Bruce Springsteen once said, “A good song takes on more meaning as the years go by.”
One of my favorite songs— quite possibly one of the best songs ever written— is on my mind this week in the wake of the passing of one of the men who made it famous.
Garth Hudson was a multi-instrumentalist and member of The Band.
Hudson passed away last week at the age of 87. He was the oldest member and the last one to pass.
Before they were The Band, they were a group of Canadian pickers with a drummer from Arkansas called the Hawks. They backed rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins.
Bob Dylan went electric in the mid-’60s— as the current blockbuster movie reminds us— and he hired the combo as his touring group. A few years later, Dylan suffered injuries from a motorcycle wreck and took some time off the road. The Band established themselves without Dylan and the rest is history.
Their high lonesome harmonies, impeccable instrumentalism and compassionate lyrics told the story of humanity and will remain relevant forever. They didn’t have a bad song. Whether it be “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” or “Up on Cripple Creek,” their catalog is timeless.
But probably their most well-known song is “The Weight.”
There are a few perfect songs that transcend cultures, genres and predispositions. “The Weight” is one of them.
I played drums in a lot of bands over the years. One of which was especially busy in the local scene about 20 years ago. Some of you may remember the band Sandusky Road— that was us.
We wrote songs and played them for anyone who would listen. We made a record that was decent, but it never got released. We called ourselves Americana—country, blues, rock, roots music all rolled in one. We played in bars, dance halls, restaurants, parties and the occasional boat dock. We played wherever they would have us.
One night we entered a battle of the bands at a club we knew nothing about. It was a rough place. We did not know all the other bands on the bill were punk rock or heavy metal.
When we loaded in, we saw our compatriots with mohawks, gauged piercings and eye makeup. We felt somewhat out of place and had no idea how to win this crowd over. Each band only got three songs.
“Start out with Mary Jane’s Last Dance (Tom Petty),” I said. “Nobody can say ‘no’ to that song. Then let’s do Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash) and let’s end with ‘The Weight.’”
It worked.
They found out, first thing, that we knew how to rock. Then we let them know just how country we really were. And we brought it home with a song that transcends genres. The crowd of punks and headbangers were singing along to us:
“Take a load off Fanny.
Take a load for free.
Take a load off Fanny.
And you put the load right on me.”
We didn’t win the battle that night, but we did get invited back for a permanent booking. All these 20 years later, those three songs mean more to me than they did back then. So, I guess Springsteen was right.
But “The Weight” is the song that we all need today more than ever.
Its five verses with five-part harmony remind us to help one another and to be there for our neighbors. And, in the end, we are all neighbors in this life.
It reminds us that “The Weight” of the world is not ours alone to carry.
We are to help each other bear “The Weight” upon our shoulders.
In the wake of Hudson’s passing, I read a remembrance in the New Yorker that drives this home.
The writer Amanda Petrusich summed it up best:
“It is possible, knowing the band’s lyrical proclivities, that ‘The Weight’ is actually about the opposite experience, about being totally overwhelmed by other people’s needs, but either way, it is a song about helping and being helped, which is to say, it is a song about the human condition.”
When the world gets too much to handle, cue up “The Weight” and let the harmonies of Garth Hudson, Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko and Richard Manuel make it less to bear.
And just remember, we are all in this together.
Help your neighbor and be there for one another.
Austin Lewter is the owner and publisher of the Whitesboro News-Record. He can be reached at [email protected].