The Weight: Written by Robbie Robertson and originally recorded by “The Band,” thie song has been listed by Rolling Stone as one fo the top 50 “greatest songs of all time.” It has been covered by some notable artists including Aretha Franklin. Amazingly, I had never heard her version until a we saw a band cover it last week.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wta5GU3FNhA
Then this morning I heard it again …
The Weight
The mist pressed silence into the morning
the way the heavy quilt
had muffled the sound of the radio
drifting in from the bathroom
They had heard a band perform “The Weight”
just three nights before
and now the chorus
not The Band’s funereal march
but the soaring cries of Aretha
rolled across the room
take a load off Fanny
and three female voices spread their harmonies
take a load for free
they had argued she had said
the lyrics made no sense
and he said it’s like a painting
the soaring voices like the rays
of sunshine just now finding
pathways through the morning fog
and as the commentator talked
and the hair dryer started behind the door
he felt her company all these years
holding him weightless and warm
So Cal Yankee 