Thursday, November 24, 2016

The Last Waltz

Today, Thanksgiving in the U.S., November 24th, 2016, is being recognized as the 40th Anniversary of the concert by The Band known as The Last Waltz. It was both filmed and sound recorded, resulting in a documentary film directed by Martin Scorcese and a triple-LP released by Warner Bros. (although their prior albums were mostly on Capitol-- except for two recorded with Dylan when he was renegotiating with his own label, Columbia). The actual date of the concert was November 25th, 1976. This month there have already been several retail items released to commemorate the event, including a 2CD set replicating the 3LP album and a deluxe package that appears to pair the 2002 4CD set with a Blu-ray disc of the Scorcese film.

The reason why this was preserved for posterity at all, let alone revisited periodically as it has been, becomes immediately evident to anyone who has seen the film, even though it relates only a fraction of the proceedings. Guitarist and principal lyricist Robbie Robertson was leaving the group. At the time, and for some time after the film hit theaters in 1978, it was widely believed that the group was splitting up entirely. Interviews since then indicate that was not the intention of the other members but public perception has a way of shaping self-fulfilling prophesies. Other members would tour and record separately and in combinations, including as "The Band", but the performances that night were fantastic even if the title isn't 100% accurate.

The whole event was roughly nine hours, including four hours of music, Thanksgiving dinner for 5000 people, plus prior band rehearsals and later studio recordings to complete the two planned media projects. Joining The Band onstage were a wish-list of headlining musicians and singers they've worked with or for. The only one I can think of that wasn't evident was Allen Toussaint. To date there has never been a legitimate release of the full day's recordings and it's unlikely there ever will be. Perhaps for the 50th Anniversary a raw source tape without edits or overdubbing will stream online on Thanksgiving as background music for people who don't watch football.

Well, leftovers are calling me. If Black Friday proceedings don't slow the internet to a crawl then I'll probably add some thoughts tomorrow.