Who was the original writer/artist of the song "the weight"? Was it
the Grateful Dead or was it "The Band"

Thanks,

Cadelacke

Although the song has often been performed by The Grateful Dead, "The
Weight" was written by Robbie Robertson, of The Band. It was on The
Band's album "Music from Big Pink," issued in 1968.

"Robbie Robertson 
When I wrote 'The Weight', the first song for 'Music From Big Pink',
it had a kind of American mythology I was reinventing using my
connection to the universal language. The Nazareth in 'The Weight' was
Nazareth, Pennsylvania. It was a little off-handed - 'I pulled into
Nazareth'. Well I don't know if the Nazareth that Jesus came from is
the kind of place you pull into, but I do know that you pull into
Nazareth, Pennsylvania! I'm experimenting with North American
mythology. I didn't mean to take sacred, precious things and turn them
into humour.

(On the album, The Weight closes side one, so Robertson must mean it
was the first song written for Big Pink.)"

The Band: The Weight
http://theband.hiof.no/articles/the_weight_v2.html

"Song: The Weight
By The Band 
Music and lyrics by Robbie Robertson 

On audio album Music From Big Pink (1968)

Cover hierarchy
The Weight by The Band (1968) 
Eleonora credi by I Dik Dik (1968) 
The Weight by Al Kooper & Mike Bloomfield (1969) 
The Weight by Amen Corner (1969) 
The Weight by Giant Sand (1988) 
The Weight by Travis (2000) 
The Weight by Scott McClatchy (2002) 
The Weight by Cassandra Wilson (2002) 
The Weight by Joe Cocker (October 2005)" 

SecondHand Songs
http://www.secondhandsongs.com/song/3810.html

Here you'll find the lyrics, and some information about the song's use
by The Grateful Dead:

Grateful Dead Lyric and Song Finder: The Weight
http://www3.clearlight.com/~acsa/introjs.htm?/~acsa/songfile/WEIGHT.HTM

My Google search strategy:

Google Web Search: "wrote the weight" "robbie robertson"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22wrote+the+weight%22+%22robbie+robertson%22

Google Web Search: "the weight" "grateful dead"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22the+weight%22+%22grateful+dead%22

I hope this is helpful. If anything is unclear or incomplete, please
request clarification; I'll be glad to offer further assistance before
you rate my answer.

Best regards,
pinkfreud

Excellent answer with a "fast as lightning" response time.

Thank you very much for the five stars and the nice tip!

~pinkfreud

Today I came across this interesting Wikipedia article about "The Weight":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weight