by Some pieces of music just fit a certain place. For me, this place was a relatively tame summer party in the village I grew up in.
As I chewed through a thick, homemade pint of cider, I watched a scratchy, albeit charming cover band work through a setlist that kept the mood buoyant. I nudged my mate and said, “I bet you any money they play the…” Before I could finish my sentence, my prophecy came true, and they ripped into a rendition of ‘The Weight’ by The Band.
Who can blame them? It is the perfect song of mild-mannered camaraderie, that on the surface at least, sounds like the soundtrack of a humble, weary traveller. The chorus line of “Take a load off, Fanny / Take a load for free” before sliding into the concluding sentiment of “You put the load right on me (You put the load right on me)” provokes that sense of shared humanity, before you even dive further into the more literal meaning of the verses.
But then references to Nazareth and needing somewhere to lay your head bring with it an immediate and presumptuous conclusion that this is a religious tale, used universally to tell an important tale of morality. But it’s a lot more literal than that.
“We had two or three tunes, or pieces of tunes, and ‘The Weight’ was one I would work on,” Levon Helm explained. “Robbie had that bit about going down to Nazareth, Pennsylvania, where the Martin guitar factory is at. The song was full of our favourite characters. ‘Luke’ was Jimmy Ray Paulman. ‘Young Anna Lee’ was Anna Lee Williams from Turkey Scratch. ‘Crazy Chester’ was a guy we all knew from Fayetteville who came into town on Saturdays wearing a full set of cap guns on his hips and kinda walked around town to help keep the peace, if you follow me.”
Levon Helm – The Band – Musician – 1971
Levon Helm with The Band in 1971. (Credits: Far Out / Heinrich Klaffs)
So, in actual fact, this was perhaps the truest tale of America. Of course, there are two separate spectrums of the country we romanticise from afar. Be it the glitzy coastline of Southern California, or the hustling opportunity of New York City. But on the long roads that knit these cities and states together are the communities that epitomise each historic chapter or diaspora of the country.
Let’s not forget that modern America was built on a religious foundation. While the inclusion of Pennsylvania’s Nazareth may be rooted in truth, it was surely employed to cement this tale of American society by weaving in its most influential characteristic, which is religion. It’s that very structural religious grounding that gives these tales of “Carmen and the Devil / Walking side-by-side” in the second verse, and Luke “waitin’ on the Judgement Day” in the third verse, meaning.
These might just be obscure names from this supposedly factual tale unfolding through The Band’s road trip, or they might be working-class figureheads whose fate is determined by the overhanging influence of religion that exists in large parts of America’s hidden communities.
Helm continued on, explaining how the crux of the characters he met allowed him to embellish the tale. He explained, “Ronnie would always check with Crazy Chester to make sure there wasn’t any trouble around town. And Chester would reassure him that everything was peaceable and not to worry, because he was on the case. Two big cap guns, he wore, plus a toupee! There were also ‘Carmen and the Devil’, ‘Miss Moses’ and ‘Fanny’, a name that just seemed to fit the picture (I believe she looked a lot like Caladonia). We recorded the song maybe four times.”
The definitive example of a Western civilisation, it’s these characters who are most often ravaged by the trappings of modern life. Drugs, alcohol, and gambling are all symptoms of towns in limbo, caught between the antiquated humility of Christian America, yet failed by their figurehead cities of modernity, leaving nothing but community to help rally them through. It’s the development of this sentiment through the verses that gives the song’s chorus line such a weighty emotional punch, and The Band never truly understood that after recording.
Concluding, “We weren’t really sure it was going to be on the album, but people really liked it. Rick, Richard, and I would switch the verses around among us, and we all sang the chorus: Put the load right on me!”
But let’s face it, the societal make-up of America as a country means that religious allegory and factual circumstance could quite easily run alongside each other, without contradicting the song’s narrative. It’s a timeless classic that allows for a universal listen, despite its lyrical specificity and most importantly, has a chorus that acts as the true mission statement of the record, allowing the debate around the rest to fall away.
