Brothers No More: Charting the Friendships of The Band Through Film
ONCE WERE BROTHERS: ROBBIE ROBERTSON AND THE BAND
As the quintessential Americana group during the height of rock and roll, brotherhood was the soul of The Band. Consisting of four Canadians and a man from Arkansas, The Band (Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, Levon Helm) first came to be as The Hawks, the backing band to rockabilly legend Ronnie Hawkins. They reached prominence on Bob Dylan’s electric tour and officially named themselves The Band. After releasing a few studio albums, they decided to part ways after sixteen years but not without having one last celebration. Though there was an intention to get back together, everyone seemed to forget as they focused on their solo projects. Today, The Band’s singers have passed away: Manuel by suicide in 1986, Danko from heart failure in 1999 and Helm from throat cancer in 2012. Hudson stays away from the spotlight, leaving Robertson as the sole storyteller of The Band.
The Band’s farewell celebration would be the subject of Martin Scorsese’s 1978 concert film The Last Waltz. After almost two decades of touring, The Band decided to hold a concert with some of their musical influences. On top of The Band playing some of their most iconic songs, the event had performances from everyone — from Neil Young and Bob Dylan to Eric Clapton and Muddy Waters. Scorsese was on stage the whole time to manage the meticulously planned filming. While the bulk of The Last Waltz consisted of the concert at the Winterland Ballroom, it is often interspersed with anecdotes from members of The Band, with a heavy focus on Robbie Robertson.
It was Robbie Robertson as The Last Waltz’s focal point that upset Levon Helm, as he felt Scorsese focused on Robertson to the near exclusion of the rest of The Band, though Helm and his raspy Arkansas drawl is front and centre of several key performances — such as The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down and The Weight. He wrote in his 1993 memoir This Wheel’s On Fire that Helm considered The Last Waltz to be “a real scandal”, feeling that Scorsese had constructed the film to make Robertson appear as the leader when The Band considered themselves to be equals. Scorsese and Robertson were friends before filming as they had been introduced by Mean Streets producer Jonathon Taplin, who also helped manage The Band. Helm was the most reluctant of the members to be interviewed. One anecdote sees Helm explaining how the rock and roll genre sprung out of the Mississippi Delta; though excited to talk about music history, he remains gruff and keeps his arms crossed. Strain had also been caused between The Band over the inclusion of Neil Diamond and debates on whether Muddy Waters should still perform. Levon Helm’s discomfort throughout The Last Waltz provides a glimpse into the tension that was pulling The Band apart.
THE LAST WALTZ (Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, Robbie Robertson) © THE LAST WALTZ PRODUCTIONS, INC.
Along with reclaiming his narrative in This Wheel’s On Fire, Levon Helm also shows his story through Jacob Hatley’s 2010 documentary Ain’t in It for My Health: A Film About Levon Helm. Robbie Robertson is absent from the film but the hurts they caused one another are not. In the film, Helm is working on his upcoming album Dirt Farmer and holding Midnight Ramble concerts at his farm in Woodstock, New York all while undergoing cancer treatment. The cancer was likely caused by his life of drugs, smoking and partying — the same lifestyle that had split The Band apart years earlier. Helm also shows his struggles with money and discussions of songwriting credits come up. Robertson holds the bulk of the song credits, since he was The Band’s primary writer, though it is hard to imagine Robertson’s inspiration of the American South present in the songs without Levon Helm’s Arkansas influence. At the time of filming, The Band is being honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2008 Grammys, which Helm calls “a goddamn sales gimmick” and refuses to attend the ceremony. He is upset that The Band is being honoured without Manuel and Danko, who had already passed away, and still holds resentment towards Robertson. Despite being an intimate portrait of a bitter and jaded old man, Ain’t In It For My Health shows a man at peace despite the taxing life he endured at the hands of the toxic music industry. Levon Helm is happy to be making music for himself.
With Levon Helm passing away in 2012 and Garth Hudson keeping to himself, only Robbie Robertson remains to tell his history of The Band. Brotherhood was the heart of The Band and their strained relationships, especially between Robertson and Helm, would be the cause of their break up. Daniel Roher’s 2019 documentary Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band delves further into The Band’s history than any of the previous films, as it is based off Robertson’s 2016 autobiography Testimony, and explores what caused the strife among The Band. Along with interviews from rock legends, Robertson is the chief storyteller of the movie, sitting dead centre for his interviews with the carefully chosen words of a songwriter and elaborate hand gestures. He tells of how he became friends with Levon through joining Ronnie Hawkins’s band and eventually, they became brothers as they travelled the road together. Rick, Garth and Richard would soon join before the five men broke off to record their first album Music from Big Pink.
AIN’T IN IT FOR MY HEALTH (Levon Helm) © FilmBuff
The main plot point of the documentary is Robertson’s and Helm’s friendship. Robbie tells stories of how they were always looking out for one another. While on Bob Dylan’s European tour, Robertson meets his future wife, Dominique, and they soon start a family while the other band members get stuck in drugs and partying. There are stories of the other guys missing performances and getting into car accidents from alcoholism and heroin use; Robertson felt that the guys had a “junkie denial” and was worried that if they continued, life on the road touring would kill them all. We are again taken to The Last Waltz and while taking a step away would be Robertson’s saving grace, the rest of the boys could never quite pull themselves out of the harsh world of rock and roll. They were meant to get back together but Robertson tells the audience “everyone just forgot to come back.” The songwriting credit dispute also comes up with Ronnie Hawkins saying that while Helm had a hand in arranging the songs, it was Robertson that did all the writing. Hearing this from other rock icons rather than Robertson himself gives Robertson the edge over the credit disagreement. Robertson tells the audience of how he visited a dying Helm on his deathbed and though he was unconscious, Robbie tells him, “Levon, I’ll see you on the other end.”
The relationship of The Band is on full display in The Last Waltz, Ain’t In It For My Health and Once Were Brothers, in particular, the fractured friendship of Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm. In viewing these three documentaries, one can see where each party is coming from in regards to the songwriting credit battle, given that Robertson wrote the songs and Helm and the others had influence in contributing to the songs. The story of The Band is especially devastating as we see five-strong friendships torn apart by the music industry. As Robbie Robertson penned for his latest album Sinematic, “once were brothers, brothers no more.”