The Weight — The Band & The Staple Singers

The Weight first appeared on The Band’s 1968 debut, Music from Big Pink. For The Last Waltz, they filmed it on a soundstage with the Staple Singers, and Mavis Staples and Pops Staples took the song straight to church.

Seen through a Christian lens, The Weight begins in Nazareth with a weary traveler looking for a place to lay his head. Along the way, everyone he meets asks him to carry something more. The chorus is the invitation: take a load off, and put the load right on me. That’s the offer Jesus makes to every tired soul.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28