The Last Waltz

Thanksgiving 1976 at Winterland

The Last Waltz is a farewell concert, and the film stays with that night. On Thanksgiving night in 1976, Winterland Ballroom smelled of roast turkey from the dinner beforehand. Bill Graham had fed San Francisco before The Band walked out for the show Robbie Robertson said would be their last. Martin Scorsese does not treat that decision as backstage gossip. He films the concert as the record of that choice. Sixteen years of road, from Ronnie Hawkins’s Hawks to Dylan’s electric wars to Music from Big Pink, are already in the room before a note is played.

Robertson, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson still sound like a band that learned these songs on the road. The Weight and The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down are not played as a nostalgia package. Helm sings with a rough voice that still carries the tour. Danko smiles through his songs on the way out of the band. Manuel looks past the lights. Hudson, almost hidden, holds the arrangements together, which is what his keyboards had always done. Scorsese’s cameras stay close enough to catch courtesy and sweat with the same attention he gives a story.

Then the guests bring several strands of American music into one ballroom. Muddy Waters takes Mannish Boy and the song fills the room. Van Morrison drives Caravan in a suit that catches the lights. Joni Mitchell sings Coyote. Neil Young leans into Helpless. When Eric Clapton’s strap gives way during Further On Up the Road, Robertson steps in without a speech. Neil Diamond sings Dry Your Eyes, and he looks slightly surprised to be there. Dylan arrives late, in a white hat, and the set recalls the years he spent on the road with this group. A few voices were added later on a soundstage. The concert footage still carries that night.

That guest list is not decoration. It shows how The Band’s music sat at a crossroads of blues, folk, R&B, and rock without a speech to explain it. Dr. John, Ronnie Hawkins, Paul Butterfield, the Staple Singers, Ringo Starr, Ron Wood: the credits name players from a circuit that big packaged tours were starting to replace. The songs carry that history in the performances themselves.