In December, three music heavyweights got together backstage at the Civic Opera House in Chicago and jammed on The Band’s classic song, “The Weight.” Below, hear Wilco, Nick Lowe, and Mavis Staples take turns on the verses.
Staples is no stranger to the song, having performed the song with her family and The Band on Martin Scorsese’s classic rock film, The Last Waltz.
The song’s writer, Robbie Robertson, as well as other members of The Band have commented on the song’s meaning through the years and the fact that the characters in the song are named after people they knew. For an interesting detailed analysis of the lyrics — such as “Who was Crazy Chester?,” check out this article from Peter Viney. For example, it is “Fanny,” not “Annie” in the chorus, and the Nazareth is in Pennsylvania. The Dallas Observer has a recent short article about the song “The Weight,” including some discussion of how the song abides along with links to some other versions.
What do you think of the jam version of “The Weight”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some Related Chimesfreedom Posts)
Question: Is The Last Waltz a classic [rock film] or a [classic rock] film?
When I was a kid, well before I knew that music was it’s own “thing” there were a handful of tunes that just struck me as so peculiarly perfect that it never occurred to me that some person could have written them…they must have just always been there, like some inherent part of the universe.
“The Weight” is of course one of those tunes (or else I wouldn’t be writing this). “Blowing in the Wind” was another. Oddly, “Yellow Submarine” was another.
In my early teens I remember buying Hotel California, Permanent Waves and a K-Tel collection but I was probably more infatuated with trying to be cooler than my brothers than any music. When I finally really caught on to music in high school, my first concert was a Billy Joel show. I gravitated relatively quickly to Bruce Springsteen and then Bob Dylan. You cannot imagine how startled I was to hear “The Weight” come pouring out of my stereo somewhere along the line then: “What the??? These five guys do this? OK…well, it looks like that was a hundred years ago in all these black and white pictures of them so yeah, that still fits in with the mystical quality I had assigned to them. But wait…what? These are contemporary(ish) songs? This stuff actually exists?” And I was off and running. Dylan and The Band are responsible for everything I know about music on that path…Woody Guthrie, Jimmie Rodgers, Robert Johson, Leadbelly…
So anyway…I’m pretty well plugged into the whole The Band/Bob Dylan/Last Waltz universe; I’ve heard everything The Band has ever recorded both as a band and individually and even had the good fortune of seeing them perform just before Richard Manual committed suicide (still the best show I’ve ever seen…by far). But…even after hearing this song several hundred times, I have no idea what it’s about and, frankly, I seem to slip off into some sort of reverie before the song is over: I don’t think I’m meant to know, you know?
Watching that clip from The Last Waltz makes me miss Rick Danko too…an amazing bassist and singer.
I bookmarked Viney’s article to read later, but I’m fascinated to see what’s in this little dittie…thanks for the link.
As a side note, it occurs to me now that learning that this song wasn’t just something that god made part of the universe but was instead just five dudes named Garth, Levon, Richard, Rick and Robbie is part of what pointed me in the direction of rejecting the concept of a god at all. Interesting.
Thanks for the link and the comments about what the song means to you. In regards to your question about vagueness of the phrase “classic rock film,” I suppose the answer is “both.”
I cannot remember the first time I heard “The Weight,” but as you note there is a timeless element to the song, so it seems to me like the song was always there. Perhaps the ambiguity of the song helps make it so great, allowing us each to attach our own meaning to it at different points in our lives. But a lot of songs are ambiguous and not near as great as this one.
You make an interesting point about this creation coming from five guys. Various interpretations of the song touch on the word “community.” Along those lines, I like to think that one of the many things that make the song so wonderful is when Levon hits the “and” in the chorus and then one-by-one we hear the other voices join in.