If Bob Dylan had gotten away with it, Robbie Robertson of the band would have played on their newly released album. Rough and noisy wayssays the guitarist, which would have been Robertson’s first performance on a Dylan studio LP since he and the rest of the band played in 1974 Planet waves. But, as Robertson explains in a recent episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, when Dylan contacted him late last year, he was simply not available. “They beat me up with the job,” he says, noting that he had just finished his album. Synematic as well as Martin Scorsese’s score the Irish and a reissue of the band’s self-titled album from 1969. “I said, ‘Right now, I’m in the middle of all this,’ and I think he felt it was cooked and he needed to get it out of the oven. So he went in and recorded this album. “
At the time, Dylan read some of his new lyrics (probably from “Grossest Murder”) to Robertson over the phone, and the band’s co-founder was deeply impressed. “I thought this is excellent writing and something only Bob could do,” says Robertson. “And I would have loved for us to work together on that. But I couldn’t do it right then … I was going to talk to him and just say, ‘God, I’m sorry, I wasn’t available then, but let’s see if we can cause some trouble in the future. ‘”
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In the interview, Robertson spoke extensively about the history of his group, as it appears in the new movie. Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the band. Among many other topics, he explained how seeing Dylan write in Big Pink helped inspire his own composition. “It didn’t feel intimidating at all,” says Robertson. “It felt like we were at the clubhouse. And everyone was doing their thing and hanging out. We are having a great time. And in the meantime, the reason we got the clubhouse was for the Band to make our first album. Bob just got in the car, so to speak. And it felt so good that he wanted to come and hang out, too. It ended up being just a kind of ritual. You know, some people get up and chop wood every day; some people write songs. “
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