Great musical moments captured on film....

....Part 1: The Band in The Last Waltz.

In a perfect world free of reuniting purely for the cash, (hello Sex Pistols, The Eagles and, controversially, Pixies. Yeah. I said it.) The Band's "last"* concert at the Winterland ballroom in San Francisco would undoubtedly go down as the greatest ever final gig of all time.

Captured for posterity by Martin Scorcese, The Band - Robbie Robertson, Richard Manuel, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson and Rick Danko - came together for one final show replete with guests including Neil Young (with half of Colombia up his nose), Joni Mitchell, The Staples Singers, Bob Dylan (obviously) and Ringo Starr (less obviously). It resulted in the gloriously wonky "Helpless", sublime versions of "Up On Cripple Creek" and "The Weight" and some bonkers/insightful interviews with the likes of Rick Danko and Richard Manuel, both clearly suffering the effects of various substances. Still, the late Danko remains effortlessly cool throughout the entire proceedings.

It's hard to pick one moment from the film to show off below. I could have gone for one of Levon Helm's vocal performances that mark him down as one of THE great voices in music, Richard Manuel's tartan suits, one of bandleader Robbie Robertson's solos, Danko singing "It Makes No Difference", or Garth Hudson's hair flapping about as he hunches over the organ.....However, I went for the moment that opens the film - Danko, as cool as ever, playing cutthroat at the pool table, and then The Band encoring with what should have been the last song they ever played live, a cover of the Motown standard "Don't Do It". Enjoy.



More from Great musical moments soon.....

This post is for Solomon Burke. Rest in peace, big man.


* The Band split after this concert (1976) but reformed in 1983 without the driving force of Robbie Robertson. They limped on as far as 1999, but lost Richard Manuel to suicide in 1986 after years of problems with alcohol, and in 1999 the tragic death of Rick Danko, probably as a result of years of drug abuse, led to The Band breaking up, this time for good.