dhmac

I thought the best part of The Last Waltz was when The Band was on-stage alone playing their own songs. I didn't think it was as good when the guest stars showed up and they played the guest's tunes instead. (Although, of the guest stars, Van Morrison was definitely a highlight.)

Looking at the playlist from the multi-disc CD set, I see that The Band played an entire set of their own songs before any of the guests even appeared. It's a real shame that the current DVD only has a "jam session" as bonus footage, because footage of additional song performances is what every fan really wants to see!


BTW, I love the concert documentary Woodstock, but does anyone know why The Band (who played Woodstock) aren't in the movie at all (not even in the Director's Cut)?

wendersfan

I've resisted posting in this thread since The Band's music has, through the years, affected me in such a profoundly emotional way that I dare not try to express it in words, Suffice to say that their eponymously-titled second album is one of those rare treasures that I have enjoyed for decades, throughout many phases of my life. It's one of probably a half-dozen albums that I love in much the way I love old friends.

I will add one anecdote about it, from something I read by critic Ed Ward - he wrote that when the album was released, he was living in an apartment which had windows overlooking both farmland and the town, which represented to him the vastness of the mosaic that is America. He said that no other album he had ever heard could encapsulate everything that is the grand sweep of American life and history quite like The Band.

audiofool

One of the better earlier live performances captured on film appears in "Festival Express". I believe some of this footage also appears on the dvd that comes with The Band:A Musical History.

The first disc of their early work with Ronnie Hawkins is worth the price of admission alone. Plus there are some nicely-remastered versions of the albums and some rarer live (previously unreleased) songs as well.

On a personal historic note, when I was taking piano lessons here at age 12, my teacher delayed the start of my lesson one day to play some of a newly-released album for me that was recorded by one of her 'former pupils'. The album was the brown covered "The Band" LP and Garth Hudson was the pupil to whom she referred.

Needless to say I was completely blown away by this almost 'brush-with-greatness' and the sound emanating from her old Rogers Majestic hi fi put me in a very different place from my normal 'pop music' experiences.

The track she played was "Jemima Surrender" and the memory is still vivid to this day.

dhmac

Isn't that the same version of that song as appears on Music From Big Pink? If not, it definitely sounds almostly exactly the same.

dhmac

I stumbled across this great website for The Band:

http://theband.hiof.no/


It has history, reviews, music and video downloads. It's just a very good fansite overall.

cfloyd3

My friends and such refer to me as a music elitist sometimes and I am just like well you want to hear my favorite band and I put on The Band. It usually surprises them I suppose but to me The Band incapsulates everything. I just sit around outside and stare off into the mountains or a moving sky and hear that shaky beautiful voice of Levon or Richard and I feel like a moment is there forever for me everytime.

das Monkey

I love the guide description of this on my TiVo:

"The Band - The Band: The Band's The Band"

das

dhmac

Resurrecting my own thread...

I ran across this clip of Robbie Robertson and Martin Scorsese talking about The Band's performance at Woodstock (Scorsese was there with the film crew). From this I get the impressive that they were left out of the Woodstock concert film due to the poor quality of the footage that was shot.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/WZZvqiH-Edc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

(I wish I could see more of this talk!)