I long thought Robbie Robertson wrote this song about Bob Dylan, who got booed every night on a world tour backed by the Band and kept playing louder only to retreat with his family to the mountains and Woodstock. Roberston could have written it about his own stagefright. Figuring out the inspiration is but a parlor game given the universality of this song.
A blessing is given and with it a curse:
Gave this ploughboy his fortune and fame
Since that day he ain’t been the same
How many performers overcome their fears and insecurities to take the stage so they can set themselves on fire for us in the audience. When they’re done, they’re exhausted and depleted. How can they do it again. But they do. They are compelled. They are driven. They live to perform even if might kill them.
See the man with the stage fright
Just standin’ up there to give it all his might
He got caught in the spotlight
But when we get to the end, he wants to start all over again
Like so many songs, the music builds, grounded, yet rising with emotion that transcends the lyrics. Rick Danko sings with a rawness mixed with vulnerability all lifted by Roberston’s guitar, no listener gets by unscathed.
And didn’t this song foretell the fate of the Band? Their fame broke them apart and broke some of their members, but what heights they reached.
#Songoftheday #spreadinghappiness #theband #stagefright
YouTube: https://youtu.be/NZMfZe7OFFk?si=tfUob-ujQwzXgRxH
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/3ZUytzzz6zOR6BD1eYvu4l?si=b18181617f294e8a