One of the many lovely moments in The Last Waltz is about 30 seconds or so into Further On Up The Road when Eric Clapton’s guitar strap comes unhinged and you can hear him call “Rob!”. Robertson effortlessly steps in, plays his solo until Clapton is sorted, and then steps back to let Eric back in. Completely undercuts the cocks-out soloing that was being set up for our edification, and just makes me smile. Any more mistakes and mishaps that actually enhance a performance?
La la la la
Wonderful track, but why exactly did the people sing “La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la” on The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down? I can’t find a decent explanation for this anywhere. Help La.
How wrong i was
There was me thinking The Band were gigging again. Seems not, as the mighty Take That have a musical with the same name. Imagine, if you will, the Robbie Robertson fans who turn up to the show and are presented with homoerotic boy-band callisthenics. They may find their tastes going in a whole new direction.
Any other disturbing potential misunderstandings?
The Last Waltz revisited
So, The Last Waltz concert is being reconstructed in New Zealand of all places, albeit with only two of the original participants, one of those being the wonderful Garth Hudson, up there with the most original pop/rock keyboard players of all time. I never consider going to these “tribute shows” because I’m pretty sure I’ll hate them, but I might just have to pop across the ditch from Sydney to one of these, just to hear Garth play.
You won’t have heard of any of the other musicians (except John Simon of course) – I know a few of them and they’re good players and singers. Kevin Borich, the guitar player, was in one of NZ’s greatest pop exports in the 60s, The Lah De Dahs.
I just hope Garth brings his Lowrey organ
It was 50 years ago today – Bob Dylan and The Band
See the ulimateclassicrock link below
I think is my favourite Dylan period – BIABK, Highway 61, BOB, and I’m not an aficionado.
It’s a pretty amazing story, and it yet again reinforces the recognition that our heroes in this era were making it up as they went along – events that are now historic were, at the time, just what happened.
The video is an early version of Visions Of Johanna.
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/bob-dylan-plays-with-band-first-time/
Garth Hudson
Wishing Garth Hudson, who turned 78 earlier this week, a happy birthday. One of two survivors from The Band lineup that we know and love.
An amazing musician. He took songs like this, “The Shape I’m In”, and turned them from soul/R’n B grooves into some kind of weird carnival that forced you (and I imagine the musicians) to think outside the box. He played a LOWREY organ FFS, one of those home organ beasts that people had in their homes in the 70s. Garth chose this over the Hammond, which everybody else played then (I’m thinking Winwood, Emerson etc), or even the Farfisa which Ray Manzarek played, and absolutely created his own wonderful world.
And, as an afterthought, he also played accordion, and soprano saxophone.
Post your favourite Garth moments here…
