The Last Waltz

‘This film should be played loud!’ With those words, Martin Scorsese opens his recording of the very last performance of The Band, or Canadians Robbie Robertson, Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson, Rick Danko and American Levon Helm. They began their music career in the early sixties as The Hawks, the backing band of the infamous ‘wild man of rockabilly’, Ronnie Hawkins. A few years later, they accompanied Bob Dylan on his most turbulent tour in which he went electric.

In 1968, Robertson and the rest of The Band proved that they could do without Dylan with their debut album Music From Big Pink. It became a classic in the Americana genre. The Band’s music contained building blocks from just about every American roots tradition, from blues to soul, gospel, folk and country, but the band gave its own unique twist to all those traditional genres. In the fall of 1976, The Band called it a day: drugs and alcohol had taken their toll. At their farewell concert, recorded on 25 November 1976, at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, they were joined on stage by Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Dr. John, Eric Clapton and Muddy Waters, among others. Martin Scorsese captured the performance.