The Band | The Last Waltz
I know this is a bit of an oldie but it seemed fitting that our first ‘Music’ post be about The Last Waltz. Also it’s arguably one of the best concert films ever made. However, it seems like not that many people of my generation (children of the 80’s), have seen it or heard of The Band for that matter. The first time I saw it both my face and dong exploded in a wild hurricane of rock (and jim beam and maybe also bong hits). I remember it clearly, the year was 2008, or maybe it was 2007, or it also could have been 2009….shit I don’t know, the point is it was way later that it should have been. At that point in time I’d been a musician for a number of years and by about the third song in I had one of those “HOLY SHIT I DON’T THINK I’VE BEEN DOING THIS RIGHT” moments. But I digress, lets get right into it.
The Band got their start way up in Canada during the early 60’s backing Screamin’ Ronnie Hawkins. After a number of years living in the shadow of Hawkins they eventually caught a break and graduated to living in the much larger, much more incoherent shadow of Bob Dylan. It wasn’t all peaches and cream quite yet though. This was during the era that Dylan went electric and we all know how people felt about that at the time. After things fizzled out with Dylan they decided, “Fuck all this noise, we’ve already got 3 awesome singers. It’s time to strike out on our own.” And they did just that. They’d spend the next 8 or so years recording a handful of classic albums as well as touring the world.
The sad part is that despite amassing a catalog of ripping jams the size of the second Death Star and gaining the respect of many of their contemporaries, even in their heyday they never experienced that much main stream success. Just to give you a little idea of their influence on other rock stars of the era; George Harrison said that when he was writing “All Things Must Pass” he imagined Levon Helm (The Bands drummer) singing it. He had also gone on record saying that he kept their self titled album in his home jukebox…..GEORGE FUCKING HARRISON HAD IT IN HIS JUKEBOX. If that’s not a good enough endorsement I don’t know what is….no actually wait there’s also THIS.
Alright, so if at this point you still have no idea who The Band were watch this:
Ya they were the guys who wrote that “take a load of Annie” song from Easy Rider, it’s during that one part where Fonda and Dennis Hopper are ripping down the highway on motorcycles.
Anyways, the year was 1976 and The Band (well mostly Robbie Robertson but that’s a whole different story) decided they were tiring of life on the road and it’s endless stream of free drugs, free booze and easy women. So they decided to throw one last blow out by putting on a concert with a bunch of their old buddies and having Martin Scorsese film the whole thing. Now at this point I feel like I should probably clarify that by old buddies I mean people like Neil Young, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Clapton, Muddy Waters, Paul Butterfield, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan and for some reason they also invited Neil Diamond (ya I don’t know shit was pretty weird in the 70’s I guess). Sorry, Neil Diamond fans but the guy is fucking corny. We all love singing Sweet Caroline tanked at 3 in the morning but if you’ve ever heard that song sober it sucks.
The end result of all this was one of the most rocking concerts of all time filmed by one of the best directors ever. The point I’m trying to get across here is GO WATCH THE LAST WALTZ. Buy it, steal it, outfit a Delorean with a Flux Capacitor….do whatever you have to do because there’s a 99% chance it’s going to be better than whatever you were about to do.
Here are a few of the highlights:
And if you ever wanted to see Neil Young blasted on coke there’s this:
And one of my favorites:
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