A
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COVER STORY
ON SONGWRITING
Robbie Robertson by William Hames - Atlas Icons
by Bruce Pollock
W
ith the recent release of Bob Dylan’s
live sessions from his frenetic 1966 tour,
music of that era is once again being
hailed as mind altering, if not life changing.
As his sidekick and guitar foil for that nerve-
shattering period, Robbie Robertson probably
found this amusing.
“Everywhere we played, they booed us every
night,” he says. “Booed us to death. Threw
things at the stage. It was violent. Later on we
would listen to the tapes that were made during
the show and we’d say this isn’t that bad. This
isn’t terrible. When we were recording Blonde
on Blonde there was a feeling of ‘This is very
fresh. I hope it’s not too fresh. I hope this isn’t
going to be something that nobody’s going
to understand.’ So you did feel like you were
taking chances, that you were trying something,
and that there was nothing quite to compare it
to. A lot of the critics wrote, ‘This is the worst
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GUITAR TRICKS INSIDER
DIGITAL EDITION
MAY / JUNE
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