The late 1950s Canadian music landscape was tough for young rockers to navigate. With only a few bands in the most important locations, rock music relied heavily on American import albums. It is for listeners to hear what is going on in the nascent genre. A young Robbie Robertson had just Buddy Holly and Bo Diddley recordings to keep his passion for rock music alive, but that was enough for a teenager.
“Well, Chuck Berry was the first guitar god, I guess, and did he have a sound!” In 2020, Robertson told Guitar. “It wasn’t simply his performance. It was a unique sound coming from his Gibson ES-350. Gibson recently produced me one just like Chuck’s, which had a distinct timbre, and I’d even discussed it with Chuck.”
“In those early days, those hollow body electric guitars were a kind of hand-me-down from jazz in some ways from guys like Charlie Christian,” he said. “When Chuck first started, he informed me that all you could obtain were semi-hollow body guitars. They didn’t have those small skinny solid-body electrics till later.”
“In those early days, those hollow body electric guitars were a kind of hand-me-down from jazz in some ways from guys like Charlie Christian,” he said. “When Chuck first started, he informed me that all you could obtain were semi-hollow body guitars. They didn’t have those small skinny solid-body electrics till later.”
Even though Robertson appreciated Berry’s semi-hollow body sound on his Gibson guitars, it was solid-body Fenders that he became renowned for playing. Robertson preferred a Fender Telecaster with Bob Dylan. He passed on his understanding of the instrument to Dylan. When The Band started recording on their own, Robertson’s most renowned instrument was a Fender Stratocaster. It is the instrument that he used for The Last Waltz. In the late 1950s, Robertson was even playing Fenders, owing to Buddy Holly’s influence.
Buddy Holly was a guitarist who used an electric guitar. I could tell it was noisier, smaller, and colder. So obtaining one became the mission I was going on, Robertson stated. “Even at that age, I had the dream of going out into the world and writing my songs and doing all that stuff.” The thought of being 13 years old, approaching puberty and already standing at a fork in the path. I was quite proficient on the guitar. It seemed as if my destiny had already been written.”
“At the time, I had this little group in Toronto, Robbie And The Robots, and I was also bouncing around with some other groups like Little Caesar And The Consuls that played mostly songs by Huey Smith and Fats Domino, New Orleans music,” Robertson went on to say. “So we were engaged to open a little venue where Ronnie [Hawkins] was performing. People said he and his band, The Hawks, were the most badass rockabilly band in town. They were wilder and quicker than Jerry Lee, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, or anyone else! And we were the openers.”
“We went out and played and tried to be pretty good, so hopefully we would impress Ronnie, but then as soon as he and the band came on, everybody had been right,” Robertson said. “It was the most raucous rock ’n’ roll I’d ever heard.”
