The Last Waltz is Forty.

Nineteen seventy-eight was an extraordinary year for music. Many bands of that era were at their peak, and some remarkable music came out that year, stretching across the musical spectrum. Martin Scorsese released his film, The Last Waltz, in 1978, announcing at the start of the film in bold graphics stating that, "This Film Should Be Played Loud." Called by some as the greatest rock documentary ever, the film documents The Band's last concert at the San Francisco's Winterland auditorium in 1976. The Band, who had been Bob Dylan's backup group for a few years, welcomed a wide range of music guest to the stage, including, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Ronnie Wood, Muddy Waters, Neil Diamond, Van Morrison, and The Staple Singers, among others. The concert has become somewhat of a cult event, spurring several tributes in the past few years, including the 2017 performance in Washington, D.C. organized by Warren Haynes from Gov't Mule and The Allman Brothers.

The Band started in the midsixties as Levon and The Hawks. Members, all from Canada, were Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Richard Emanuel, Garth Hudson, and Robbie Robertson. In 1965, they started to back Bob Dylan, and were often called "The Band." They made the name official in 1968 with the release of Music from Big Pink, a pink house in West Saugerties, New York. They were one of the original Roots rock bands, a genre often called country rock at the time. The Last Waltz Director Scorsese puts the viewer on the stage with the artists, and all but a small handful of critics have problems with the film. A triple album of the concert was released in 1978 along with the film.

Included on the film were a couple soundstage scenes, including the great song, The Weight, sung with the Staples Singers. The Weight is a fable about happenings in Nazareth, Pennsylvania with a group of characters composer Robertson had seen across the country as they toured with Dylan. Drummer Levon Helm bright baritone powers the tune like nobody else ever could, and bassist Rick Danko sings the verse about "crazy Chester" as a bittersweet counterpoint to Helm's organic sound. The tune has solidified itself in the Rock Songbook as one of the greatest, although Rolling Stone only puts it at 50 out of 100. I, however, would send it up to the top 25. The amazing ensemble sound of the final verse, "Catch the cannonball now, take me on down the line…" reveals the true genius of The Band, and I can never get enough of it.

The film has a number of other classic Band tunes, including Don't Do It, Up on Cripple Creek, This Wheel's on Fire, Ophelia, The Shape I'm In, and The Night They Drove Ole Dixie Down. There are great blues with Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, and Paul Butterfield; Neil Young sings fine versions of Helpless and Four Strong Winds, after noting that being up on stage with The Band was "one of the pleasures of his life."

Few people know that the Joni Mitchell tune, Coyote, played on the film, is not about an animal, but is actually about playwright and actor Sam Shepherd (with whom Mitchell had an affair) and their time together on tour with Bob Dylan in 1975. The greatest version of this tune can be heard on Mitchell's album, Hejira, with the great bassist, Jaco Pastorius – but that is another story.

In 2002, a new The Last Waltz album was released, with a ton of additional material. You can hear it on the various streaming music services like Apple Music and Spotify. It includes the original live version of The Weight from the '76 show, among others. The music these guys produced is timeless, and perhaps represent the seventies better than any other group as we look back forty years. Take a listen, and it will be as Young said, a great pleasure of your life.

Reunion.

I drive up to Connecticut the first weekend of October for my 40th High School reunion. In preparation for the drive, I looked at the music that came out in 1978, and I was amazed to see how much influential and great music that came out that year. I first heard the Pat Metheny Group playing under the stars on the Town Park stage in Telluride, a show supporting the release of their great, eponymous album, Pat Metheny Group. I had my musical paradigm shattered listening to fusion bands like Weather Report, Al Di Meola, Chick Corea, Bill Bruford, and U.K. There was also party music like the Rolling Stones, The Cars, Dire Straights, Talking Heads, and the great Little Feat. The Grateful Dead was also playing some great music that year, with concert tapes like the 1978 Gizah Pyramids shows. These appeared only days after the performance, a prequel to the digital music revolution of today. To celebrate this milestone, I put together a 1978 tunes playlist. You can hear it here: https://tinyurl.com/y9w4qksk.

Steve Chase is playing The Last Waltz really loud in Unison.