Hondo wrote:
"If I remember the story correctly Levon Helm wrote the song. But like all the songs from The Band Robertson took credit for the writing and therefore received all the royalties. The other band members didn't realize how the royalty system worked and didn't see a problem with Robertson taking the credit. Most songs were a collaboration anyway.
Levon Helm died broke about a years ago."
Robertson wrote the song, but he certainly got much of the ideas in it from Levon.
What happened -- and why there was so much vitriol between Robbie and Levon -- was as you said. Robbie (who held the writer's credit for almost all the songs, even though the other members may have collaborated) as the writer, got the royalties for such. And that amounted to most of the income in later years after "The Last Waltz" in 1976.
After the group had broken up, Robbie "bought out" the remaining rights Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson had to The Band's future earnings (for a fee, of course). Levon refused to sell his rights, and kept them until he died.
I don't think Levon was totally broke at the time of his death. He'd garnered a Grammy for "Dirt Farmer", and he still had some income from performances with The Levon Helm Band and from the "Midnight Rambles" he held at his home on Plochman Road in Woodstock. He certainly wasn't well-off (anymore), though.
But he had a good run in this life. Folks still leave notes at the grave.
