So there you have it, once and for all...
Robbie Robertson is scum.
shareI haven't yet seen this film but are they still beating that dead horse? Man, what a rotten shame
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Gotta go with Levon on this one.
No....they didn't beat the horse. The OP is beating it. Levon Helm hardly mentioned his years with The Band, and I don't even once remember him mentioning Robbie Robertson.
shareHe didn't mention him. One of the people interviewed did though. Sounds to me like there were issues with publishing rights between them. To me it sounded more like jealousy than anything else. Robbie wrote the songs and made more money but apparently the songs were geared towards Helm's southern life. I guess everyone in the Band thought Robbie should have divided the income from the songs across all members. That is what was implied by the film.
In an interview with Forbes, Helm said he blamed Albert Grossman for allowing or giving Robbie more credits for the songwriting than the others.
I'll tell you in another life when we are both cats.
I don't think Levon was the sort of guy to get "jealous".
I think he was bitter because they started out as a 5 piece outfit, and Robbie couldn't have written the songs without Levon and the others. But Robbie runs off with the publishing rights, leaving the rest of them to work themselves to death and eventually land in bankruptcy. Levon shouldn't had to have been touring and working while he's dying of cancer. Ricks widow shouldn't have been forgotten on some middle of the road nursing home. Richard didn't need to hang himself. Robbie could have split the millions.
Limit of the Willing Suspension of Disbelief: directly proportional to its awesomeness.
No one 'needs' to hang themselves and really, there is no proof that his death was related to that. Did Richard not already have a substance abuse problem? I think Robbie has become the scapegoat in all of this but I'm uncertain if it's rightfully so or not.
RIP Philip Seymour Hoffman 1967-2014... a tremendously great and talented actor.
Well I think Robbie did some selfish things, but I don't think he was solely responsible for a lot of their dire straits with bankruptcy and what not. Maybe Levon and the others shouldn't have blown all their money early on on drugs back in the 70s. And Robbie is credited with getting them to the big-time and out of the clubs in Canada.
But those royalties could have made the difference between life and death.
Limit of the Willing Suspension of Disbelief: directly proportional to its awesomeness.