(c)1968 The Band, Track #5 on album "Music From Big Pink" This tells the story of a guy who visits Nazareth, and is asked by his friend Annie to visit several of her friends. "The Weight" that is his load are all these strange people he promised he would check on. The song was never a big hit, but it endures as a Classic Rock staple. The Band's guitarist Robbie Robertson claims this was influenced by the work of Luis Bunuel, a Mexican director who made some of the first movies dealing with surrealism. Robertson was intrigued by the characters in his films, who were often good people who did bad things. Robbie Robertson got the only writing credit for this, although other members of the group claimed that they contributed to this as well as many of their other songs and were not credited. Since only the writer receives royalties for a song, this created a great deal of tension in The Band. The vocals are shared by Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, and Levon Helm. One of the distinc! tive characteristics of The Band was their 3 lead vocalists. Nazareth, where the story takes place, refers to the town in Pennsylvania about 70 miles north of Philadelphia. The rock group Nazareth got their name from this line ("Went down to Nazareth, I was feeling about half past dead..."). In the liner notes for the Across the Great Divide box set, Robbie is quoted as saying that he chose that place because they make legendary Martin Guitars there, so he was aware of the place and been there once or ...
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