The Last Waltz

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

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Martin Scorsese records the iconic 1976 concert of The Band titled “The Last Waltz.” The documentary is colorful and impacting, chock full of music stars from Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton to Ringo Starr and Dr. John, not to mention The Staples, Muddy Waters, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell.

The 1976 film has some drama due to the fact that Dylan insisted not to be filmed because he had a previous film scheduled for release. Producers Jonathan Taplin and Bill Graham placated Dylan, and Scorsese managed to record. The film boasts cinematography by László Kovács (Easy Rider) Vilmos Zsigmond (Close Encounters of the Third Kind) and Michael Chapman (Raging Bull).

Scorsese acts as interviewer. He is hyper, wound up and sporting a full beard. Robbie Robertson is the allure of the group, pale with dark sly curls, he has the magnetism of Jim Morrison albeit more down to earth. Curious it is to hear Robertson admit that the studio was once a bordello almost as if Scorsese is filming a musical equivalent to one of his gangster epics. The walls are red.

More alarming is the sight of the rebel Confederate flag on a workshop wall, but The Band is adamant in upholding that black performers were the heroes and inventors in Blues, crucial to American music. One can only conclude that the flag is somehow meant as an underdog symbol to The Band, in rejection of the mainstream and status quo. Even so, the sight of the flag manages to shock.

A stand out is Neil Young clad in an Army-green jacket his earthy nasal voice screams out, raw, honest and organic. With his Halloween-dark hair and lanky frame, Young jitters across the stage: the Stephen King of rock.

The Staples Singers back up The Band emotionally in the hit song “The Weight.” Reaching falsetto heights, the group edges the legendary song into gospel and the interpretation is certain to produce tears.

Muddy Waters delivers a comically charged song, booming and rich with an electricity, that is mischievous.

The poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti is present as master of ceremonies giving a madcap subversion of The Lord’s Prayer.

Most every performer is having fun. Robertson gleefully shreds his guitar, a purple scarf around his neck.

Only Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan seem aloof. Dylan duly belts out a solid song but in his leather jacket and white panama hat, he feels removed and somewhat detached. Still his oft recognizable voice cannot fail to carry. Clapton attacks the guitar with dizzying musical permutations. As a white linen mathematical machine, Clapton walks offstage after pointing upwards to the sky.

Ringo gives his dropping percussion Beatles touch to the last number.

“The Last Waltz” is a time capsule of eccentricity, a collective crew united together, against conformist thought but more importantly the performers are singing out in remembrance of stories and the heroes behind them.

At its core, this is a concert that stands for the sheer joy of art for art’s sake.

Write Ian at ianfree11@yahoo.com