The Band had an embarrassment of Richards. Richard Manuel and Rick Danko were sublime singers. Throw in Levon Helm and you push the great Robbie Robertson down among the worst singers in the five-man group. Like Cristiano Ronaldo turning up for 5-a-side practice to find Pele, Maradona and Messi already warming up.
The fledgling teenage Band members were taken under the wing of Ronnie “The Hawk” Hawkins (landed by the sales pitch: “Well, son, you won’t make much money, but you’ll get more p*ssy than Frank Sinatra.”)
The Band exited with the extended family hoe-down and best-concert-movie-of-all-time, The Last Waltz.
In the years since, Robbie Robertson has become the best surviving Band vocalist by a process of elimination, and found a new family to play with. Playing for Change is an amazing project that gets musicians around the world to play together.
This version of ‘The Weight’, then, with added Bandwidth.
And in case you wondered, here’s what the fourth best singer in The Band and the second most successful lead singer of Genesis sound like together.