This week’s playlist pays tribute to The Band’s Last Waltz with the studio versions of the setlist from Thanksgiving 45 years ago!
We can’t begin without saying grace to a few sources that more than inspired this piece: Barney Hoskyns’ Across The Great Divide: The Band and America was an amazingly thorough and quick read that was found after watching Levon’s documentary Ain’t In It For My Health. Needless to say, both are a must. Amen. Now let’s get to the show.
Our story began a few weeks ago as The Band started down their Endless Highway to The Last Waltz.
The Band had attended Ron Hawkins Elementary and Bob Dylan Middle School and became the standouts in the 1976 graduating class of Woodstock High.
The Band threw an unforgettable graduation party celebrating the end of 16-years on the road – a farewell concert “along the lines of a New Orleans funeral” featuring the “different spokes of the wheel that make up rock ‘n’ roll.”
At the Winterland Ballroom on Thursday, Nov. 25, 1976, the starting five of The Band played their final show together and invited over 20 artists representing blues and jazz to gospel and soul to whatever you call Neil Diamond.
The Last Waltz is one of rock ‘n’ roll’s great excesses, the turducken of rock ‘n’ roll stuffed with music, ego, questionable fashion and all washed down with a lethal dose of coke.
It didn’t take too much convincing for people to give up their Thanksgiving to participate in the biggest rock ‘n’ roll orgy of all time:
Rehearsals started two weeks prior to The Last Waltz. The Band began prepping for the show and tried to learn twenty-one songs they had never played before. Their old pal Ronnie Hawkins was there to witness the beginning of the binge. “All these heroes of the world pulling up in their limousines, coked out of their heads, smacked out of their brains, bumpin’ into walls.”
Produced by Bill Graham and billed as “The Band and Friends” this wasn’t going to be an ordinary graduation party. The $25 ticket included a seven-course meal, an orchestra, San Franciscan poets and professional waltzers in a revamped Winterland made to look like a ballroom.
$42,000 of food was ordered for the event, including modest items such as:
- 220 turkeys (and 400 lb. of fresh salmon for non-turkey eaters)
- 2,000 lb. of candied yams
- 800 lb. of mincemeat & pumpkin pies
- 6,000 rolls
- 400 gallons of apple juice
- 90 gallons of gravy
- Hundreds of pounds of stuffing & cranberry sauce
The stage is set for a good time. Now, let’s meet the other graduates.
During the editing of the film Robbie and Marty tried desperately to hide Neil’s coke booger, hiring someone to mark it out frame by frame. Robbie said it was “the most expensive coke he ever paid for.”
Per Ronnie Wood, Neil Diamond came off stage after performing “Dry Your Eyes” and said to Dylan, “top that.”
No one can forget everyone’s favorite performer of the night. (Though now in 2021, many people would like to forget him and Mr. Most Likely to Steal His Best Friend’s Wife.)
The graduation was quite the spectacle and if you thought your family Thanksgivings were grueling think about the “poor” people who attended The Last Waltz. Just look at the schedule:
- Doors open at 5 p.m. with Thanksgiving dinner
- 38-piece Berkeley Promenade Orchestra & formal dance until 8 p.m.
- Concert begins at 9:08 p.m.
- The Hawk lands at 10 p.m.
- Set break at 11:45 p.m.
- Dylan lands after 1 a.m.
- ‘Don’t Do It’ finishes at 2:20 a.m.
Some would argue Robbie used The Last Waltz to boost his image in Hollywood. You’ll notice he’s the only one interviewed alone…oh yeah, and he’s basically in every shot. Maybe it had something to do with him living with Marty during the editing of the film, where the two apparently didn’t see the sun for six months while engaged in a late-‘70s-Hollywood-style bender.
Regardless, after The Last Waltz the starting five of The Band never played another live show together, but being the new darlings of the silver screen there was only one place to go: HOLLYWOOD!
Levon became The Coal Miner’s Father.
Robbie became a Carny.
And the rest of The Band, as usual, were cast in supporting roles.
The Band reformed in the ‘80s without Robbie due to frustrations over songwriting credits & royalties. Though the original magic was gone and few highlights came from that time, sometimes you just have to Free Your Mind. (It’s highly suggested you click on that link.)
Where Are They Now?
Robbie continues to work with Marty and has been a music producer/supervisor for movies like Raging Bull, The Color of Money, Gangs of New York and The Wolf of Wall Street.
Levon continued playing music and released a few Grammy-winning albums despite battling, and later succumbing to throat cancer at the age of 71.
Garth still shares his creative genius working with artists ranging from Neko Case to Tom Petty, Nora Jones to Roger Waters. Though he’s faced multiple bankruptcies and lost most of his possessions to evictions, he still plays today.
Rick continued playing but didn’t experience the same renaissance of his “musical soulmate” Levon. Getting busted for mailing himself smack in Japan probably didn’t help. His heart gave out on him at the age of 55.
And good ole Richard. Without the structure of The Band he never stood a chance. He continued to be a wild card until he decided to hang it up at the age of 42.
This has been Rock ‘n’ Roll Storytime.
#RnRST
And that’s a wrap on our coverage of The Band and their Endless Highway to The Last Waltz. In case you missed it, we have plenty of leftover playlists for this gut-busting Storytime…mainly so we could make more puns…
Cover Band – songs covered by The Band over their career…even their later period, because you gotta Free Your Mind.
With The Band – songs featuring/produced by members of The Band…shocker, there’s a lot of Bob Dylan.
The First Waltz – the studio setlist of The Last Waltz with original versions of the songs from the epic setlist:
(As mentioned Spotify now has The Last Waltz, so listen frequently. Particularly to Levon singing his soul out on “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.”)
Covering The Band – yep. Artists covering The Band. As you’ll see there’s a lotta fighting over a few songs.
Of course, these playlists should be played LOUD!
And if you’re still here looking for things to listen to, The Band: A History podcast is great when you have time to kill. They too have a multi–part series on The Last Waltz.
Yes, you’re excused from the table now.
Go sleep it off.
Rock 'n' Roll Storytime #RnRST 
3 thoughts on “The Band – The Last Waltz Graduation”