Eric Clapton revisited the music of his longtime friend Robbie Robertson following Robertson’s death in 2023, reflecting on their collaborations and The Band’s final concert filmed by Martin Scorsese in 1978’s renowned musical documentary The Last Waltz. This revisit highlights key moments where Clapton and Robertson crafted memorable music together, underscoring the significance of their artistic relationship and the broader tradition of Martin Scorsese musical collaborations.
Eric Clapton Honors Robbie Robertson Through Iconic Performances
Clapton’s connection to Robertson and The Band dates back decades, and learning of Robertson’s passing prompted Clapton to watch their work once again with his family. He commented,
“When Robbie moved on, I got everyone in my family in the room to watch it,”
reflecting on the impact of watching their shared history unfold in film. One standout moment from The Last Waltz shows Clapton performing the classic 1957 shuffle Further On Up The Road, originally by Bobby Blue Bland, alongside The Band. Clapton admitted,
“I hadn’t watched it for a long time.”
Their relationship had foundational moments years earlier; Clapton attended Woodstock in 1969 intending to ask to join The Band but never found the courage. Nevertheless, Clapton and Robertson maintained a deep creative partnership, collaborating from the 1970s through Robertson’s 2011 solo release How to Become a Clairvoyant. Their collaborations include the fully featured participation of The Band members on Clapton’s 1976 album No Reason to Cry and the co-writing of All Our Past Times with Rick Danko. This artistic bond culminated with Clapton inducting The Band into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, preserving their legacy.
Insight into Robbie Robertson’s Songwriting Genius
Clapton praised Robertson’s understated but meticulous songwriting, noting how many underestimate his craft. He reflected,
“People underestimate what he does. They want to try doing it. The intros to songs, the little things that sound like they’re scrappy and off the cuff, which is part of his unique attractiveness to me. He sounds like he’s only just now working out that this will work.
I’m sure it’s a lot more crafted out than that. I know him well enough to know he was really precise about what he did. It’s so difficult to recreate that kind of on-the-edge of expression.”
Over decades, Clapton and Robertson’s friendship blossomed into repeated collaborations, including three noteworthy songs they co-wrote, each illustrating different phases of their musical journey and continuing impact on rock music.
“It’s in the Way That You Use It” (1986): A Reflection on Money’s Nature
During the mid-1980s, Robbie Robertson launched his first solo album, featuring former Band members Rick Danko and Garth Hudson, alongside artists like Peter Gabriel and U2. Concurrently, Robertson was scoring Martin Scorsese’s film The Color of Money, starring Paul Newman and Tom Cruise, which placed him in the middle of a gathering of acclaimed musicians including B.B. King, Robert Palmer, Willie Dixon, Don Henley, Warren Zevon, and Mark Knopfler.
On the soundtrack, Robertson contributed two tracks, Modern Blues and The Main Title, and co-wrote It’s in the Way That You Use It with Clapton. The song’s lyrics address the transient quality of money, emphasizing how its value depends on how it is handled:
“It’s in the way that you use it / It comes and it goes.”
Later, this track appeared on Clapton’s tenth studio album, August, which was predominantly produced by Phil Collins. The song’s collaborative blend of their talents captured the shifting themes of fortune and control.
“Fear of Falling” (2011): Exploring Vulnerability in Love
Robertson’s 2011 album How to Become a Clairvoyant represented a creative period enriched by special guests such as Tom Morello and Trent Reznor. During its development, he and Clapton began freely exchanging musical ideas and personal reflections. Robertson explained,
“I went over to London because Eric Clapton had asked if we could do some recording over there,”
and further added,
“The beginning of this record really started with Eric and I just messing around with some ideas. We didn’t really have anything that specific in mind, except that we’re old friends and we’ve been talking about doing something for a while.”
This open collaboration birthed several tracks, including the instrumental Madame X by Clapton and two co-written songs, one being Fear of Falling. Guests like Steve Winwood contributed organ parts, enriching the song’s texture. Robertson revealed that the song stemmed from Clapton’s own experiences, saying,
“‘Fear of Falling’ really comes from Eric. It comes from a life experience that he was telling me about that I, in turn, was then singing back to him. It comes from when we first started working on music together, and we would sit down with just two guitars and start playing around.”
He added,
“We traded off the ideas until we felt like ‘we’ve really got something together here’. So it was a real trade-off in all aspects of the song, in the vocals, the playing, and the storytelling, everything.”
“Won’t Be Back” (2011): Addressing the End of a Relationship
Clapton lent both guitar work and backing vocals to several tracks on How to Become a Clairvoyant, including the emotionally charged Won’t Be Back, a second song he co-wrote with Robertson. The lyrics narrate the finality of love lost, with a tone of longing and acceptance:
The letter that I sent to you
Was it lost in the mail?
Then tell me why
There’s no reply
Where can she be tonight?
As I lay, here in the dark
And I reach for you
I long for you
But you’ve gone
Like the wind
And I know
That you won’t be back again
These collaborations reaffirm the deep musical and personal connection between Clapton and Robertson, marking significant moments in the history of rock music intertwined with Martin Scorsese’s cinematic work.
