Death of The Band songwriter Robbie Robertson revives his vision of pulling 'into [local] Nazareth'

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — It may not be the highest-profile reference to the Lehigh Valley in song — that easily goes to Billy Joel’s “Allentown” — but The Band’s song “The Weight” came back to local attention when its writer, The Band co-founder Robbie Robertson, died Wednesday.

The song, with its opening line, “I pulled into Nazareth/Was feelin' about half past dead,” has periodically put the spotlight on the Northampton County borough of the same name as listeners ponder whether “our” Nazareth has anything to do with the reference.

• Robbie Robertson, guitarist and songwriter for The Band, died of prostate cancer on Aug. 9. He was 80
• "The Weight," The Band's best-known song, opens with the line "I pulled into Nazareth"
• Robertson said in interviews over the years that the line was prompted by looking inside his guitar and seeing that it was made in Nazareth, Pennsylvania

According to Robertson, who was 80 and died of prostate cancer, it certainly did — although it was inspiration rather than a direct reference.

“The Weight” was the first hit single for The Band, which before then was best known as Bob Dylan’s backing band. It was on its 1968 gold debut album “Music from the Big Pink.”

The Band went on to have hits with the songs “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and “Up On Cripple Creek” and influence generations of what has become known as Americana music.

For more than two decades, listeners pondered over the reference to “Nazareth” — it certainly could have been about the biblical Nazareth, especially since the lyrics describe a weary traveler looking for a place “Where I can lay my head,” only to be turned away.

Finally an acknowledgment

Finally, in a 1991 interview with Goldmine magazine, Robertson said the “Nazareth” reference was, indeed, for the home of C.F. Martin & Co. guitar makers. (Martin since has moved to Upper Nazareth Township).

"In 'The Weight', it was this very simple thing,” Robertson told the magazine. “Someone says, `Listen, will you me this favor? When you get there will you say ‘hello’ to somebody or will you pick up one of these for me?

"'Oh, you're going to Nazareth, that's where the Martin guitar factory is. Do me a favor when you're there.' This is what it's all about. So the guy goes and one thing leads to another.”

In his 2017 autobiographical book “Testimony: A Memoir,” released on the 40th anniversary of The Band documentary “The Last Waltz,” Robertson further addressed writing the song, saying his songwriting had been influenced by reading classic screenplays.

"I was able to tap into this imaginative, thematic material in my own writing," he wrote.

"Upstairs in the workroom across from my bedroom ... I sat with a little typewriter, a pen and legal pad, and a Martin D-28 guitar that said NAZARETH, PENNSYLVANIA on the label inside the sound hole.

"I wrote "The Weight" in one sitting that night."

He told virtually the same story in the 2020 documentary film “Once Were Brothers,” which told the story of The Band.

Robertson said in the film he was sitting around his Woodstock home with his Martin guitar, searching for inspiration.

“I’m sitting there with a guitar, noodling around," he said. "I look in the guitar and, inside, on Martin Guitars, it talks about where they’re made — in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. 'I pulled into Nazareth'… and it just, it was all coming to me.”

Not convinced of the connection

The song became a classic rock standard, appearing in movies such as “Easy Rider” and “The Big Chill” and in ad campaigns for Diet Coke and Cingular Wireless.

Rolling Stone magazine in 2004 chose among the Top 50 songs of all time, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame chose it among the 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

While “The Weight” clearly was inspired by the local Nazareth, even other members of The Band weren’t convinced of the connection to the rest of its lyrics.

In a 2012 interview with this writer, The Band keyboard player Garth Hudson, who now at 86 is The Band’s last surviving member, chuckled at the question.

“Hmm. I’m trying to think through the words to see if there’s a clue further on in that verse. That’s all I can do,” Hudson said.

“No, it sounds like the South to me, that song. You made me think through it there,” he said, laughing again.

“Well, No. 1 is why did he choose that word? It does have a zing to it — an unforgettable choice of words.”

But he said Robertson never shared the explanation with him, and not being the song’s writer, “I can’t extrapolate any further on that one.”

Never visited Martin

There’s no indication that any of the tale told in “The Weight” — the singer’s interaction with characters such as Carmen walking side-by-side with the devil, Luke, Crazy Chester or the subject of the chorus, Fanny, who give the song its title because she “put the weight right on me” — happened here.

In fact, in "Testimony," Robertson explicitly said the song's characters weren't from Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

"I revisited memories and characters from my southern exposure and put them into a [film director] Luis Buñuel surreal setting," he wrote.

Martin’s longtime artist relations manager, Dick Boak, now retired, has said in interviews that he wasn’t aware of Robertson ever visiting Martin Guitar, and the plant had no record of him ever being there.

Boak said he talked with Robertson while the songwriter was helping design two signature-model guitars Martin released in 2007 to honor him.

Boak said Robertson told him the same story of being inspired by looking into the sound hole of his 1951 Martin D-28 guitar.

Robertson’s signature Martins, of which only 100 were made, sold for $8,799 and $8,999. Proceeds were donated to Robertson’s charity of choice, the American Indian College Fund. Robertson was half Native American.