Just off the heels of the documentary Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The B performing for the very first time at the and debate Toronto International Film Festival, Robbie has broadcasted a new edition of The Band’s signature song The Weight.
In a newly-released video, he joined hands with Ringo Starr and several other musicians from across the world who are all performing along to the song.
Five landmasses are represented – there’s a guy playing the sitar in Nepal, and an accordion player in Argentina, and singers from Spain and Jamaica then there is a representative of the Democratic Republic of the Congo as well. It’s the delinquent video from a program called Playing For Change.
Robbie Robertson associated with an array of performers from around the globe, Ringo Starr encompassed, to belt out “The Weight” in this video.
The Band’s track, initially released in 1968, just turned 50, so Playing For Change got musicians from the preferences of Hawaii, Italy, Spain and California together to put their own twist on the song.
Co-founder Mark Johnson talked to Rolling Stone regarding Playing For Change, deciphering how it “is a campaign uniting and attacking people all over the earth through music.”
He further elucidated “And in order to do that, you need to do it in distinct ways, so we establish songs around the world, videos where all these musicians from various nations who never met before, play songs together.”
“Which then go online, and that kind of evolves to get viral and a digital way for people to see the world. Then we realize that this doesn’t mean much if we don’t give back to the population. So we established the Playing for Change foundation ten years ago, and we create music and art schools all over the globe, and then we engage all those kids together for videos like this.”
We get to reinforce how people discern at the world through the lens of the symphony. Rather than showing it to people with guns, we show to them with guitars.”
The documentary “Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band” released in 2019
