I recently became interested in the song The Weight by The Band when I heard it in a television ad pitching a wireless telephone company. I purchased the Greatest Hits CD and looked up the lyrics on-line. I have two questions for anyone that knows the history of The Band. The first, :smack: is the song some biographical story by Robbie Robertson and second, what is the weight (load) that they removing from Fanny?
You should find all of the information you seek here:
Not that you asked, but the guy who sings “The Weight” is the same guy who narrated The Right Stuff and played flight engineer Jack Ridley (Levon Helm).
“Thar wuz a demon in the ar…”
Since this is about the “Arts”, let’s let the Cafe Society folk have a whack at it.
Moved from GQ.
samclem GQ moderator
Let me just add that “The Weight” is one of the best rock songs EVER.
Let me also add that “The Band” is one of the greatest rock bands EVER. If you haven’t listened to them before and now own their greatest hits CD, you’re in for a real treat. Make sure you listen to the whole thing and not just “The Weight”.
I’ll second what Sam Stone said. Not only was the Band one of the great rock groups, but they are criminally overlooked these days.
In their heyday, they were as big an act as the Beatles or Stones, and it wasn’t a case of their music becoming dated: it still sounds great. But they were an album group, not a singles group, so they are rarely played on “Classic Rock” radio, and a lot of people who weren’t listening to music in the early 70s have never heard of them.
If you get the chance to see The Last Waltz, take it.
Unless I missed something in that article, it didn’t reference Harriet Tubman (1820-1913), American abolotionist and former slave, whose nickname was “Miss Moses”. They mention that William Faulkner wrote a short story called “Go Down Moses” but the lyrics say “Go down Miss Moses”. I always thought this was a reference to Ms Tubman - though I never could figure out why.
From a musical perspective, the song has an unusual ending in that the ending chord is the IV chord and not the root chord of that key. (Okay, it’s in the Key of C and it ends on F). Very unusual. The only other song I know that does this is the Gin Glossoms’ “Found Out About You” which starts out in Em (relative to G major) and ends in C.
It’s not just a Faulkner short story. “Go down Moses” is an old spiritual about slavery. Lyrics here.
I gave my daughter, her guitar-playing husband, and their three teenage children The Last Waltz DVD for Valentine’s Day. It is a good multi-generational gift.
That made my husband think to give me a copy. That worked out fine!
Does Dylan write much about them in his book? Anybody know?