The Band

August 2: Happy Birthday Eric Garth Hudson

Posted on by Egil Mosbron

Hudson was just as crucial to the very different sounds made in the Basement the year afterwards: especially since in large part it was Garth who tape-recorded those unique, informal sessions, and had the sense to look after, afterwards, all the dozens of unknown-about extra ones beyond those of immediate interest to Dylan’s music publisher, and which only began to circulate decades later.

Hudson was also the musicians’ musician—and actually gave the other Hawks music lessons—and when the Hawks became the Crackers became The Band, he was the multi-instrumentalist supreme in a group of multi-instrumentalists. If The Band introduced a small orchestra’s worth of olde worlde instruments to mainstream rock music, it was Hudson who had introduced many of them to The Band.
~Michael Gray (The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia)

Members of The Band Accept Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Award at 1994 Inductions:

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July 5: Happy 75th Birthday Robbie Robertson

Posted on by Egil Mosbron

When we were working with Bob Dylan and we moved to Woodstock, everybody referred to us as the band. He called us the band, our friends called us the band, our neighbors called us the band.
~Robbie Robertson (from “The Last Waltz”)

Eric Clapton inducts the Band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994:

The Band – The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Last Waltz):

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June 26: The Band Rockpalast Loreley 1996 (video)

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

The Band 06/23/96
Rockpalast Festival,
Loreley, St. Goarshausen, Germany
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This is from the tour in support of their album, High on the hog. It is one of the last concerts by The Band, they ended the tour in august 1996, and they played a few stand-alone gigs after that. I think this is the last filmed concert by The Band (correct me in the comments if I’m wrong).

Interesting show, good picture and sound, enjoy!

loreley-778x1024

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December 31: The Band played at Civic Auditorium SF in 1983

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

the band rick danko 1983

One of the most anticipated gigs of 1983 came at the very end of the year, when the Band returned to the city of The Last Waltz when invited to open for the Grateful Dead at their annual New Year’s Eve extravaganza. Before a sold-out crowd at San Francisco’s Civic Auditorium, the Band proved they were still one of the best sounding groups on the planet, delivering a performance that not only delighted the San Francisco audience, but the Band members themselves. Performing classic original material as well as a smattering of choice covers, this performance was captured by the Bill Graham Presents crew and is presented here in its entirety.
~concertvault.com

Richard Manual 1983

  • Rick Danko – bass, acoustic guitar, vocals
  • Levon Helm – drums, mandolin, harmonica, vocals
  • Richard Manuel – piano, drums, vocals
  • Garth Hudson – organ, piano, synthesizer, accordion, saxophones
  • Earl Cate – electric guitar, background vocals
  • Ernie Cate – keyboards
  • Ron Eoff – bass, background vocals
  • Terry Cagle – drums

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December 29: The late great Rick Danko was born in 1942

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

I saw Ronnie Hawkins play near my hometown, Port Dover, Ontario, and I saw him play there on New Year’s Eve and the following spring I booked myself to be his opening act on maybe five shows, and he hired me after the first night.
-RickDanko

You put a song on the record or on tape and you stop singing it. You just don’t sit around and sing it anymore unless you’re performing. That’s kind of sad.
-Rick Danko

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November 25: The Last Waltz was recorded in 1976 (full 4h20m concert)

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

Last-Waltz

This film should be played loud!

This is a message on a title card at the beginning of the film. The greatest concert movie ever made. This post concerns the movie, the audio releases have to wait for it’s own post.

Wikipedia:

The Last Waltz was a concert by the rock group The Band, held on American Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. The Last Waltz was advertised as the end of The Band’s illustrious touring career, and the concert saw The Band joined by more than a dozen special guests, including Paul Butterfield, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Ronnie Hawkins, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Wood, Bobby Charles and Neil Young.

The event was filmed by director Martin Scorsese and made into a documentary of the same name, released in 1978. The film features concert performances, scenes shot on a studio soundstage and interviews by Scorsese with members of The Band. A triple-LP soundtrack recording, produced by Rob Fraboni, was issued in 1978. The film was released on DVD in 2002 as was a four-CD box set of the concert and related studio recordings.

Trailer:

I have several versions of the film, and I’ve seen many versions of it. I’ve seen it at the cinema, I’ve played it to death on video casette, I have two DVD releases , a blu-ray release and I’ve seen/heard quite a bit of bootlegs of the show.

This is a film that I’m really passionate about, and I have often wondered if there’s footage, filmed sequences, that is not in the official version. Whatever condition such film would be in was irrelevant, I wanted to see as much as possible of the legendary concert.

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