"The Weight" is the title of a 1968 song by The Band.
It is one of the group's best known songs and among the most popular songs of the late 1960s counterculture. While the names of the five members of The Band appear on the record label, "The Band"
does not. The song was composed by The Band's Robbie Robertson and appears originally
on The Band's first album, Music from Big Pink.
It is #41 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.[1]
Song theme
"The Weight" takes the folk music motif of a traveler, who arrives in Nazareth in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Once there, he encounters various residents of the town, the song being a story of these
encounters.
The residents include a man who cannot direct the traveler to a hotel, Carmen and the Devil
walking side by side, "Crazy Chester," who offers a bed in exchange for the traveler taking his dog, and Luke who has gone out to
wait for the apocalypse, leaving his young bride neglected.
The traveler refers to "Miss Fanny," who has sent him on his journey to Nazareth, and "the weight" of the song is a reference
to the burden of travel, of giving a message to the town, and of sin. The chorus
refers to taking a load off of Fanny and putting it on the singer. The numerous Biblical allusions
in the character names and incidents in the song are allegorical, referring to a purgatorial experience. In Levon Helm's
autobiography "This Wheel's on Fire," Helm explains that the people mentioned in the song were based on real people the Band
knew. The "Miss Anna Lee" mentioned in the lyric is Helm's longtime friend Anna Lee Amsden[2].
Robertson on "The Weight"
According to Robertson, "The Weight" was somewhat inspired by the films of Luis Buñuel,
about which Robertson once said:
- He did so many films on the impossibility of sainthood, people trying to do good in Viridiana and Nazarín, and it's impossible to do good. In "The
Weight" it's the same thing. Someone says, "Listen, will you do me this favor? When you get there will you say 'hello' to
somebody or will you pick up one of these for me?" "Oh, you're going to Nazareth, do me a favor when you're there." So the guy
goes and one thing leads to another and it's like, "Holy shit, what has this turned into? I've only come here to say 'hello' for
somebody and I've got myself in this incredible predicament." It was very Buñuelish to me at the time.
Musical construction
"The Weight" is sung primarily by Levon Helm, The Band's drummer. Rick Danko, the bassist, sings the fourth verse, and joins Helm in singing the fifth verse. The chorus is
sung by all three of The Band's singers.
Each verse follows the format of:
- Chords:A, C# minor, D, A
- Lyrics: I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin' about half past dead";
The chorus then takes the format of:
- Chords: A, E, D, A, E, D
- Lyrics: Take a load off Fanny, take a load for free;
The easily identifiable bass run between the final verse and the chorus is up the A major
pentatonic scale (that is, A,B,C#,E,F#,A).
Film and commercial play
"The Weight" has featured prominently in many films and television shows, including such movies as Hope Floats; Igby Goes Down (in a cover version by rock band Travis); The Big Chill; Easy Rider; Girl, Interrupted; Patch Adams; and
Starsky & Hutch (as a parody of the scene in Easy Rider);
and on television in The Sopranos (Episode 4 of Season 4 is titled "The Weight" and
features the song in the end credits) and also on My Name Is Earl. It also
appeared in an SNL skit, when Zach Braff hosted. It has also
been used in commercials for Diet Coke and Cingular/AT&T Wireless, an American telecommunications company.
The song was also included on the Easy Rider Soundtrack, but was
performed by the band Smith because of contractual problems preventing use of The Band's
version.
"The Weight" is one of three songs performed by The Band featured in the 2003 documentary film, Festival Express.
"The Weight" was one of three songs the Band's 1990s lineup performed for "LET IT ROCK!", a birthday concert/tribute for
Ronnie Hawkins.
A fan favourite, "The Weight" is also in two post-Last Waltz concert videos:
"The Band Is Back" (1984) and "The Band Live At The New Orleans Jazz
Festival" (1998).
Don Imus liked this song and frequently played it on his show. The Levon Helm Band appeared frequently. Imus was fired from CBS Radio on April 12, 2007, in the midst of his
charity radiothon. The Radiothon continued on Friday, April 13, 2007 with Imus's wife and newscaster hosting in his place, and
the broadcast concluded with the Levon Helm Band performing "The Weight" live.
Played by other musicians
"The Weight" has been covered by many other acts, including the North Mississippi Allstars, moe., Aaron Pritchett, The Staple Singers, Travis, The Grateful Dead, The New Riders of the Purple Sage, O.A.R.,
Edwin McCain, Spooky Tooth, Hanson, Stoney LaRue, Bleu Edmondson,Old Crow Medicine Show, Panic! at the Disco,
Aretha Franklin, Joan Osborne, John Denver, Cassandra Wilson, Shannon Curfman, Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield, and Dionne Warwick did as well. Ratdog and Bob
Weir are also know to cover this song from time to time (notably shows in Pennsylvania). Additional notable versions are
by Lee Ann Womack, the band Smith, and a joint effort by Diana Ross & the Supremes, with The Temptations, others who
recorded the song included The Allman Brothers Band, The Derek Trucks Band, The Marshall Tucker Band, and
Joe Cocker. In The Band's concert film, The Last
Waltz, The Staples and The Band perform the song together. The indie-rock band Decemberists recruited Mavis Staples to sing the song with them
during their performance at the Bonnaroo music festival in June 2007.
Levon Helm and Rick Danko also performed the song with Ringo Starr and his
All-Starr Band. Josh Kelley and his backing band, The Weight, also perform
this song at live shows.[3]
Australian artists Jimmy Barnes and The Badloves covered this song in 1993, which
charted well.[citation needed]
In 1994, the Staple Singers performed this song again, with country singer Marty Stuart on the country-R&B collaborative album Rhythm, Country and
Blues, produced by Don Was.
Along with Britney Spears' "Toxic",
Radiohead's "(Nice Dream)" and the traditional song
"The House Carpenter", Nickel Creek performed a
cover of "The Weight" at Lollapalooza 2006.
The Allman Brothers Band began to cover this song during their annual Beacon
run in 2006, presumably in tribute to Duane Allman, who played on the Aretha Franklin
version.
Also, the song was played live in a joint performance by Sheryl Crow and The Wallflowers (whose lead singer is Jakob Dylan, the son of
Bob Dylan, a frequent collaborator with The Band).
"The Weight" is a hit for Canadian singer/songwriter Aaron Pritchett.[4]
Panic! at the Disco covered the song at the Virgin Festival on 5 August, 2007, as well as Decaydance Fest at Hammersmith Apollo, London, on August
22nd 2007.
Bands named for the song
There are three bands named after this song. The lead singer of the Athens,
Georgia country band "The Weight" is Joseph Plunket, and the band's first full
length album, Compass, was released in 2002 on the now-defunct 12-Volt Records. The record
has been followed by several more releases to date, including 2004's Sabot Productions release,
Ten Mile Grace. Plunket has since moved to New York City and re-formed the
band.
A second band, normally the backing band of Josh Kelley and Curtis Peoples, is also called "The Weight" and consists of Dave
Yaden, Darwin Johnson, Slim Gambill, Micheal Miley, and Donald Barret.[3] The band released their debut album "Home" in July 2006.
The Scottish band Nazareth also took their name from the first line of this song ("I
pulled into Nazareth/Was feelin' about half past dead...").[citation needed]
References
- ^ The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. RollingStone.com. Retrieved on 2007-06-02.
- ^ Jacques Steinberg, "New Generation Hops the Mystery Train." New York Times
(Online) July 9, 2007.
- ^ a b The Weight
- ^ Aaron Pritchett Scores 10th Consecutive Top 10 Single at Country Radio With “Done You
Wrong”
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
