Hargus “Pig”Robbins, who was a Country Music Hall of Famer and played piano on many Nashville sessions, is renowned by Bob Dylan fans for his work. “Blonde on Blonde,”At age 84, he died. The cause of death has not been immediately reported.
Robbins’ first major hit as a session man had him playing on George Jones’ classic “White Lighting,” from there he moved on to providing the piano parts on Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces” “Back in Baby’s Arms.” Smashes of the 1960s, 1970s 1980s that included his distinctive piano parts included Charlie Rich’s “Behind Closed Doors” and “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World,” Crystal Gayle’s “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue,” Loretta Lynn’s “You’re Looking at Country,” Lynn and Conway Twitty’s “After the Fire is Gone,” Jones’ “She Thinks I Still Care” and “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors,” Roger Miller’s “King of the Road,” Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler,” Porter Wagoner’s “Green, Green Grass of Home,” Tammy Wynette’s “D-I-V-O-R-C-E” and Tanya Tucker’s “Delta Dawn.”
The blind pianist is well-known for playing on records by Cliff Richard and Leon Russell. But his most-recognized recording in any category may be “Blonde on Blonde,” universally recognized as one of Dylan’s greatest albums, and which featured his standout playing (and hollering) on “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35.”
Robbins was still playing on sessions by the leading lights of country as recently as his work on Miranda Lambert’s “The Weight of These Wings”In 2015, recordings were made by Marty Stuart, Miranda Lambert, Sturgill Smith, and Miranda Lambert.
His renown was such that his name was used for a gag in Robert Altman’s film “Nashville”1975. Henry Gibson, who plays a country singer of the past, finally gets mad at Frog, a long-haired, session player, and exclaims: “When I ask for Pig, I want Pig. Now you get me Pig, and then we’ll be ready to record this here tune.”
“Like all successful session musicians, Pig Robbins was quick to adapt to any studio situation,”Kyle Young, CEO of Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. “He worked quickly, with perfection less a goal than a norm. And while he could shift styles on a dime to suit the singer and the song, his playing was always distinctive. Pig’s left hand on the piano joined with Bob Moore’s bass to create an unstoppable rhythmic force, while the fingers on his right hand flew like birds across the keys. The greatest musicians in Nashville turned to Pig for guidance and inspiration.”
When Robbins was inducted into the Country Hall of Fame, session guitar Harold Bradley, also a member of the Hall of Fame and Nashville’s “A-team,” said, “Pig has come up with more identifiable licks than anyone. And he’s also the best rhythm piano player in town.”
Robbins was born in Spring City, Tennessee. He lost his sight at the age of three. “I stuck a knife in one eye,”He said that a doctor had decided that the eye should be removed and he was able to explain. “the other one went out from sympathetic infection.”At age seven, he attended the Tennessee School for the Blind and accepted the offer to learn piano lessons. However, as a big fan of Roy Acuff and other country music stars, he was not happy that he could only learn classical music. “They had these practice rooms and I’d get as far away from the teacher as I could,”He stated.
Robbins’ nickname was derived from his constant play around the fire escapes at school. “When I’d come out and be real dirty from all that soot, the supervisor would know exactly where I’d been, and she said ‘You’re as dirty as a little pig.’”It was picked up by other students. The moniker did not bother him. He said that it didn’t bother him at all.
Robbins began to release a few vocal country-rockabilly recordings in the late 1950s. But he soon shifted his focus to session work. He did, however, produce instrumental albums under his own name until the 1970s. It was Floyd Cramer who began to have a successful solo career. He had the opportunity to record at some of Nashville’s most prestigious sessions. “Floyd Cramer started switching from sideman to artist,”Robbins explained this in a 2007 interview InterviewBill Lloyd, Hall of Fame “and that kind of opened up… the door for me, for sure. … I finally figured out I could make more money from sessions than I could singing.”
Robbins also spoke about recording with Dylan in 1965 in that interview. “Blonde on Blonde”Sessions that allowed rock cats to visit Nashville and invite Nashville cats to add a unique touch to their records. Robbins answered that he knew a lot about Dylan before the sessions. “Not really. I’d heard the name, but not much other than that. But when he came in here, it was a lesson, to me. He was just totally different. He’d come in here with a song seven or eight minutes long. I remember they booked the sessions like 6 (to) 10 at night, and maybe he wouldn’t show up till 9:00. He would say ‘OK, boys, let me have the studio, I’ve got to write a song,’ and we’d wander the halls till 12 or 1 before we’d ever strike a note.”
Lloyd recalled a story that Al Kooper, another member of the Dylan sessions relayed to Lloyd: Dylan would often relay messages to Robbins through Kooper as he loved the pianist too much for him to address him directly. “Pig.”
Robbins was not unsympathetic to Dylan’s unusual-to-him way of doing things… or bashful about imbibing what fueled the sessions. After a short excerpt of the interview at his Hall of Fame interview “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35”With its familiar refrain of “Everybody must get stoned,”Robbins called in: “And we were.”
The pianist was voted the Country Music Association’s Instrumentalist of the Year in 1976 and 2000. Proud of that first honor, he began a three-album run with Elektra in the late ’70s with an album he actually titled “Country Instrumentalist of the Year.“
Charlie McCoy, another session player who was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, sang Robbins’ praises: “He’s the best session player I’ve ever worked with. When he’s on a session, everybody else plays better.”
Robbins, soft-spoken and easy to understand, could have a colourful way with words. When asked how it was to play piano for Charlie Rich, Robbins replied that it felt like playing on songs such as “Behind Closed Doors”Lloyd stated that Rich was a great pianist when he was alive. “Oh, he’s a great piano player. I’ll tell you, with him standing about three feet behind me (in the studio), the pucker factor was very high.”