The Band’s concert film, The Last Waltz, premiered

The Last Waltz The Band

Recorded: November 25, 1976 Released: April 7, 1978 (soundtrack) Released: April 26, 1978 (movie) Peak: 16 US, 39 UK, 13 CN, 11 AU Sales (in millions): -- Genre: Americana/classic rock

Tracks, Disc 1: Song Title (date of single release for original studio versions, chart peaks of studio versions) Click for codes to charts. Theme from The Last Waltz Up on Cripple Creek (10/18/69, 25 BB, 26 CB, 4 CL, 10 CN, 7 DF) Who Do You Love? (with Ronnie Hawkins) Helpless (with Neil Young & Joni Mitchell) Stage Fright (9/5/70, 12 CL) Coyote (with Joni Mitchell) Dry Your Eyes (with Neil Diamond) It Makes No Difference (12/13/75, 19 CL) Such a Sight (with Dr. John) The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (9/22/69, 7 CL, 10 CN, 3 DF) Mystery Train (with Paul Butterfield) Mannish Boy (with Muddy Waters) Further on Up the Road (with Eric Clapton) Tracks, Disc 2: Shape I’m In (1/2/71, 9 CL) Down South in New Orleans (with Bobby Charles) Ophelia (3/20/76, 62 BB, 66 CB, 23 CL) Tura-Lura-Lural (That’s an Irish Lullaby) (with Van Morrison) Caravan (with Van Morrison) Life Is a Carnival (10/16/71, 72 BB, 80 CB, 11 CL) Baby, Let Me Follow You Down (with Bob Dylan) I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) (with Bob Dylan) Forever Young (with Bob Dylan) (1/17/74, 12 CL, 1 DF) Baby, Let Me Follow You Down (Reprise) (with Bob Dylan) I Shall Be Released (with ensemble) (8/10/68, 32 CL) The Last Waltz Suite (studio recordings): The Well Evangeline (with Emmylou Harris) Out of the Blue The Weight (with The Staple Singers) (8/16/68, 63 BB, 52 CB, 2 CL, 21 UK, 36 CN, 2 DF) The Last Waltz Refrain Theme from the Last Waltz (with orchestra) Total Running Time: 129:06 The Players: Rick Danko (bass, fiddle, vocals) Levon Helm (drums, mandolin, vocals) Garth Hudson (keyboards, accordion, clavinet, saxophone) Richard Manuel (piano, drums, organ, clavinet, Dobro, vocals) Robbie Robertson (guitar, piano, vocals) Guests: Paul Butterfield, Bobby Charles, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Dr. John, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Ronnie Hawkins, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Pinetop Perkins, the Staple Singers, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Wood, Neil Young, et al

Rating: 3.814 out of 5.00 (average of 12 ratings) Quotable: “The greatest rock concert movie ever made – and maybe the best rock movie, period.” – Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Sparked by a boating accident which left Richard Manuel seriously injured and Robbie Robertson’s desires to stop touring, WK The Band decided in 1976 to call it quits with a farewell concert appearance. It was held on Thanksgiving Day on November 25, 1976 at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom. “Everything about the event was over the top” TB for “this marketing-man’s dream” TB with “a 38-piece orchestra, three teams of ballroom dancers” TB and “more than a baker’s dozen guest stars.” AMG Director Martin Scorsese filmed the concert and made it into a documentary which also featured studio segments and interviews with the band. Released in 1978, it was “one of the first (and still one of the few) rock concert documentaries that was directed by a filmmaker who understood both the look and the sound of rock & roll, and executed with enough technical craft to capture all the nooks and crannies of a great live show.” AMG The film is “listed among the greatest concert films. Chicago Tribune film critic Michael Wilmington calls it ‘the greatest rock concert movie ever made – and maybe the best rock movie, period.’” WKTotal Film concurs, calling it “the greatest concert film ever shot.” WK It received 36 out of 37 positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes for a 97% rating. WK “But as an album, The Last Waltz soundtrack had to compete with the Band’s earlier live album, Rock of Ages, with which it bears a certain superficial resemblance – both found the group trying to create something grander than the standard-issue live double, and both featured the group beefed up by additional musicians.” AMG Also, “Rock of Ages found the Band swinging along with the help of a horn section arranged by Allen Toussaint [and] The Last Waltz boasts a horn section (using Toussaint’s earlier arrangements on a few cuts).” AMG “The Band are in fine if not exceptional form here; on most cuts, they don’t sound quite as fiery as they did on Rock of Ages, though their performances are never less than expert, and the high points are dazzling, especially an impassioned version of It Makes No Difference and blazing readings of Up on Cripple Creek and The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Levon Helm has made no secret that he felt breaking up the Band was a bad idea, and here it sounds if he was determined to prove how much they still had to offer).” AMG In the original concert, The Band performed a set and then were joined by a series of guest artists, starting with Ronnie Hawkins, whom The Band used to back. “Ultimately, it’s the Band’s ‘special guests’ who really make this set stand out.” AMG After Hawkins, “Dr. John took a seat at the piano for his signature song, Such a Night. He then switched to guitar and joined Bobby Charles on Down South in New Orleans.” WK “A blues set was next with harmonica player Paul Butterfield, Muddy Waters, pianist Pinetop Perkins and Eric Clapton.” WK “Waters’ ferocious version of Mannish Boy would have been a wonder from a man half his age.” AMG “Neil Young followed, singing Helpless with backing vocals by Joni Mitchell…Mitchell came on after Young and sang three songs, two with the backing of Dr. John on congas.” WK Neil Diamond followed with Dry Your Eyes, which was from his Robbie Robertson-produced Beautiful Noise album. “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” WK on which he “sounds positively joyous.” WK “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” WK which find “him in admirably loose and rollicking form.” AMG “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.” WK In the original concert, two jam sessions followed and then The Band came out for a final encore of Marvin Gaye’s Don’t Do It at around 2:15 a.m. It was the last time the group’s classic lineup performed together. WK Some songs didn’t make the film, but were on the soundtrack, such as “Down South in New Orleans,” “Tura Lura Lural (That's an Irish Lullaby)”, “Life is a Carnival” by The Band, and “I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)” by Bob Dylan. WK For the album, “the closing studio-recorded Last Waltz Suite sounds like padding, [but] the contributions from Emmylou Harris and the Staple Singers are beautiful indeed. It could be argued that you’re better off watching The Last Waltz on video than listening to it on CD, but either way it's a show well worth checking out.” AMG It “remains a landmark not just for its consistently superb music but for…brilliantly manipulative marketing. Sold on the back of one event, we got the triple album, the movie, the home video, the double-CD reissue, the DVD, and the boxset-set four-CD reissue.” TB Notes: “For the concert’s 25th anniversary in 2002, the film was remastered and a new theatrical print was made for a limited release to promote the release of the DVD and four-CD box set of the film soundtrack.” WK In addition, a four-CD box set, produced by Robbie Robertson, remastered all the songs and included “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.” WK

Resources and Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: “The Top 50 Music Movies of All Time” AMG All Music Guide review by Mark Deming PR Paul Roland (2001). CD Guide to Pop & Rock. B.T. Batsford LTD: London. TB Thunder Bay (2005). Albums: The Stories Behind 50 Years of Great Recordings. Thunder Bay Press; San Diego, CA. Page 197. WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 4/26/2012; last updated 11/24/2023.

---

Jesus Christ Superstar opened on Broadway

Jesus Christ Superstar Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice

The Studio Album: Released: November 21, 1970 Peak: 13 US, -- UK, 13 CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): 0.5 US Genre: show tunes

The Cast Album: Released: January 8, 1972 Peak: 31 US, -- UK, -- CN, 110 AU (1992 Australian cast album) Sales (in millions): 6.0 US

The Soundtrack: Released: June 30, 1973 Peak: 21 US, 23 UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): 1.0 US

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Overture Heaven on Their Minds What’s the Buzz/Strange Thing Mystifying Then We Are Decided s Everything’s Alright This Jesus Must Die Hosanna Simon Zealotes/Poor Jerusalem Pilate’s Dream The Temple Everything’s Alright sr (The Kimberlys, 3/20/71, 99 US – medley of “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” and “Everything’s Alright”; Yvonne Elliman, 9/25/71, 92 US) I Don’t Know How to Love Him (Helen Reddy, 2/20/71, 13 US; Yvonne Elliman, 4/24/71, 28 US) Damned for All Time/Blood Money The Last Supper Gethsemane (I Only Want to Say) The Arrest Peter’s Denial Pilate and Christ King Herod’s Song (Try It and See) Could We Start Again, Please? s Judas’ Death Trial Before Pilate (Including the 39 Lashes) Superstar (Murray Head, 1/31/70, 14 US; Assembled Multitude, 2/6/71, 95 US) Crucifixion John Nineteen: Forty-One Songs followed by sr (studio release), c (cast album), or s (soundtrack) indicate that the song was unique to that version of the album.

Rating (all versions combined): 4.570 out of 5.00 (average of 17 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Jesus Christ Superstar didn’t follow the usual route for successful musicals – a nice run on Broadway accompanied by a cast album and then a movie and soundtrack version a couple years later. It started out as a studio album which topped the U.S. charts before being staged in a theatrical context. Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, 21, and lyricist Tim Rice, 25, conceived it as a stage work, but when they couldn’t get the funding, they opted “to use an album as the vehicle for introducing the piece.” BE The success of the studio album opened the door for a stage production. It debuted on Broadway at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on October 12, 1971. It sarred Jeff Fenholt, Ben Vereen, and Bob Bingham. When Vereen fell ill, Carl Anderson stepped into the role of Judas. They later took turns playing the role. It was met with mixed reviews – even Webber himself criticized it – and closed after 18 months. WK In 1972, the show opened at the Palace Theatre in London with Paul Nicholson starring as Jesus and Stephen Tate as Judas. It ran for eight years, making it the longest-running musical in England at the time. WK “The action largely follows the canonical gospels’ accounts of the last weeks of Jesus’ life, beginning with Jesus and his followers arriving in Jerusalem and ending with the Crucifixion. Twentieth-century attitude and sensibilities as well as contemporary slang pervade the lyrics, and ironic allusions to modern life are scattered throughout the political depiction of the events. Stage and film productions accordingly feature many intentional anachronisms."WK “Audiences from across the age and cultural spectrum responded. Teenagers who didn’t know from Jesus, opera, or oratorios liked the beat, the hard rock sounds, and the singing and bought the album, as did parents who felt that the record offered a chance to understand some aspects of this youth culture around them, and especially its music – and so did some more forward-thinking clergy and theologians, who saw any opportunity to spread the word about Jesus where it wasn’t previously going as intrinsically good.” BE The story focuses on Judas and his “political and interpersonal struggles” WK with Jesus. Judas “is depicted as a conflicted, tragic figure” WK alarmed by Jesus’ lack of planning and “relatively recent claims of his divinity.” WK Such a point of view was “as daring as you could get” WR and “perhaps downright sacrilegious” BE but “it succeeds in all ways.” WR The fact that this was “full-blown rock music” BE was as remarkable as the subject matter. Similar ground had been covered with Hair but that was “really a pop/show-music pastiche, not rock.” WR Jesus Christ Superstar, however, was a “fairly radical rock/theater hybrid” BE making it the first to “successfully put rock music in a theatrical context.” WR The Who created the template with their 1969 album Tommy but it would be 1992 before it became a stage musical. It should also be noted that Jesus Christ Superstar is technically an operetta as it was completely sung without any spoken dialogue. Deep Purple’s lead singer Ian Gillan served as the singing voice of Jesus while Murray Head was Judas and Yvonne Elliman was Mary Magdalene. The latter two had pop hits with “Superstar” and “I Don’t Know How to Love Him.” In 1973, it was made into a film directed by Norman Jewison. It “was shot in Israel and other Middle Eastern locations. Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson were both nominated for 1974 Golden Globe Awards for their portrayals of Jesus and Judas…Though it attracted criticism from some religious groups, the film was generally well received.” WK Combined, the original studio recording, cast album, and soundtrack have sold more than 7.5 million copies, with the cast album moving the mast majority.

Resources and Related Links: BE Bruce Eder, All Music Guide sr WR William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide (review of a cast recording reissue) WK wikipedia.org Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 10/12/2011; last updated 10/3/2023.