When Eric Clapton heard of his friend Robbie Robertson‘s death in 2023, he began revisiting the Band’s music and their final concert, immortalized in Martin Scorsese’s 1978 musical documentary The Last Waltz. “When Robbie moved on, I got everyone in my family in the room to watch it,” said Clapton. In the film, Clapton performs Bobby “Blue” Bland’s classic 1957 shuffle “Further On Up The Road,” with the Band. “I hadn’t watched it for a long time.”
Years before The Last Waltz was filmed, Clapton visited Woodstock in ’69, intent on asking to join the Band, but never worked up the nerve to ask. Clapton continued working with lifelong friend Robertson. Both collaborated on several occasions from the mid-1970s through Robertson’s 2011 solo album How to Become a Clairvoyant, and continued performing together in the years that followed.
In 1976, all five members of The Band were featured on Clapton’s fourth solo album, No Reason to Cry, and co-wrote “All Our Past Times” with Danko. Decades later, Clapton inducted The Band into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.
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“People underestimate what he does,” said Clapton of Roberston. “They want to try doing it. The intros to songs, the little things that sound like they’re scrappy and off the cuff, which is part of his unique attractiveness to me. He sounds like he’s only just now working out that this will work.
Clapton continued, “I’m sure it’s a lot more crafted out than that. I know him well enough to know he was really precise about what he did. It’s so difficult to recreate that kind of on-the-edge of expression.”
Fortunately, Clapton and Robertson shared many collaborations during a decades-long friendship, including three songs they co-wrote.
[RELATED: 4 Songs You Didn’t Know The Band’s Robbie Robertson Wrote for Other Artists]
“It’s in the Way That You Use It” (1986)
Written by Robbie Robertson and Eric Clapton
In 1986, Robbie Robertson began working on his first solo album, a self-titled project featuring former bandmates the Band’s Rick Danko and Garth Hudson, along with Peter Gabriel, U2, and more. At the same time, Robertson was scoring Martin Scorsese’s The Color of Money, starring Paul Newman and Tom Cruise.
Along with B.B. King, Robert Palmer, Willie Dixon, Don Henley, Warren Zevon, and Mark Knopfler, Robertson also recorded two tracks on the soundtrack, “Modern Blues” and “The Main Title,” and co-wrote another with Clapton. Written by Clapton and Robertson, “It’s in the Way That You Use It” is a story about the fleeting nature of money is, how it comes and goes.
It’s in the way that you use it
It comes and it goes
It’s in the way that you use it
Boy, don’t you know
And if you lie you will lose it
Feelings will show
So don’t you ever abuse it
Don’t let it go
Nobody’s right until somebody’s wrong
Nobody’s weak until somebody’s strong
No one gets lucky until luck comes along
Nobody’s lonely until somebody’s gone
“It’s in the Way That You Use It” was later released on Eric Clapton’s 10th album, August, produced mostly by Phil Collins.
“Fear of Falling” (2011)
Written by Robbie Robertson and Eric Clapton
By 2008, Robertson started working on his fifth solo album, How to Become a Clairvoyant, featuring a collection of special guests, including Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello and Trent Reznor. At the time, Robertson started “playing around with ideas and talking about life” with Clapton, which became the “germ of the idea” for the 2011 album.
“I went over to London because Eric Clapton had asked if we could do some recording over there,” recalled Robertson. “The beginning of this record really started with Eric and I just messing around with some ideas. We didn’t really have anything that specific in mind, except that we’re old friends and we’ve been talking about doing something for a while.”
On the album, Robertson wrote his share of tracks, along with three others written or co-written with Clapton. The instrumental “Madame X” was written by Clapton, who co-wrote two more tracks with Robertson, including “Fear of Falling.” The track also features Steve Winwood on organ and was one, Robertson says was inspired by Clapton’s life and a fear or hesitation to jump into love.
“‘Fear of Falling’ really comes from Eric,” said Robertson. “It comes from a life experience that he was telling me about that I, in turn, was then singing back to him. It comes from when we first started working on music together, and we would sit down with just two guitars and start playing around.”
He added, “We traded off the ideas until we felt like ‘we’ve really got something together here’,” notes Robertson. “So it was a real trade-off in all aspects of the song, in the vocals, the playing, and the storytelling, everything.”
I wonder where it all began
Was it in a place or in the heart
Was it outside in the pouring rain
In the darkness where the dreaming starts
If I end up begging like a dog
Does it make me any less than you
Why should I stand here and be judged
When we already know the truth
There was a time when I was lost
Couldn’t see the woods for the trees
How could I know how much it costs
‘Til I was on my knees
“Won’t Be Back” (2011)
Written by Robbie Robertson and Eric Clapton
Clapton ended up playing guitar and singing backing harmony on several other tracks on How to Become a Clairvoyant, including “Won’t Be Back,” the second song he co-wrote with Robetson. The lyrics follow a love that is gone for good.
The letter that I sent to you
Was it lost in the mail
Then tell me why
There’s no reply
Where can she be tonight
As I lay, here in the dark
And I reach for you
I long for you
But you’ve gone
Like the wind
And I know
That you won’t be back again
Photo: Barry Brecheisen / Getty Images
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