Levon Helm and Robbie Robertson: The Feud That Went To The Grave
Money does funny things to people. Families become fractured. Lifelong friendships end. Why should a rock band be any different? Last week’s lawsuit over songwriting credits on "Stairway To Heaven" once again brings to mind the bitter feud between Levon Helm and Robbie Robertson, of The Band.
There are many ways bands deal with writing credits. The Beatles had Lennon and McCartney share credits no matter who was the writer. Bands like The Doors, REM and U2 have all the members listed as writers. That certainly keeps peace in the family.
So what went wrong with The Band? Depends on who you ask.
Helm claims the songwriting was a collaborative effort. A piece of a song was brought in, mainly by Robertson and early on by Richard Manuel, and the group would sit around and work on it together.
Remember this, songwriting credit is given to the person who writes the lyrics and the melody. Everything else is considered arrangement. Is that what happened to The Band. Robbie Robertson would say yes.
Rick Danko, The Band's bass player, sides with Helm. "I think Levon's book hits the nail on the head about where Robbie and Albert Grossman and some of those people went wrong and The Band stopped being The Band. I'm truely friends with everyone but hey...it could happen to Levon, too. When people take themselves too seriously and believe too much of their bullshit, they usually get in trouble."
Obviously, Robertson felt differently. He denies that Helm wrote any of the songs that had been credited to him.
That wasn't the only controversy. The Last Waltz didn't need to be The Band's finale. Robertson wanted to continue recording. He was just done with being on the road.
One other item was that Helm, Danko and especially Richard Manuel were dealing with drug and alcohol issues. At the time of his suicide, Manuel was drinking six bottles of Grand Marnier a day. In addition to taking leadership of the group, Robbie was also being a babysitter. That has to be exhausting.
You put all that together and it's easy to see why there was a feud. Did it need to last more than thirty years? Of course not.
Winners and losers?
Robertson is the big winner. He got most of what he wanted. He ends up with song credits, money and no more touring. He continued his career working on scoring movies. There was no more recording with the others but you can't always get everything. Although they are now divorced, he even salvaged his marriage, which had been on the ropes.
Levon and the others got back together and played as The Band. They continued through Manuel's suicide in 1986. The Band finally broke up after the death of Rick Danko in 1999.
Finally, what about that final deathbed meeting between Robbie and Levon? Did Levon forgive Robbie? Probably not, since he's lying in a bed, sedated. Tough way to go out.