*I’ll be down to get you in a taxi honey Better be ready by half past eight Now, honey don’t be late I want to be there When THE BAND starts playing…

A last Waltz through Big Pink The Band A last Waltz through Big Pink

For about Six Years, from 1968 to 1975, the Band was one of the most popular and influential rock groups in the world. Their albums were analyzed as intensely as any record by their one-time employer Bob Dylan and for a long time, their personalities were as individually recognizable by the public as any member of the Beatles. All Music Guide

The Players

Organ, Clavinets, Piano, Accordion, Sax and Trumpet

Vocals, Piano, Drums, Sax, Mouth Harp

Vocals, Drums, Mandolin & Acoustic Guitar

Lead Guitar

Vocals, Bass, Violin

The Beginning

The Band started as the backing band for Arkansas rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins. Known as the Hawks, they started gigging throughout the South in 1958. They soon headed to Ontario Canada where the pay was better. There, over the next four years the rest of what was to become The Band, Robertson, Hudson, Manuel and Danko, signed on.

In spite of their success and tired of Hawkins overbearing ego, Helms led the group out on their own as “Levon and the Hawks” in mid 1963.

Dylan plugged in…Judas!

In 1965 Bob Dylan made the transition from folk to rock when he plugged in his guitar at the Newport Folk Festival. Through a connection at his label Dylan was introduced to Helm and Robertson. He hired the Hawks as his backing band, starting a career long relationship. Later the same year Dylan and the Hawks embarked on a turbulent, historic and groundbreaking 1965 tour of Europe.

Following his 1968 motorcycle accident, Dylan retreated with the Hawks to a rented house in Woodstock NY that became known as Big Pink. In the basement they wrote and cut a large number of demos. During this time Dylan began referring to the Hawks simply as The Band. Later that year The Band decided to it was time to record their first album as an independent group.

1969-1976

Music From Big Pink

The Brown Album

Stage Fright

Cahoots

Moondog Matinee

Rock of Ages

Northern Lights-Southern Cross

Islands

The Last Waltz

By the mid 1970s, a variety of excesses and the grind of touring had taken their toll on the Band. Before getting off of the road they decided to throw one last concert. On Thanksgiving Day 1976 they took the stage at the Winterland in San Francisco, where seven years earlier they had first performed as the Band. Martin Scorsese filmed the event and his movie of The Last Waltz became one of the most influential concert films of all time

Lasting over six hours the concert featured a waltz performed by the San Francisco orchestra a whole Thanksgiving dinner and finally the show itself. The concert featured guest appearances by the biggest names in music, everyone from Eric Clapton and Muddy Waters to Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell The crowd refused to leave. An hour after the show had ended The Band had to come back from the parking lot to play one last song.

The road was our school. It gave us a sense of survival; it taught us everything we know and out of respect, we don’t want to drive it into the ground…or maybe it’s just superstition but the road has taken a lot of the great ones. It’s a goddamn impossible way of life. Robbie Robertson

The Band a Last Waltz Through Big Pink Music: Up on Cripple Creek, From The Last Waltz Deluxe Set Warner Bros. 1978 & 2002 Rhino Records 2002 Images courtesy of: The Band Online Image Archive , Capitol Records, Warner Bros. Records, and United Artists. All additional graphics and text produced by: John Hunt 2003