary Busey. The same year he created the score for Scorsese’s Raging Bull and subsequently limited his musical work to cinema for several seasons, later contributing to the 1983 satire The King of Comedy and 1986’s The Color of Money.

At last, in 1987, Robertson issued his self-titled solo debut, which featured appearances by former Band colleagues Danko and Hudson plus U2, Peter Gabriel, Daniel Lanois, and Gil Evans. Storyville, a conceptual work rooted in the atmosphere and imagery of historic New Orleans, followed in 1991. In 1994 Robertson revisited his heritage by collaborating with the Native American ensemble the Red Road Ensemble on Music for the Native Americans, material originally written for a television documentary series. Contact from the Underworld of Redboy appeared in 1998.

Joining Dreamworks as a creative executive in 2000, Robertson signed Nelly Furtado and additional artists to the label. He performed at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games opening ceremony in Salt Lake City, Utah. Appearances on Jerry Lee Lewis’s 2006 comeback album Last Man Standing and at Eric Clapton’s 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival followed. Robertson’s connection to Scorsese persisted through composing, consulting, and producing for Casino and The Departed, serving as executive music director on Gangs of New York, and supplying original music for Shutter Island. He resumed recording with How to Become Clairvoyant on the 429 Records label in 2011. That album included guest contributions from Clapton, Steve Winwood, Trent Reznor, Robert Randolph, Tom Morello, and Angela McCluskey and debuted at number 13 on the Billboard charts. Five years afterward Robertson released his memoir Testimony along with a career-spanning compilation bearing the same title.

Sinematic, issued in 2019, drew inspiration from his film work. Its opening single, the Van Morrison duet “I Heard You Paint Houses,” appeared in Scorsese’s gangster saga The Irishman. Robertson also supplied music for the director’s 2023 film Killers of the Flower Moon. That project marked his final major undertaking; he died on August 9, 2023, following an extended illness.