Eric Clapton, the guitar god himself, inducting The Band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame said ‘I travelled to Woodstock to meet the Band to ask to join, but I didn’t have the guts to ask them’ and many people in the industry felt this way about The Band. They were the musicians, musicians. So, when it was announced they were performing on stage for the last time on Thanksgiving 1976, the five-piece made it a performance for the ages. Performing some of their own material and a who’s, who of musical guests and their material to accompany them, they went out with a bang.
Not all of the guests were cooperative though, one of their most famous guest stars was very reluctant to help the Band. Playing difficult as most famous musicians do, he threatened to take away the recorded performance. This week The Beat Marches On to the 25th November 1976, the Last Waltz of The Band and when Bob Dylan tries to steal the recorded performance tapes.
The Band haven’t always been called The Band, when they first formed as a backing band for rock and roller Ronnie Hawkins, they were called the Hawks. It wasn’t until they met Bob Dylan in 1965 that they were given the band moniker by the singer.
Dylan hired the band for his fabled electric tour in 1966 as a backing group. None of the musicians could be prepared for the backlash that was taking place. The folk hero had gone electric, and the fans were not happy about it. From calls of Judas from the Newport Folk Festival to bottles being thrown at them regularly. They were about to learn how to deal with hostile audiences by being thrown in at the deep end.
The ad-libbing by Dylan on the spot kept them on their heels and made them one of the tightest and most together bands around at the time. They impressed the singer so much that he used them to help produce the next studio sessions. The infamous Basement Tapes.
The group retreated to Woodstock, New York (before it was famous) to record the tapes while the singer was recovering from a motorcycle crash at the end of 1966, the music The Band recorded with Dylan wasn’t up to the singer’s high standards but they were creating some things on their own which were starting to impress.
Using the folk hero’s manager Albert Grossman, The Band managed to get a record deal and soon released the only official piece of music from the basement tapes, Music From Big Pink. They had now made it on their own and on their way to becoming one of the most influential bands in music history.
Fast forward to 1976. The Band now separated from Bob Dylan and has been on the road pretty much non-stop. They hadn’t ever stopped since the Hawks days. It was now starting to take its toll on them. Excessive drinking and drug taking over the touring years were affecting the member’s relationships. They weren’t the draw they once were five years earlier either, being the support for ZZ Top on the Nashville fairgrounds circuit.
The band’s de facto leader and guitarist Robbie Robertson thought that if they carried on then someone was going to die. Then inspired by the Beatles, he had an idea to do one last show then stop touring and become a studio band. The other members of the group, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Garth Hudson didn’t like this idea and thought that Robertson was the only one who wanted to stop as he was starting to produce records for other artists.
Robertson didn’t just want to do a last concert, he wanted to turn it into a spectacle, film it and release it in theatres. He also wanted to bring in the hottest director in the business to direct it, you may have heard of him, Martin Scorsese, the director had worked on a music project before, he was an editor on the Woodstock film.
The director was hesitant at first to approve of the recording, as he was working on the film New York, New York with Robert De Niro and Liza Minelli and explained that the film contracts do not allow you to work on more than one project at that time. He even brought his female lead to the meeting with the guitarist. He was then given the list of musical guests that were accompanying The Band on stage, and he couldn’t resist. To get around the problem of working on different projects they planned the concert on Thanksgiving.
The venue for the Last Waltz was the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, which was where The Band played their first concert without Dylan back in 1969. For 5000 lucky patrons, they would see the last-ever performance of the band as a five-piece, with a turkey dinner too. Tickets were expensive for the time $25 ($135 today) a head but what they were about to see would be one of those priceless performances.
To get the film in the cinema, they needed to get distribution rights from one of the big companies, the only one who was interested was Warner Brothers and they had one stipulation. They wanted to add one more guest to the guest list, Bob Dylan. They would only green-light it if he was involved. It took a while for Dylan to agree, so Scorsese and Robertson lied saying he was on board even though he hadn’t agreed to yet.
When the two approached Dylan, like most things he asks to contribute to, he was non-committal. The singer was making a documentary himself about the current tour and was worried whether they were going to be released at the same time. The money makers from the project were worried, and they were right to be, that this would outperform Dylan’s film.
Finally, the day had come. The patrons in attendance, film cameras in place (in a first for a concert film 35mm cameras were used) turkeys cooked and a show that everyone will remember. First, everyone would have their turkey dinner with a live orchestra playing the waltz. In all 220 turkeys, 500 pounds of cranberry sauce, 90 gallons of gravy and 6,000 rolls were used for the dinners.
The artists were more interested in another room made by the concert promoter Bill Graham. One of the dressing rooms was used as a cocaine room, in which it was painted completely white and emptied other than some white rugs and a glass table with some razor blades. Artists go in as they please without judgement and as cocaine was the in thing at the time many took up on it.
With everyone still worried whether Dylan would show up, thankfully he did and locked himself in his dressing room as soon as he arrived. He didn’t show up for the dress rehearsal, if anyone wanted to speak to him then they had to go to him. It was almost like he was the headliner, not The Band.
There were two sets on Thanksgiving night, the first half was The Band’s content with a couple of covers thrown in, they sounded like a group at their peak rather than a band just about to stop playing live. The second set was where all the fun came in, the guest stars paying homage to everyone they worked with throughout their time together.
They started with the artist that kicked it off for them, Ronnie Hawkins then an array of famous musicians of the day. DR. John, Paul Butterfield (who stayed on well past his set and played harmonica with them) Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton (who mid-solo had his guitar strap break only for Robertson to take over without missing a beat) Neil Young (who did appear on stage after enjoying the cocaine room a bit too much) Joni Mitchell, Neil Diamond, Van Morrison and Bob Dylan.
Everything was going on track until 15 minutes before Dylan’s set. He was refusing to go on. No reason why just didn’t want to. Scorsese hit the roof, and the only way the film could get released was if Dylan was a part of it, if he didn’t then there was no film and the whole concert was a waste of time. They sent in The band’s manager and the singer’s ex-manager Albert Grossman if anything that made him angrier. Then they sent in Graham, it took two attempts, but Dylan finally relented and decided to go on the stage. Then another disaster occurred.
When the news broke about Dylan not going on, the camera crew decided it would be a good time to have a smoke break, so they decided to switch the cameras off thinking nothing was going to happen for a few minutes or if anything would happen at all.
When he came on the crew was still on a break and no one was recording. Drummer Levon Helm had noticed but didn’t like the idea of the concert film in the first place so he decided to keep stum, this wouldn’t be the only time on the night. It took three songs for anyone to notice that the cameras weren’t rolling. Noticing the commotion from the stage Dylan repeated the first song, Baby, I’ll Follow You Down, again.
After the Dylan set, everyone involved with the Last Waltz, including backstage hangers on, Ringo Starr and Ronnie Wood, came on stage and had a jam session to wrap up the performance. The time was 3 am on the 26th. The Band started at 9 pm the night before.
The film footage was stored in a truck trailer ready to go in the morning. In all 160,000 feet of film was used and weighed about a ton when in cased in the film cases. The camera crew were relieved because no one was sure if the 35mm cameras that were used would actually last the duration of the performance. Some thought the cameras would overheat so much that they would catch on fire.
During the afterparty, celebrating a successful concert the members of The Band were mingling with the other guests and their respective entourages. Then the show’s musical director noticed someone looking in the truck and then he witnessed some figures taking some footage out of the truck. The director watched the whole thing and decided not to do anything. He told Levon Helm about what he just saw, and the drummer just shrugged it off.
The people who took the footage were part of Dylan’s management team. They were unhappy with how well the concert went and rightly thought that the film would beat out the film that Dylan was working on at the box office.
The footage was being held hostage by Dylan due to one of the broken promises when he refused to go on. One of the stipulations was that Dylan and his entourage could look at the footage before it was edited for the concert film. No one told Scorsese about the deal. He was livid.
They had no other choice than to accept the condition. The whole release of the film pivoted on whether Bob Dylan was featured or not. He had the leverage and forced the director to his will.
Eventually, the footage was handed back to Scorsese and they could get on with the editing process. The film was released in cinemas on 26th April 1978 and became the new benchmark for concert films.
This was the last time The Band played as a five-piece. Robertson’s dream of a Beatles-esque studio band went up in flames. The members went their separate successful ways and reformed in 1983 without Robertson for a reunion tour.
The Beat Marches On is a music blog written by Jimmy Whitehead. Jimmy has been blogging for six years specialising in Sports (especially American Football). If you want to follow Jimmy on Twitter: @Jimmy_W1987
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The websites used for research were:
The Last Waltz, Bob Dylan, and Stolen Footage | by Bob Proehl | Medium
Revisiting The Band’s ‘The Last Waltz’ with Bob Dylan (faroutmagazine.co.uk)
16 Loud Facts About ‘The Last Waltz’ | Mental Floss
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