Соңғы Вальс: The Band тобының концерттік фильмі

1978 concert film directed by Martin Scorsese
the rock concert and film

The Last Waltz was a concert by the Canadian American 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 Band's "farewell concert appearance", and the concert had The Band joined by more than a dozen special guests, including their previous employers Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan, as well as Paul Butterfield, Bobby Charles, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Emmylou Harris, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Wood, and Neil Young. The musical director for the concert was The Band's original record producer, John Simon. The concert was produced and managed by Bill Graham and was filmed by director Martin Scorsese, who made it into a documentary of the same title, released in 1978. Jonathan Taplin, who was The Band's tour manager from 1969 to 1972 and later produced Scorsese's film Mean Streets, suggested that Scorsese would be the ideal director for the project, and Rock Brynner introduced Robbie Robertson and Scorsese. Taplin served as executive producer. The film features concert performances, intermittent song renditions shot on a studio soundstage, and interviews by Scorsese with members of The Band. The soundtrack and DVD were later released. The Last Waltz is hailed as one of the greatest documentary concert films ever made. In 2019, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Beginning with a title card saying, "This film should be played loud!" the concert documentary covers The Band's influences and career. The group consisted of Rick Danko on bass, violin, and vocals, Levon Helm on drums, mandolin, and vocals, Garth Hudson on keyboards, saxophone and accordion, songwriter Richard Manuel on keyboards, drums, percussion and vocals, and guitarist songwriter Robbie Robertson on vocals. Various other artists perform with The Band: Muddy Waters, Paul Butterfield, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Dr. John, Neil Diamond, and Eric Clapton. Genres covered include blues, rock and roll, New Orleans R&B, Tin Pan Alley pop, folk, and rock. Further genres are explored in segments filmed later on a sound stage with Emmylou Harris (country) and the Staple Singers (soul and gospel). The film begins with The Band performing the last song of the evening, their cover version of the Marvin Gaye hit "Don't Do It", as an encore. The film then flashes back to the beginning of the concert, and follows it more or less chronologically. The Band is backed by a large horn section and performs many of its hit songs, including "Up on Cripple Creek", "Stage Fright", and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". The live songs are interspersed with studio segments and interviews conducted by director Martin Scorsese in which the Band's members reminisce about the group's history. Robertson talks about Hudson joining the band on the condition that the other members pay him $10 a week each for music lessons. The classically trained Hudson could then tell his parents that he was a music teacher instead of merely a rock and roll musician. Robertson also describes the surreal experience of playing in a burnt out nightclub owned by Jack Ruby. Manuel recalls that some of the early names for The Band included "The Honkies", and "The Crackers". Because they were simply referred to as "the band" by Dylan and their friends and neighbors in Woodstock, New York, they figured that was just what they would call themselves. Danko is seen giving Scorsese a tour of The Band's Shangri La studio, and he plays a recording of "Sip the Wine", a track from his then forthcoming 1977 solo album Rick Danko. A recurring theme brought up in the interviews with Robertson is that the concert marks an end of an era for The Band, that after 16 years on the road, the time had come for a change. "That's what The Last Waltz is 16 years on the road. The numbers start to scare you," Robertson tells Scorsese. "I mean, I couldn't live with 20 years on the road. I don't think I could even discuss it."

The idea for a farewell concert came about early in 1976 after Richard Manuel was seriously injured in a boating accident. Robbie Robertson then began giving thought to leaving the road, envisioning The Band becoming a studio only band, similar to the Beatles' decision to stop playing live shows in 1966. He was also concerned about the negative effects of being on the road too long:

blockquote|I had become suspicious of the road. Look at what happened to this guy. Look at what happened to them. These people who got crazy when they got on the road. This was not a healthy thing. I was telling the guys in The Band, "I like the music we make together. But I don't want to go out there with it anymore. . We're not learning from it. We're not growing from it. Originally, The Band was to perform on its own, but then the notion of inviting Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan was hatched and the guest list grew to include other performers. Robertson wanted to invite people who had been a strong influence on their music, people who represented various music styles, including New Orleans rock and roll, English blues, and Chicago blues. Starting at 5:00 pm, the audience of 5,000 was served turkey dinners. There was ballroom dancing, with music by the Berkeley Promenade Orchestra. Poets Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Lenore Kandel, Diane di Prima, Michael McClure, Robert Duncan, and Freewheelin' Frank gave readings. Van Morrison then performed two songs, a special arrangement of "Tura Lura Lural (That's an Irish Lullaby)" as a duet with Richard Manuel and his own show stopper, "Caravan". Canadians Young and Mitchell were then invited back out to help the Band perform "Acadian Driftwood", an ode to the Acadians of Canadian history. The Band then performed a short set of some more of its songs before Bob Dylan came on stage to lead his former backing band through four songs. The Band and all its guests, with the addition of Ringo Starr on drums and Ronnie Wood on guitar, then sang "I Shall Be Released" as a closing number. Dylan, who wrote the song, and Manuel, whose falsetto rendition had made the song famous on Music from Big Pink, shared lead vocals, although Manuel cannot be clearly seen in the film and switched between his normal and falsetto voices between verses. Two loose jam sessions then formed. "Jam #1" featured the Band minus Richard Manuel playing with Neil Young, Ronnie Wood, and Eric Clapton on guitar, Dr. John on piano, Paul Butterfield on harmonica, and Ringo Starr on drums. It was followed by "Jam #2" with the same personnel minus Robertson and Danko. Stephen Stills, who showed up late, took a guitar solo and Carl Radle joined on bass. The Band then came out at around 2:15 am to perform an encore, "Don't Do It". It was the last time the group performed under the name "The Band" with its classic lineup. The five joined on stage at a Rick Danko concert in 1978. The Band reformed without Robertson in 1980 and headlined at The Roxy in Los Angeles with Scottish group Blue supporting, guests were Dr. John and Joe Cocker. Rick Danko later performed at various Los Angeles venues along with Blue, and at his invitation, they recorded their LA Sessions album at Shangri La Studios.

Robertson initially wanted to record the concert on 16 mm film. He recruited Martin Scorsese to direct based on his use of music in Mean Streets. Under Scorsese, the film grew into a full scale studio production with seven 35 mm cameras. The cameras were operated by several cinematographers: Michael Chapman (Raging Bull), László Kovács (Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces), Vilmos Zsigmond (Close Encounters of the Third Kind), David Myers (THX 1138), Bobby Byrne (Smokey and the Bandit), Michael Watkins, and Hiro Narita. The stage and lighting were designed by Boris Leven, who had been the production designer on such musical films as West Side Story and The Sound of Music. With Bill Graham's assistance, the set from the San Francisco Opera's production of La traviata was rented as a backdrop for the stage. Crystal chandeliers were also hung over the stage. John Simon, who ran the rehearsals for the show, would give Scorsese details as to who sang what and who soloed when for each song. Scorsese meticulously storyboarded the songs, setting up lighting and camera cues to fit the lyrics of the songs. But despite his planning, in the rigors of the live concert setting, with the loud rock music and the hours spent filming the show, there were unscripted film reloads and camera malfunctions. It was not possible for all songs to be covered. At one point, all the cameras, except László Kovács', were shut down for a scheduled film reload as Muddy Waters was to perform "Mannish Boy". As Scorsese frantically tried to get other cameras up, Kovács was already rolling and able to capture the iconic song by the blues legend. "It was just luck," Scorsese recalled in the DVD documentary, The Last Waltz Revisited. However, Warner Bros. had agreed to finance Last Waltz only if Dylan would appear in it. Levon Helm said that Scorsese "went nuts" upon hearing that Dylan changed his mind, while "Robbie became totally pale." Man, they were all biting their nails. I think Bill really pleaded with Bob for us, for the sake of the history of it all. He was in there for a couple of minutes, but it seemed like an hour. No one could believe this. With about five minutes left, word came down that the last two songs in Bob's part of the show could be filmed, and only the last two. Bill Graham saved their asses that night. Robertson also assured Dylan that the concert film's release would be delayed until after his film. According to Kemp, "More or less, Bob got his way. I think they shot a little more than he wanted but they didn't shoot as much as they wanted. As it ended up, everybody came out whole. Robertson was also satisfied:

Robertson said he was relieved when the concert ended, as he was constantly worried that something would go wrong, as it did when Dylan suddenly backed out of being filmed. To all the people involved, he said "Thank God we got through it." The DVD features a commentary track by Robertson and Scorsese, a featurette, Revisiting The Last Waltz, and a gallery of images from the concert, the studio filming and the film premiere. A bonus scene is footage of "Jam #2", which is cut short because they had run out of replacement sound synchronizers for the cameras after ten hours of continuous filming. The original 2002 DVD release was packaged as a "special edition". In addition to the extra features on the disc, the Amaray case came in a foil embossed cardboard sleeve, and inside was an eight page booklet, featuring a five page essay by Robertson entitled "The End of a Musical Journey". Also included was a US$5 rebate coupon for the four CD box set. In 2005, the DVD was re issued with different artwork and stripped of the outer foil packaging, inner booklet and coupon; the disc's contents remained unchanged. In 2006, The Last Waltz was among the first eight titles released in Sony's high definition Blu ray format. The soundtracks on the Blu ray release consist of an uncompressed 5.1 Linear PCM track, a very high fidelity format, and a standard Dolby Digital 5.1 track. On March 29, 2022, The Criterion Collection released a new 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by Scorsese, with Dolby Vision HDR and a 5.1 surround DTS HD Master Audio soundtrack, supervised and approved by Robertson.

The original soundtrack album was a three LP album released on April 16, 1978 (later as a two disc CD). It has many songs not in the film, including "Down South in New Orleans" with Bobby Charles and Dr. John on guitar, "Tura Lura Lural (That's an Irish Lullaby)" by Van Morrison, "Life is a Carnival" by the Band, and "I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)" by Bob Dylan. John Casado designed the packaging and logotype trademark. In 2002, a four CD box set was released, as was a DVD Audio edition. Robbie Robertson produced the album, remastering all the songs. The set includes 16 previously unreleased songs from the concert, as well as takes from rehearsals. Among the additions are Louis Jordan's "Caldonia" by Muddy Waters, the concert version of "The Weight", "Jam #1" and "Jam #2" in their entirety, and extended sets with Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan. The soundtrack recordings underwent post concert production featuring heavy use of overdubbing and re sequencing. Bootleg collectors have circulated an original line recording of the concert as a more accurate and complete document of the event. It includes songs not available in the film or the official album releases, including "Georgia on My Mind", "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)", the complete "Chest Fever" and the live version of "Evangeline".