God, it was too hot to sleep I followed the sound of a jukebox coming from up the levee All of a sudden I could hear somebody whistling

“Somewhere Down the Crazy River”, Robbie Robertson (1988)

Robbie Robertson is a Canadian icon and renowned world-wide for his work in ‘The Band’ having written such treasures as “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”, “The Weight”, “Up on Cripple Creek”, and many more.

Robertson’s mother was a member of the Mohawk nation and his father was Jewish. He spent his summers at “Six Nations of the Grand River First Nations”. The rest of the year he was arguably in the epi-centre of Canadian music at the time. Toronto, with its folk singers and later burgeoning rock bands of Young Street had its impact also.

Now deep in the heart of a lonely kid, who suffered so much for what he did...

Victim of a Song

Stage Fright, The Band, 1970

I remember going to the Plaza Theatre (in Kensington) in Calgary when I was 18 or 19 years old one warm summer night, which seems like a hundred years ago now. . We were there to see the movie “The Last Waltz¹” by “The Band” and the show started at midnight or something stupid like that.

“The Band” was a very successful band in the ‘60’s and 70’s, still revered by many as one of the best.  You have for sure heard some of their songs like, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”, “Up on Cripple Creek”, “The Weight”, “The Shape I’m in” and “Ophelia”. It  consisted of members of a band that supported the original Ronnie Hawkins Band, another band famous in the sixties. Long story, another day, but suffice it to say Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks as they were called, were very influential in the formation of early rock music in Canada. “The Band” was more or less that supporting band. That confusion aside, let’s move on...