Featuring Robbie Robertson, Ringo Starr, Lukas Nelson, Larkin Poe and many many more…….
And this song is 50 years old !
Playing For Change / The Weight
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
That cheered me right up! Thank you! One planet!
The Weight has to be amongst the most covered of songs in popular music, as in decent covers
Here’s Levon Helm with Elvis Costello & the Imposters, Ray LaMontagne, Nick Lowe, Richard Thompson, Larry Campbell and Allen Toussaint.
Wonderful! Brought a tear to my eye.
Drummers don’t need to know what key a song is in Ringo! F demented right enough.
Magnificent! I bought the single on the day of its release. Around 48 years later I realised it wasn’t Penny but Annie who needed a bit of help
Isn’t it Fanny?
Don’t you go confusing me no more. Next you be telling me Nazareth is in Pennsylvania
Nazareth PA is where Martin guitars are made.
Off Annie
Not
Of fannie
‘Off Fanny’, as the first 2 lyric sites I saw and Wikipedia agree!
Think you’ll find it’s Penny
Deffo Annie.
I favour Fanny.
All your eyebrows have hit the ceiling, I’m sure.
Deffo off fanny
Oh for goodness sake – it’s Annie (apart from the Trenchtown lassie who got it Wrong)
It’s ok – elide the words slightly and no one will realise you’ve got her name wrong 😉
And to prove once again I am Wrong I give you
“With Levon Helm’s passing, many people have made mention of the song “The Weight”. This is another one of those songs where people usually get the lyrics wrong. Like “Purple Haze” by Hendrix (“Excuse me, while I kiss the sky”… not, “excuse me, while I kiss this guy”).
The Weight is actually saying “Take a load off Fanny”, not Annie.
From songfacts.com:
The characters in the song – Crazy Chester, Luke, Anna Lee, are based on friends of the band. In Levon Helm’s autobiography This Wheel’s On Fire: Levon Helm And The Story Of The Band, he explained:
“We had two or three tunes, or pieces of tunes, and “The Weight” was one I would work on. Robbie had that bit about going down to Nazareth – Pennsylvania, where the Martin guitar factory is at. The song was full of our favorite characters. “Luke” was Jimmy Ray Paulman. “Young Anna Lee” was Anna Lee Williams from Turkey Scratch. “Crazy Chester” was a guy we all knew from Fayetteville who came into town on Saturdays wearing a full set of cap guns on his hips and kinda walked around town to help keep the peace,if you follow me. He was like Hopalong Cassidy, and he was a friend of the Hawks. Ronnie would always check with Crazy Chester to make sure there wasn’t any trouble around town. And Chester would reassure him that everything was peaceable and not to worry, because he was on the case. Two big cap guns, he wore, plus a toupee! There were also “Carmen and the Devil”, “Miss Moses” and “Fanny,” a name that just seemed to fit the picture. (I believe she looked a lot like Caladonia.) We recorded the song maybe four times. We weren’t really sure it was going to be on the album, but people really liked it. Rick, Richard, and I would switch the verses around among us, and we all sang the chorus: Put the load right on me!”
I still think it’s Penny
As I’ve always said, you can’t go wrong with Fanny.
Ahem!
A-fookin-hem!!
‘Scuse me while I kiss this guy
Living is easy with nice clothes
Misunderstanding all you see
That was wonderful and made my day.
Thank you for sharing.
Playing for Change is a wonderful idea and very well executed.
Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay with minor chords is a lovely thing.
i Love covers, me, discovering the movement a couple of years back. Fine stuff and a good idea.
https://playingforchange.com/
Yeah, they did a really nice version of the Grateful Dead’s “Ripple”.
That was wonderful!
Ooo, lookee!
https://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/the-band-50th-anniversary-reissue/