What's the meaning of the song The Weight?

Answer 1

"The Weight" is about a traveler, who in the first line 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. Nazareth happens to be the hometown of the guitar manufacturer C. F. Martin & Company.

According to Robbie Robertson, who wrote the song, "The Weight" was inspired by the films of Luis Buñuel, about which Robertson once said:"Buñuel did so many films on the impossibility of sainthood. People trying to be good in Viridiana and Nazarin, people trying to do their thing. In 'The Weight' it's the same thing. People like Buñuel would make films that had these religious connotations to them but it wasn't necessarily a religious meaning. In Buñuel there were these people trying to be good and it's impossible to be good. In 'The Weight', it was this very simple thing. Someone says, 'Listen, would you do me this favor? When you get there will you say 'hello' to somebody or will you give somebody this or will you pick up one of these for me? Oh? You're going to Nazareth, that's where the Martin guitar factory is. Do me a favor when you're there.' This is what it's all about. So the guy goes and one thing leads to another and it's like 'Holy s***, what's 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."

So while some artists such as Aretha Franklin have put a religious spin on it, Robbie Robertson had no such intention when he wrote it.

Answer 2

"Weight of the World" is about the band's pressure from fans to seem like some kind of gods, or prophets, etc.