Robbie Robertson, the guitarist and chief songwriter of The Band who helped shape Americana music and later composed acclaimed film scores, died three years ago today, on 9 August 2023, in Los Angeles. He was 80 and had been battling prostate cancer for a year. As Bob Dylan's backing guitarist and a defining voice in The Band, Robertson's influence extended from 1960s roots-rock into a decades-long partnership with director Martin Scorsese, cementing his legacy across both music and film.

Born in Toronto in 1943 to a Jewish father and Mohawk mother, Robertson learned guitar during childhood visits to his mother's family on the Six Nations reserve before joining Ronnie Hawkins's band the Hawks, where he met future Band members Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson. The group backed Dylan on his 1966 electric tour before forming The Band in 1968, with Robertson writing much of their landmark material, including "The Weight" and "Up on Cripple Creek". He went on to score Scorsese films such as Raging Bull, The Color of Money, The Irishman and Killers of the Flower Moon, with Scorsese calling him "a giant" whose "effect on the art form was profound and lasting".