The Weight

Robertson wrote it after Levon Helm rejoined the group in October 1967, meaning it as a showcase for Helm's singing. He found the tune on his Martin D-28 guitar, whose label noted that it was made in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, and he wrote it in a single sitting. The traveler who collects favors owes something to the films of Luis Buñuel, which Robertson described as stories of people trying to be good and finding it impossible. Some names came from the band's own past: Anna Lee was Helm's friend Anna Lee Amsden, Carmen a name from Helm's hometown, and Crazy Chester an eccentric from Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Robertson thought of it as a fallback. The group recorded it in January 1968 at A&R Studio A in New York, almost as an afterthought, and changed the arrangement on the spot, with Hudson on barrelhouse piano. Helm and Danko trade verses, and everyone joins the chorus. Capitol issued it as a single on 8 August 1968, and it reached 63 in the United States, 35 in Canada and 21 in Britain. The song became better known through the 1969 film Easy Rider, but the band's recording was left off the soundtrack album, which carried a near-identical cover by Smith. Rolling Stone placed it 41st on its 2004 list of the 500 greatest songs, and Pitchfork named it the 13th best song of the 1960s.

The Band played it at Woodstock on 17 August 1969. They later recorded a performance with the Staple Singers for The Last Waltz, and the song is on Rock of Ages.