“It Makes No Difference” by The Band

"It Makes No Difference" sits on The Band's 1975 album Northern Lights – Southern Cross, and it may be the most heartbroken thing Robbie Robertson ever handed his singers. He wrote it about a man who simply cannot get over a love that has ended, and he paints the misery in weather: a sun that won't come out, rain that won't let up, clouds sagging low overhead.

Rick Danko sings it, and critics have given his aching, cracked-open lead much of the credit for the song's power. Around him the whole group plays like a church congregation at a funeral: Levon Helm's drums, Richard Manuel's piano, Robertson's stinging electric guitar and Garth Hudson's organ, with Hudson's soprano saxophone crying out over the top. The Band produced it themselves, and it later turned up on The Last Waltz soundtrack.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.