Robbie Robertson

One Saturday afternoon in 1968 I went downstairs at Steiner Hall, my dorm at WSU - Stevens Point, to visit my friend Ray. Ray brought out a new album he had bought titled Music from Big Pink. It was by a group with the odd name of The Band and featured a painting by Bob Dylan on the front and the title in big block letters with picture of a pink house on the back.

Before the first song, Dylan's wrenching Tears of Rage, was over, I was hooked. The sound was raw and rough, a departure from the highly polished works popular at the time. The guitar work of Robbie Robertson was my main draw.

Over the years, after The Band gave us their Last Waltz, I seem to have lost track of Robbie. I can no longer afford to cruise record stores as I used to and radio is pathetic, so I was unaware of his recent works.

Then a couple weeks ago my friend 99 featured one of his videos at her site and I was once again hooked!

Tonight I begin with a number of his works from Robbie Robertson and The Red Road Ensemble's Music for the Native Americans followby a number of Robbie's works with the band and other works over the years.

Tonight's show is dedicated to my friend, the eminent Agent 99.



Robbie's Website - coming soon
Robbie's Myspace
The Band Website
Wiki
Bio

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New features at the Vault:

[click helicopter ]

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Gil Scott-Heron

Born in Chicago, 1949, Gil Scott-Heron's parents divorced and he was sent to live with his grandmother in Tennessee. Soon racial tensions at school caused him to move back with his mother who had moved to the Bronx and later to the Chelsea neighborhood.
By the age of 13 he had already written a book of poetry and later wrote a novel entitled "The Vulture" after leaving college.
He released his first album 'New Black Poet: Small Talk at 125th and Lennox' in 1970. It contained the spoken word song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" - a response to the Governments interference with the media at the time. (My how things have changed!)
Gil followed it the next year with "Pieces of Man" featuring John Coltrane and Lady Day and a more toned down political slant.

Gil's spoken word pieces are often attributed as the origin of Rap.

Tonight I first bring you a one hour documentary on Gil followed by a number of his works.

Enjoy.



Website
MySpace
Wiki

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