WEBVTT FILE 00:00:00.500 --> 00:00:06.741 Interviewer: What first got you hooked on rock 'n' roll? Is there a specific memory a specific song? 00:00:06.741 --> 00:00:09.403 Robertson: It's a combination of things. 00:00:09.403 --> 00:00:15.967 Robertson: One of the things that was the most noticeable to me in reflecting on it. 00:00:15.967 --> 00:00:20.756 Robertson: It seemed like on Monday, there was no rock 'n' roll. 00:00:20.756 --> 00:00:28.562 Robertson: There was Perry Como and Patti Page and the Four Lads or whoever all these people were. 00:00:28.562 --> 00:00:38.408 Robertson: And then on Tuesday it was like all of these people had been waiting in the chutes ready to come charging out. 00:00:38.408 --> 00:00:43.198 Robertson: Because it didn't happen over a period of many years. 00:00:43.198 --> 00:00:56.415 Robertson: Like in 1955 or 1956, all of a sudden, bam, all of these people came at you, and it was like where were they on Monday? On Tuesday they're all here. 00:00:56.415 --> 00:01:03.067 Robertson: And there's a list of them, 20 of them that you could name just like that. 00:01:03.067 --> 00:01:09.897 Robertson: So this wave of all of these people coming out, this was part of the impact. 00:01:09.897 --> 00:01:13.357 Robertson: It made you think, this is not subtle. 00:01:13.357 --> 00:01:18.147 Robertson: This is the, this is not something that's one person. 00:01:18.147 --> 00:01:22.138 Robertson: There's many, many people that make this up. 00:01:22.138 --> 00:01:37.040 Robertson: For me personally, something that just got under my skin that makes, you know, one of, you know, something like this that makes you think I've got to get some of this. 00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:58.861 Robertson: Was I heard, I heard several records by Elvis, like everybody did, but there was a song on the B-side of one of his records called "My Baby Left Me" and there's an introduction on it with a base run down, and drums that kind of kick the song in. 00:01:58.861 --> 00:02:08.352 Robertson: And there was something about that, that I thought, I need to be able to be a part of something like that. 00:02:08.352 --> 00:02:12.876 Robertson: And there was a record by Jimmy Reed that I heard. 00:02:12.876 --> 00:02:25.383 Robertson: It was a radio, I grew up in Toronto, and right across the lake, in Buffalo, there was a disk jockey by the name of George Hound Dog Lorenz. 00:02:25.383 --> 00:02:33.898 Robertson: And he played, it was the, in that area the largest introduction to blues and rhythm and blues. 00:02:33.898 --> 00:02:41.438 Robertson: And he played a record one night called " Ain't That Lovin' You Baby" by Jimmy Reed. 00:02:41.438 --> 00:02:51.195 Robertson: And the mood, the groove and the sound of this record was something that made me think this is a home for me. 00:02:51.195 --> 00:02:54.211 Robertson: I know this thing from somewhere. 00:02:54.211 --> 00:02:59.001 Robertson: And I'm, I'm going to find out where that comes from. 00:02:59.001 --> 00:03:03.259 Robertson: And it put me on a mission as a very young kid. 00:03:03.259 --> 00:03:20.023 Robertson: I wrote songs when I was 15 years old for Ronnie Hawkins, joined Ronnie Hawkins when I was 16, and went to the fountainhead of rock 'n' roll, the Mississippi Delta when I was 16 years old. 00:03:20.023 --> 00:03:24.281 Robertson: And it was largely due to hearing these things. 00:03:24.281 --> 00:03:30.313 Robertson: You know something that pushes the button and gives you that fever. 00:03:30.313 --> 00:03:40.691 Robertson: It was, uh, it was lots and lots of songs, but those two particular things I could just never get them away from me. 00:03:40.691 --> 00:03:44.328 Robertson: They always seemed to be surrounding me. 00:03:44.328 --> 00:04:03.842 Robertson: so when I discovered, when I first heard this music when I was like puberty, and I'd already started playing guitar, I was already learning to play guitar coincidentally before rock 'n' roll had blasted on to the scene. 00:04:03.842 --> 00:04:15.639 Robertson: And so the guitar that I was learning puberty, and then this wave coming out, it was like I didn't even have a choice in the matter. 00:04:15.639 --> 00:04:19.454 Robertson: You know what I mean? It was like a setup. 00:04:19.454 --> 00:04:25.485 Robertson: You take this kid, you stick him at these crossroads, he's a goner. 00:04:25.485 --> 00:04:31.162 Robertson: That's it; he just doesn't have a choice in the matter anymore. 00:04:31.162 --> 00:04:36.751 Robertson: So it made me think I've got, I've got to discover this thing. 00:04:36.751 --> 00:04:53.072 Robertson: And Canada seemed so far away from the Mississippi Delta, that I hooked up with this rockabilly band, went to it, just to smell the air, just to feel the rhythm in the air down there. 00:04:53.072 --> 00:05:07.530 Robertson: How could so much music come out of this one area, you know, this Memphis-Clarkesdale-West Helena, so many people came out of this like hundred mile radius there. 00:05:07.530 --> 00:05:11.699 Robertson: You could list 20 of them just from out there. 00:05:11.699 --> 00:05:24.295 Robertson: And I thought why here, why not -- why didn't they come out of Oklahoma? Why didn't they come out of Indiana? You know, it was, it was there. 00:05:24.295 --> 00:05:26.779 Robertson: So I had to go to the Mecca. 00:05:26.778 --> 00:05:32.180 Interviewer: What were your impressions when you got there? 00:05:32.180 --> 00:05:34.098 Robertson: It lived up to my dreams. 00:05:34.098 --> 00:05:41.917 Robertson: It's a, because I had a, a, a great comparison -- coming from where I did I had a great comparison of it. 00:05:41.917 --> 00:05:48.852 Robertson: It was far enough away that I, um, I didn't, I couldn't take any of these things for granted. 00:05:48.852 --> 00:05:55.786 Robertson: It wasn't something like I know about that stuff, it doesn't, you know, I noticed everything. 00:05:55.786 --> 00:06:02.795 Robertson: And every, when I got there, it was like I, I had to focus because everything moved in rhythm. 00:06:02.795 --> 00:06:06.705 Robertson: The people seemed to walk in another kind of rhythm. 00:06:06.705 --> 00:06:10.615 Robertson: And this Mississippi River was musicality in itself. 00:06:10.615 --> 00:06:22.197 Robertson: It went by as just kind of, and these boats going by on it, and the way people talked, and the names of the streets, and the people's names and all of this. 00:06:22.197 --> 00:06:27.213 Robertson: Everything had a sound and a rhythm to it just like that music did. 00:06:27.213 --> 00:06:30.902 Robertson: And it all made perfect sense to me very quickly. 00:06:30.902 --> 00:06:33.926 Robertson: And it was like music in the air, there. 00:06:33.926 --> 00:06:56.648 Robertson: You know I mean? You could hear, whether it was actually happening or not you could hear it, you know at night, because it would be very hot and then by the time you'd got outside you could hear somebody playing or singing like from a long distance away, or a harmonica coming from down the river somewhere. 00:06:56.648 --> 00:06:58.566 Robertson: And it was so much music. 00:06:58.566 --> 00:07:01.812 Robertson: And up North, young people liked the music. 00:07:01.812 --> 00:07:04.173 Robertson: Older people were above it all. 00:07:04.173 --> 00:07:06.534 Robertson: Down there it didn't have that. 00:07:06.534 --> 00:07:08.157 Robertson: This was their music. 00:07:08.157 --> 00:07:13.616 Robertson: And to me, like I said, on Monday it wasn't there, and on Tuesday it was. 00:07:13.616 --> 00:07:16.419 Robertson: Well, to them it was there on Monday. 00:07:16.419 --> 00:07:18.632 Robertson: They say it coming for years. 00:07:18.632 --> 00:07:29.772 Robertson: And it was the kind of music that they'd go when they would go out dancing or what everybody would do, this is the kind of music they would listen to. 00:07:29.772 --> 00:07:58.911 Robertson: They could see this combinations of music, this music coming down from, talking about the South, the Northern South, coming down from the mountains, this country music, and this black delta music coming up from the South, coming like this and going [makes explosion noise] -- and exploding into this thing that we call whatever, rock 'n' roll, or rhythm and blues or rhythm or soul or something. 00:07:58.911 --> 00:08:05.391 Interviewer: When you were writing songs when you were 15, who were you trying to write songs like? 00:08:05.391 --> 00:08:08.120 Robertson: Well, I had a specific job in mind. 00:08:08.120 --> 00:08:14.637 Robertson: I was trying to figure out a way to get into this band, Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks. 00:08:14.637 --> 00:08:21.837 Robertson: And one day I just heard Ronnie Hawkins say, Um, I need to find some songs for my next record. 00:08:21.837 --> 00:08:30.401 Robertson: And I thought, he needs to find some songs? And at that time I was dabbling around with it, just fooling around. 00:08:30.401 --> 00:08:34.039 Robertson: I was never really good at copying off records. 00:08:34.039 --> 00:08:43.285 Robertson: Some people could listen to a record once and then they could play the thing, or they could work on it and figure it out. 00:08:43.285 --> 00:08:45.786 Robertson: I didn't have patience for that. 00:08:45.786 --> 00:08:53.819 Robertson: You know, I'd try to figure it out and I'd find something like it, but it would never be the right thing. 00:08:53.819 --> 00:09:02.610 Robertson: I'd never have it nailed, and finally I just threw that aside and said, I just have to make up something of my own. 00:09:02.610 --> 00:09:06.324 Robertson: I don't have whatever that is to copy very well. 00:09:06.324 --> 00:09:12.386 Robertson: So I started doing that on the guitar, and it kind of led to writing songs too. 00:09:12.386 --> 00:09:19.889 Robertson: It made you just think well, rather than learning this person's song, I'll just make up something. 00:09:19.889 --> 00:09:24.209 Robertson: And you didn't think of it as like I'm composing a song. 00:09:24.209 --> 00:09:29.059 Robertson: I thought of making up something so I don't have to learn that. 00:09:29.059 --> 00:09:32.924 Robertson: So anyway I heard him talk about needing material. 00:09:32.924 --> 00:09:39.366 Robertson: I went off, wrote a couple of songs, came back and said, I've got a couple of songs. 00:09:39.366 --> 00:09:41.185 Robertson: And I was 15 years old. 00:09:41.185 --> 00:09:52.402 Robertson: He looked at me, like, this is very cute, isn't it? And he listened to the songs, and he said, gee, this isn't bad, and he ended up recording them. 00:09:52.402 --> 00:10:02.330 Robertson: So it was all part of my getting from A to B to B to C and eventually becoming part of this world and getting to go to, to Memphis. 00:10:02.330 --> 00:10:17.946 Interviewer: So, sort of through the Ronnie Hawkins period and then Levon and the Hawks, Bob Umler has kind of called you a road warrior during that time, someone who's seen a lot of America and gone into a lot of places. 00:10:17.946 --> 00:10:19.813 Interviewer: Is that what it was like? 00:10:19.813 --> 00:10:20.461 Robertson: It was. 00:10:20.461 --> 00:10:29.531 Robertson: It was like -- it -- Thinking about other people that were on the road I could feel out attitudes towards this. 00:10:29.531 --> 00:10:33.013 Robertson: A lot of people, it was a means to an end. 00:10:33.013 --> 00:10:39.329 Robertson: It's like, oh, jeez, it's 400 miles, we've got to drive there and everything. 00:10:39.329 --> 00:10:43.297 Robertson: And to me the getting there meant something too. 00:10:43.297 --> 00:10:55.282 Robertson: Because like I was saying, I was looking at signs, I was reading the names of places and all of this, and I don't know why, it just appealed to me. 00:10:55.282 --> 00:11:03.218 Robertson: I didn't know that I was storing up stuff for songs that I was going to be writing in the future. 00:11:03.218 --> 00:11:06.700 Robertson: And I liked the whole poetry of the thing. 00:11:06.700 --> 00:11:08.481 Robertson: The romanticism of it.