Bob Dylan has shared a quick public assertion about his late colleague Robbie Robertson, who died on Wednesday at age 80. “That is surprising information. Robbie was a lifelong good friend. His passing leaves a emptiness on the planet,” he wrote.
Robertson first began working with Dylan in 1965, after an introduction from a mutual good friend. Dylan quickly recruited Robertson and his fellow members of the Hawks—Levon Helm, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, and Garth Hudson—as a backing band, and the group grew to become indispensable to his efforts to rework his sound.
Dylan’s relocation to Woodstock, New York in 1966 impressed the Band to do the identical, which opened a big artistic interval for each. Throughout that point, because the group labored on what would turn into 1968’s Music From Large Pink, Dylan typically joined them in jamming and discussing songwriting. A few of that materials was launched as a part of The Basement Tapes in 1975.
Within the wake of the industrial success of Music From Large Pink, Robertson and firm splintered off to give attention to their work because the Band, however they remained near Dylan’s orbit. They final backed him on 1974’s Planet Waves; he returned the favor by becoming a member of the group for “Endlessly Younger,” “I Shall Be Launched,” and some different songs at their ultimate efficiency in 1976.
Dylan and Robertson continued their friendships within the many years following the Band’s dissolution. In 2020, Robertson informed Rolling Stone about his missed alternative working with Dylan on Tough and Rowdy Methods, which got here whereas he was engaged on the rating to Martin Scorcese’s The Irishman and different tasks. “I stated, ‘Proper now, I’m in the course of these things,’ and I feel that he simply felt prefer it was cooked and he wanted to convey it out of the oven,” Robertson stated.