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You are here: Home / Great Music / Song Meanings

“The Weight” Lyrics & Meaning (The Band)

July 7, 2022 By Camila 13 Comments

the weight lyrics meaningHave you seen the movie Easy Rider?

The soundtrack was groundbreaking and remains one of the most famous movie soundtracks of all time.

The Weight is included on that soundtrack, although as a cover version by Smith.

The deluxe edition of the soundtrack includes the original song by The Band.

This song was a seminal tune of the sixties.

But what are they actually singing about?

The song contains plenty of biblical references, but isn’t about that at all.

Even the Nazareth referenced in the lyrics is not the one in Israel, but the one in Pennsylvania.

So it is not religious. But it is a lot of other things.

Keep reading to learn exactly what the lyrics to The Weight actually mean. They are cryptic, indeed.

Table of Contents

  • 1 The Weight Lyrics And Meaning
    • 1.1 The Weight Lyrics
    • 1.2 The Weight Meaning
      • 1.2.1 Songwriting Credit Controversy
  • 2 The Weight Lyrics Meaning: Final Thoughts

 

The Weight Lyrics And Meaning

The Weight wasn’t even born as a hit. Its appearance on the charts in 1969 was so discreet that no one would remember it until the incredible Aretha Franklin made it a success in the USA.

She was accompanied on the guitar by the sadly deceased Duane Allman, a couple that was surprising to see together, to say the least at the time.

If you compare the Franklin sound with that of The Band in the original 1969 recording, devoid of the mystique that Scorsese brought as well, you will realize what a piece we have in our hands.

The Weight emerged within the package for “Music from Big Pink” (1968), the first album by a group of Canadians who had been playing together since the fifties, along with cowboy Ronnie Hawkins, with whom they had been using the appropriate name of The Hawks.

Abandoning a boss and establishing themselves as a group with a name as simple as it is arrogant (The Band) was not easy. In fact, the existence of the group was always punctuated by the confrontation between Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm.

The other members of the quintet – Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, and Rick Danko – contributed to these rifts as well.

To put that aside for now, the vinyl was only valued years later, when everyone turned their eyes on The Band, once they became Bob Dylan’s support group.

Together with Dylan, they gave rise to those mythical The Basement Tapes (1975), a key work of the singer-songwriter from Minnesota.

When all was said and done, The Weight ended up being ranked number 41 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list from 2004 and number 13 on Pitchfork’s list of best songs of the sixties. Let us now take a quick look at the lyrics to The Weight, before diving into the meaning of the song.

 

The Weight Lyrics

I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin’ about half past dead
I just need some place where I can lay my head
“Hey, mister, can you tell me where a man might find a bed?”
He just grinned and shook my hand, “No” was all he said

Take a load off Fanny
Take a load for free
Take a load off Fanny
And (and) (and) you put the load right on me

I picked up my bag, I went lookin’ for a place to hide
When I saw Carmen and the Devil walkin’ side by side
I said, “Hey, Carmen, come on let’s go downtown”
She said, “I gotta go but my friend can stick around”

Take a load off Fanny
Take a load for free
Take a load off Fanny
And (and) (and) you put the load right on me

Go down, Miss Moses, there’s nothin’ you can say
It’s just ol’ Luke and Luke’s waitin’ on the Judgment Day
“Well, Luke, my friend, what about young Anna Lee?”
He said, “Do me a favor, son, won’tcha stay and keep Anna Lee company?”

Take a load off Fanny
Take a load for free
Take a load off Fanny
And (and) (and) you put the load right on me

Crazy Chester followed me and he caught me in the fog
He said, “I will fix your rack if you’ll take Jack, my dog”
I said, “Wait a minute, Chester, you know I’m a peaceful man”
He said, “That’s okay, boy, won’t you feed him when you can”

Yeah, take a load off Fanny
Take a load for free
Take a load off Fanny
And (and) (and) you put the load right on me

Catch a cannon ball now to take me down the line
My bag is sinkin’ low and I do believe it’s time
To get back to Miss Fanny, you know she’s the only one
Who sent me here with her regards for everyone

Take a load off Fanny
Take a load for free
Take a load off Fanny
And (and) (and) you put the load right on me

 

The Weight Meaning

The song The Weight tells the story of a boy who visits Nazareth, where his friend Fanny asks him to visit several of her friends. The Weight (his burden) is all these strange people that he promised he would visit.

Robbie Robertson claims that this song was influenced by the work of Luis Buñuel, a Spanish director who made some of the first films dealing with surrealism. Robertson was intrigued by the characters in his movies, who were often good people doing bad things.

Its lyrical composition is exciting in itself, as it is set in a place called Nazareth, where the singer meets a series of colorful characters on his quest to basically find a place to sleep.

Nazareth, as we all know, is the name of an ancient city where Jesus once resided. There are several references that read as if they were biblical in nature and, as such, have a deeper meaning than what is presented on the surface.

But in reality, they actually point to aspects of the artists’ current lives (at the time of the track’s release), including a number of shout-outs to people and places they’re familiar with.

It has nothing to do with religion, although there are indirect biblical references scattered everywhere, to make it sound deeper and perhaps make it more appealing.

This song tells the sorrows of a guy whose girlfriend dies, and the burden that this leaves him (the weight) in this life. Miss Moses may be Anna-Lee’s mother. This Luke is in the same situation as the narrator of the song and asks him to take care of what could be his daughter.

In the part that talks about the crazy Chester, when he asks him to take care of his dog, the narrator misunderstands him. He thinks that Chester wants him to kill the dog and says that he is a peaceful man.

But Chester just wants him to take care of the dog and answers “ok, feed him when you can”. It’s meant to be a slightly comedic scene.

When he says “catch the cannonball now to take me down the line”, he is referring to a route on the way to the final judgment. This could be translated into taking the train there, if we move it to the current context.

It is worth noting that Nazareth does not refer to the city of Israel. According to singer Robbie Robertson, it refers to a city in Pennsylvania, USA, where the Martin guitar factory is located.

The Weight is a cryptic song that addresses in surreal elements about sin, death, the devil, and the weight of guilt in its lyrics. These topics were all very abundant in the beatnik literature of the time and in the different folklores of the American prairie.

Robbie Robertson, established as the author of the lyrics (although he eventually had to settle this issue in court), openly recounted the surrealist influences of the Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel and his aesthetic and vital contributions.

However, owing to numerous double and triple meanings, the music is of an almost unnerving subtlety.

The almost monotonous way in which verse and chorus are linked, having each of the members tell/sing one of the episodes, and those rising choruses combine to give rise to an emotional charge, which you don’t want to get rid of.

The song has been covered by many artists. A version was also included on the famous soundtrack of “Easy Rider” (D. Hopper, 1969). That version was performed by the rock band called Smith, although the deluxe version of the aforementioned soundtrack has the version performed by The Band.

 

Songwriting Credit Controversy

The Band went their separate ways after the already mentioned concert recorded by Scorsese (which gave rise to a luxurious triple album). These days, Robbie Robertson is credited as the songwriter for this song and many other songs by The Band.

However, drummer Levon Helm disputes this and brought the issue to court. The results were sole songwriting credit for Robertson, resulting in his getting the majority of royalties for most songs by The Band.

The rights to The Weight ended up being distributed among the five members, with drummer Levon Helm receiving a smaller percentage, despite being (under certain points of view) the soul that underlies the emotions of the song.

Even today, Helm (and other members of The Band) claim that the songwriting was collaborate. Robbie Robertson disagrees and recounts exactly how the song came about:

“I wrote the song in Woodstock, in a house that I had there, in a place called Larson Lane, where I had a table and a guitar, and it was like my little workshop… And when I sat down to try to think of something, I realized that I had nothing in mind. I thought, ‘Oh shit!’ Some days it comes and others it doesn’t. I sat the guitar on my lap and I was leaning over it a little bit, and I looked into the sound hole of the guitar and it said ‘Nazareth, Pennsylvania’ [where Martin guitars are made].”

From there, the lyrics started pouring.

 

The Weight Lyrics Meaning: Final Thoughts

Whoever is responsible for writing The Weight, they crafted a song that has stood the test of time. It was one of the biggest hits of the sixties and remains a popular song today. The sheer number of other major artists who have covered the track is a testament to that.

The lyrics are fairly cryptic, infused with biblical references that aren’t really that, images from American folklore, ideas from surrealism, colorful characters based on real people, and a healthy dose of humor. In short: The Band gave us everything you could want from a song.

For another song that is much simpler and far less cryptic, but still carries a heavy dose of symbolism and mysticism, check out our dive in the meaning of the lyrics for Edge Of Seventeen by Stevie Nicks.

The lyrics to Pumped Up Kicks are quite different in meaning, but similar in spirit. They also deal with someone carrying a lot of metaphorical weight, though this person deals with it in the worst way possible.

The Sweet Home Alabama lyrics meaning is also fairly cryptic. To this day, no one really knows what intention Lynyrd Skynyrd had when writing them and that fact has lead to a lot of controversy surrounding the song.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. LeRoy Cooper says

    July 7, 2024 at 14:12

    I’m 80 years old and had to have the lyrics typed out for me to read! Even without understanding what I was listening to, I really enjoyed the music and feel bad for the suffering some have to contend with. Regarding the comments from several people about the lack of “caring about others” I found a bit short sighted and mainly inaccurate today or in the past as I recall it. I have seen good people helping others in need and that transends time. My wife and I have been volunteers for many different “causes” and my wife still spend much of her time at the Salvation Army.

    Reply
  2. Homesick Mac says

    June 14, 2024 at 07:49

    Very interesting read! I’ve loved this song from the first second I’ve heard the instrumental intro and when the groove and the singing started… I was hooked and cooked. This was in the late 70’s.
    Being a professional musician since 1983, I’ve played it zillions of times in different constellations, and the song has never failed to inspire and give me true performing joy.
    Shameless self-promo now, please forgive me, but I’m just releasing a YouTube video where I give ideas about how to play this song with slide and in an open guitar tuning (Open G).
    This is my homage to The Band and those fantastic musicians that have left us but will live in our hearts as long as we live. Then the music history will remember them forever.

    Reply
  3. Timothy P kelly says

    August 18, 2023 at 14:24

    This was NOT “one of the biggest hits of the ’60’s” by any stretch of the imagination. But it is a great song.

    Reply
    • Camila says

      August 19, 2023 at 00:34

      Thanks for the correction. I was born in ’76, so it’s a bit before my time. Like so much of my favorite music, unfortunately…

      Reply
  4. Marie L. says

    August 18, 2023 at 10:51

    My older sister who graduated high school in 1969 would invite her guitar-playing friends over to play & sing., eat and smoke. So my brother and I put more energy into playing guitar & singing together too. It was much more common then, for young people to gather in this way.

    This song and many others define those formative years for me, which is probably why it brings tears, like so many others who shared this generational experience.. We are now in a different social era . Many have lost love & respect for one another. But remembering that a single act of hospitality and inviting someone to “take a load off,” can change the world….for someone. Some of us still believe in sharing the weight of one another. Kindness wins over bitterness.

    Reply
    • Camila says

      August 19, 2023 at 00:36

      Thank you for sharing! I graduated in ’95 and I feel even then, people still had much more kindness for others than today. Even for those who didn’t agree with you on absolutely everything…

      Reply
  5. Dave Parks says

    August 16, 2023 at 12:14

    To the soul. Spot-on. Forever gràteful….

    Reply
  6. Susan lisa says

    June 24, 2023 at 02:58

    At Last…Brilliant song!

    Reply
  7. Jane Murren says

    June 8, 2023 at 22:00

    I Am Old,,,,,,The Weight Has Been In My Heart For Many Years,,,,,,,Takes Me Back To My Safe Place

    Reply
    • Albertus Hugo Nieuwland says

      August 10, 2023 at 11:16

      I am 75 now and carry this song for 50 years . It Still comforts me and now Robbie Robertson died I will cry for a week while feeling grateful at the same time….(listening also to “King Harvest”)

      Reply
  8. Mark A Ludvigson says

    May 1, 2023 at 15:19

    Reading this has been one of the finest little treasures I often find cruising the internet on my cellphone. A lot of music has been very importent to me in my life . Born and raised in Minnesota. Love Bob Dylan. The Band is equivalent in my spirit. The Weight is for the ages. Thanks for the excellent article and thanks for the memories! Well done!

    Reply
  9. Neil E Larkins says

    December 6, 2022 at 04:36

    Thanks for this in-depth analysis. I always wondered what they were talking about.

    Reply
    • Camila says

      December 7, 2022 at 00:21

      You’re welcome, glad it cleared thing up!

      Reply

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