Takes one to know one

@jond, isn’t "It Makes No Difference" as beautiful a song as you’ve ever heard?! I love Rick’s voice, it’s so unique. I love how he sang "Long Black Veil---a Lefty Frizzell song (Rick loved Country music)---on Music From Big Pink. As were Levon’s and Richard’s. Three lead singers! The way their voiced weave in and out amongst each others, trading verses, even lines. In The Last Waltz, Robbie cited The Staple Singers as their model for how to arrange vocals. The three singers did that, not Robbie.

The Band’s roots were SO deep; Hillbilly, Country, Cajun, Blues, Rock ’n’ Roll, Gospel, Pop, Jazz, Classical (Garth was a trained musician). The five members had been playing together as an ensemble for eight years before making their first album. Most bands whole lifespan is less than that! And they were all multi-instrumentalists. Levon played not only drums, but guitar, mandolin, and harmonica. Rick bass, guitar, and tuba. Richard was a FANTASTIC drummer, almost as good as Levon. And Garth Hudson, the most unlikely person to join a Rock ’n’ Roll Band, played all keyboards, as well as sax. Robbie was (I guess still is) a wonderful guitarist. Can’t sing worth a damn, though.

Robbie KNEW that would be the case, and knowingly tricked, manipulated, John Simon into signing away his future royalties for what he, Robertson, knew would be very little.

Robbie didn't withhold John Simon's royalty payments, Capitol Records did. It's amazing how often that happens in the music business. When The Dixie Chicks had the number one album in the world, they weren't receiving their checks from Sony. Their lawyer was told in essence "We don't pay royalties. If you want your money, you'll have to sue us to get it." So they did, and got a real nice settlement, including their own boutique label. Bands that don't have the money to fight their record company get screwed ALL THE TIME. What you don't expect, is to get screwed by another artist.

John Simon hadn't seen the guys since he had done the brown album with them, seven years before The Last Waltz. He had no idea what Robertson had been doing in regards to songwriting credits, etc. Lawyers are expensive (no duh), and guys like John Simon, on the fringes of the music business, don't have a need for or the means to pay one. Guys like Robertson, savvy and selfish, know how to pull a con (a real good one can even get himself elected President of The United States ;-). It's easy to fault John Simon for letting Robbie take advantage of his naivete', but John had no reason to suspect he was being set up.