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...