The soundtrack to The Last Waltz has recently been reissued on vinyl from Rhino through their Rocktober series. Listening straight through to all six sides of this three-disc release is a reliving of an unprecedented musical journey. This reissue comes along amidst a flurry of activity to mark the 45th anniversary of the release of the film and the soundtrack album. A one-day screening of the film in theaters occurred on November 5th. Other events in Nashville and Los Angeles also marked the occasion. The concert was filmed and recorded on November 25th, 1976 (on Thanksgiving night) at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco.
It’s nice to see the soundtrack album getting its due at this time. Although there have been some very well curated and expansive reissues of the soundtrack on CD and many VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray reissues of the film, the vinyl set has only been reissued once for the 40th anniversary. Additionally, the film is usually the focus of this concert movie. Directed by Martin Scorsese, it has long been arguably considered the best rock music film ever made. The fact that Scorsese has so effectively used rock music in his films and produced additional documentaries of high quality on George Harrison, Bob Dylan, and others has only burnished the image of The Last Waltz movie. The movie is part of the American film renaissance of the 1970s, of which Scorsese was one of the key directors.
The soundtrack album doesn’t follow the exact chronology of the concert, but also includes some music not in the film. Scorsese starts the film with The Band performing a cover of “Don’t Do It,” a cover of the 1964 Marvin Gaye hit “Baby Don’t You Do It” which was actually the last song the original five members of the group would ever perform together. That song is eliminated from the soundtrack album, the most glaring omission on the vinyl release. What is here is very much a musical journey. The songs and the artists that make guest appearances tell the story of the musical influences that shaped the group and various musical destinations that the group was part of.
The group’s road began with Ronnie Hawkins, who early on guests on a cover of Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love?” Hawkins was a Canadian rockabilly singer and The Band was his backing group from 1958–1963 and was then known as The Hawks. Four of the group’s members (Robbie Roberston, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, Garthe Hudon) were Canadian. Levon Helm was from Arkansas. Early on in the concert, the group further celebrated its Canadian roots with appearances by Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Neil Diamond represents the pre-Beatles pop of the Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the Brill Building in New York. He was also there because Robbie Robertson produced three albums for Diamond during this period.
Showing off their vast musical influences, of which New Orleans music played a pivotal role, Dr. John guests, Allen Toussaint provides the horn charts for “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” and Bobby Charles performs “Down South in New Orleans” with Dr. John on piano. This last performance is not included in the film. The blues figured prominently in the group’s music and that aspect is reflective of guest spots by Paul Butterfield, Muddy Waters, and Eric Clapton. With Clapton, the influence almost works in reverse. Disillusioned with Cream, Clapton, after hearing The Band’s debut album Music from Big Pink in 1968, was convinced that the long, meandering, soloing of Cream was something he no longer wanted to be a part of and was so taken with The Band that he wished he could join the group and decided Cream was done.
The Band was very much a part of the Woodstock music scene and, along with Butterfield, performers that were part of that place, at the time, such as Van Morrison and Bob Dylan, provide highlights at the end of the concert. The concert doesn’t just mark the end of the musical journey of The Band, but of the kind of music that dominated the album era in the mid- to late-’60s and the early and mid-’70s. The concert happened just before punk and new wave would explode in the late ’70s and turn into synth pop and the dominance of MTV.
The sixth side of the album offers a nice mixed bag of tracks that makes this release truly feel like a soundtrack album. “Evangeline,” a song that features Emmylou Harris, is in the film, but is not part of the concert, as is the Staples Singers covering “The Weight.” There are studio tracks that didn’t appear in any form in the film including “The Well,” with lead vocals by Richard Manuel and “Out of the Blue,” with a rare lead vocal by Robbie Robertson.
There are also two additional takeoffs on the “Theme from the Last Waltz” that opens the album: “The Last Waltz Refrain,” with another lead vocal from Richard Manuel and the theme again, but this time with orchestra. The theme music, written by Robbie Robertson, very much reflects his affection for European film music of the 1950s and was the beginning of his long career ahead working on soundtrack music with Martin Scorsese.
This limited-edition, affordably-priced, audiophile reissue, pressed in Germany on 180-gram vinyl, sounds excellent. The original 12-page booklet is included and a postcard. The Band had two producers who truly understood their music, Rob Fraboni and John Simon, produce this album. Fraboni worked with The Band on the Planet Waves album featuring the group and Dylan. He also worked on The Band’s album Northern Light – Southern Cross, and designed and built the group’s Shangri-La Studios in Malibu, California.
Simon produced Music from Big Pink and The Band. Over the years there has been some controversy over just how live the album is in terms of overdubs. One of the two times I interviewed Levon Helm, he felt that there shouldn’t have been any overdubbing and preferred the group’s live Rock of Ages album from 1972. Given that this was a one-shot live concert that included so many different musicians performing individually and together, it doesn’t seem like some overdubbing would be unreasonable.
This is a must-have reissue and, along with the CD and Blu-ray reissues, it is part of an historic and timeless document of a group, a time, a place, and a movie that will never be forgotten.
