The Weight

"The Weight" is a song by the Canadian-American group the Band that was released as a single in 1968 and on the group's debut album Music from Big Pink. It was their first release under this name, after their previous releases as Canadian Squires and Levon and the Hawks. Written by Band member Robbie Robertson, the song is about a visitor's experiences in a town mentioned in the lyric's first line as Nazareth. "The Weight" has significantly influenced American popular music, having been listed as No. 41 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time published in 2004. Pitchfork Media named it the 13th best song of the 1960s, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named it one of the 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. PBS, which broadcast performances of the song on Ramble at the Ryman (2011), Austin City Limits (2012), and Quick Hits (2012), describes it as "a masterpiece of Biblical allusions, enigmatic lines and iconic characters" and notes its enduring popularity as "an essential part of the American songbook."
"The Weight" is one of the Band's best known songs, gaining considerable album-oriented rock airplay even though it was not a significant hit single for the group in the US, peaking at only No. 63. After it was released, the record debuted just six days later on KHJ's "'Boss 30' records" and peaked at No. 3 there three weeks later. The Band's recording also fared well in Canada and the UK, peaking at No. 35 in Canada and No. 21 in the UK in 1968. Cash Box called it a "powerhouse performance." American Songwriter and Stereogum both ranked the song number three on their lists of the Band's greatest songs. In 1968 and 1969, three cover versions were released; their arrangements appealed to a wide diversity of music audiences.
"The Weight" was written by Robbie Robertson, who found the tune by strumming idly on his guitar, a 1951 Martin D-28, when he noticed that the interior included a stamp noting that it was manufactured in Nazareth, Pennsylvania (C. F. Martin & Company is situated there), and he started crafting the lyrics as he played. The inspiration for and influences affecting the composition of "The Weight" came from the music of the American South, the life experiences of band members, particularly Levon Helm, and movies of filmmakers Ingmar Bergman and Luis Buñuel. The original members of the Band performed "The Weight" as an American Southern folk song with country music (vocals, guitars and drums) and gospel music (piano and organ) elements.
The lyrics, written in the first person, are about a traveler's arrival, visit, and departure from a town called Nazareth, in which the traveler's friend, Fanny, has asked him to look up some of her friends and send them her regards, though with each encounter, he comes away with more favors he must do, and those favors become more favors, until the weight of doing so many unexpected tasks causes him to pick up his bag and leave town altogether and return to Fanny. The singers, led by Helm, vocalize the traveler's encounters with people in the town from the perspective of a Bible Belt American Southerner, like Helm himself, a native of rural Arkansas.
The characters in "The Weight" were based on real people that members of the Band knew, according to Robertson, Fanny is based on Frances "Fanny" Steloff, the founder of a New York City bookstore where he explored scripts by Buñuel. Helm explained in his autobiography, This Wheel's on Fire that "Carmen" was from Helm's hometown, Turkey Scratch, Arkansas, "young Anna Lee" mentioned in the third verse is Helm's longtime friend Anna Lee Amsden, and, according to her, "Crazy Chester" was an eccentric resident of Fayetteville, Arkansas, who carried a cap gun. Ronnie Hawkins would tell him to "keep the peace" at his Rockwood Club when Chester arrived.
According to Robertson, "The Weight" was inspired by the surreal imagery of Buñuel's films, specifically their criticism of organized religion, particularly Catholicism. The song's lyrics and music invoke vivid imagery, the main character's perspective is influenced by the Bible, and the episodic story was inspired by the predicaments Buñuel's film characters faced that undermined their goals for maintaining or improving their moral character. Of this, Robertson once stated:
The road movie Easy Rider (1969) used the song as recorded by the Band, but it was not licensed for the soundtrack album. To deal with this, ABC-Dunhill commissioned Smith, who recorded for the label at the time, to record a cover version of the song for the soundtrack album.
Several commercials have featured the song, including one by Cingular Wireless in 2004 that led to a lawsuit from Helm against advertising agency BBDO, claiming that he did not permit them the rights to use the song. Helm would lose the lawsuit in 2012, after the court rules that BBDO said that Helm signed a contract in 1968 allowing the record label to license it at their discretion. The song was featured in the films Girl, Interrupted (1999), Starsky and Hutch (2004), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), and The King of Staten Island (2020).
Credits are adapted from the liner notes of A Musical History.
The songwriting credit to Robbie Robertson for "The Weight", like credit for many of the songs performed by the Band, was disputed years later by Levon Helm. Helm insisted that the composition of the lyrics and the music was collaborative, declaring that each band member made a substantial contribution. In an interview, Helm credited Robertson with 60 percent of the lyrics, Danko and Manuel with 20 percent each of the lyrics, much of the music credit to Garth Hudson, and a small credit to himself for lyrics.