Robbie Robertson Turns 67

Jaime Robert Klegerman was born in on July 5, 1943 in Toronto to a Jewish father and a Mohawk mother,and took his stepfather's last name "Robertson" after his mother remarried. He had his earliest exposure to music at Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation, where he spent summers with his mother's family.By 1958, Robertson was performing in various groups around Toronto, including Little Caesar and the Consuls, Robbie and the Robots, and Thumper and the Trambones.

By 1959 he had met singer Ronnie Hawkins, who led a band called The Hawks after he had relocated to Canada. In 1960 Hawkins recorded two early Robertson songs, "Hey Boba Lu" and "Someone Like You" on his Mr. Dynamo LP. Robertson then took over lead guitar with The Hawks and toured often, before splitting from Hawkins in 1963.

After Robertson left The Hawks with Levon Helm, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, and Garth Hudson, the quintet styled themselves Levon and the Hawks, but (after rejecting such tongue-in-cheek names as The Honkies and The Crackers, as well as the Canadian Squires [a name the record company forced on them that they immediately hated] they ultimately called themselves The Band.

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Here's our of my favourites from Robertson.