Robbie Robertson included Neil for two reason: 1. He had recently produced "Beautiful Noise" for ND and 2. He wanted a representative of the Brill Building era (I guess Carol King wasn't available).
Levon Helm gave me the creeps as a kid.
Just watched the Last Waltz (again) last night. The Song Diamond sung was co written with Robbie Robertson.
Actually, though he turned pretty much pop/lounge lizard, he wrote a lot of very good songs in 60's and 70's, including one covered by Deep Purple.