The Secret of the Wednesday’s Haul

“I wish I could yodel.”

Forget whatever happened after 1978. Forget the arguing about rights to the music. Forget about most of the musicians spending the next 12 years touring still. Forget about the tragic death and suicide. At least, for the time being, forget about all of those. For one night in 1976, Thanksgiving night, it was about friends, music and the end of The Band. It was The Last Waltz.

The plan was that this would be the last performance of the band. In the movie, Robbie Robertson makes it quite clear that 16 years of touring, eight as a backing band for Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan and eight as The Band, was enough. Too many people, including the then recent Elvis Presley, had died on the road. For a lot of the movie, director Martin Scorcese gets some nice private moments with The Band, discussing their history and backgrounds. Guitarist Robbie Robertson, the apparent leader of The Band, gets the most screen time in these reflective moments. It’s easy from these moments to believe that Robertson is the leader of the group but then you notice during the actual performances, he’s only the guitartist and rarely sings. According to a book by drummer Levon Helm, Robertson’s mike may not have even been turned on during the performance.

Scorcese is so taken with Robertson and the all-star cast of musical guests that he forgets at times that there are four other members of The Band. Of course, even still, Robertson is the closest thing to the image of a rock star in The Band. Bassist Rick Danko comes close to that image and gets the second-most screen time behind Robertson. Drummer Levon Helm looks as if he’d fit in as well with 18-wheeler drivers as he would with Eric Clapton and Ronnie Hawkins. Organist Garth Hudson should belong to academia and pianist/keyboardist Richard Manuel could be the madman of the group with his wild hair and often wild eyes. Robertson has a rock’n'roll coolness to him that Scorcese just falls for and is seduced by.

Of course, image wasn’t nearly as important back in the sixties and seventies as it is now; the music mattered more. These five gifted musicians created a fantastic sound when they were on stage together. The movie actually opens with the final song recorded during the Band’s last concert, Don’t Do It. Rick Danko’s powerful voice, even after hours of performing, is strong and powerful and it’s great to see The Band come together on this short Marvin Gaye song. The five musicians, together on stage, are what the evening was about.

The Band has a number of great song of theirs which show up in this movie. “Up on Cripple Creek,” “The Shape I’m In,” “Stage Freight” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” all make appearances. Over the years, these songs have become staples of The Band. These are the songs that are The Band’s legacy. Looking at a set list for the actual concert, more Band songs were featured but were cut from the movie to make space for all of the guest performances such as Ronnie Hawkins, Eric Clapton, Neil Young and even an oddly placed Neil Diamond. The Last Waltz could be either seen as a celebration of music or as a memorial for the music that all of these performers grew up on and were inspired by. Some performances are mesmerizing. Ronnie Hawkins groans and growls during “Who Do You Love” keep you guessing what he’s going to do next. But Neil Diamond, performing “Dry Your Eyes,” hangs off to one end of the stage, barely there and hardly interacting with The Band. What he’s doing there only Robbie Robertson knows for sure.

All of these guests take a bit away from The Band. Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson get their brief moments to shine but their performances are often often relegated to the background, not nearly as important as Robertson or Danko. Levon Helm’s voice has such an old and gravely character to it but Scorcese is more interested in the presence of Beat poest Lawrence Ferenghetti and Michael McClure (who does an inexplicable reading from Chaucer’s Cantebury Tales.) Why didn’t we get to see more of The Band during their last waltz? Even an all star jam at the end is overshadowed by all the guest than focusing on the five musicians who were probably more the focus of the night.

But the music is solid, great and tells some incredible stories. Each song is a narrative, celebrating the rise and upcoming fall of the singer-songwriter. Scorcese does a great job capturing the performances and the music. He had a number of cameras focused on the screen and had every performance planned out in advance. He does capture some great performance.

The Last Waltz is an interesting relic of the seventies. As The Band, Dylan and all the guest get together to perform on “I Shall Be Released,” there’s a definite feel of finality to the concert, to the night and possibly even to an era. This was supposed to be the last concert of The Band as Robertson no longer wanted to tour but it’s not clear from this movie how everyone else felt. The other band members look tired and in need of a break but none of them express the same sentiments that Robertson did. Maybe it’s because they didn’t have the screen time to or maybe it’s because they didn’t feel the same way. It was only a couple of years afterwards that The Band minus Robertson got back together and they performed one way or another through the 1990s.

Rick Danko died in 1993 and Richard Manual committed suicide earlier in 1986.

“Living on the road is getting pretty old.”

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