The Band essays - Track 1 Side 1 - Across the Great Divide

This is coming from this.

A few things to get out of the way up front. What I'm not going to do is tell you what I think these songs are "about". Too many have already tried that over the years, and it never ends well. I'm suspicious of anybody who claims some hidden meaning to "The Weight" or "Chest Fever", for example. I avoid these people are parties. I once read about a Shakespearean scholar discussing the relationship between Hamlet and the Band song “Ophelia” and it nearly broke me.