Why Robbie Robertson said there were “no screw-ups” at ‘The Last Waltz’

The Last Waltz was a remarkable juggling act and feat of endurance for The Band. Intended as their farewell concert, the Canadian-American roots rock heroes decided to stage an all-star concert that blended different time periods, musical genres, and generations of artists in order to say goodbye to the musical world.

And what a lineup it was: the folk-rock pining of Neil Young, the jazzy interludes of Joni Mitchell, the stomping rockabilly of Ronnie Hawkins, the impassioned blue-eyed soul of Van Morrison, the classic Chicago blues of Muddy Waters, and the iconic singer-songwriter material from Bob Dylan. It all culminated in a massive jam where almost everyone involved took the stage together, ending the multi-hour concert on a massive high.

That wasn’t even counting the full catalogue of material that The Band themselves were playing. From the R&B stomp of ‘Don’t Do It’ to the singalong folk of ‘The Weight’, the ragtime strut of ‘Ophelia’ and the heartbreaking balladry of ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’, The Band proved that they were some of the most masterful and adaptable musicians in the world. For Robbie Robertson, it was all a magic trick that somehow came together.

“I had to be really on my game, because we were playing 21 songs with guest artists that ranged from Joni Mitchell to Muddy Waters and from Neil Young to Neil Diamond,” Robertson told The Ringer in 2019. “I was the one giving the signals to the other guys in the band. Like, ‘OK, the bridge is coming up,’ or, ‘There’s a break,’ or, ‘This is when this comes or that comes,’ and it was really a responsibility of mine to try to be very informed about all of that. And they depended on me for that kind of thing. And we managed to get through and it went on that night five hours or more, and we aced it. There were no screw-ups. It was extraordinary.”

“And anything we did for the movie or for the record release on that was to fix a technical problem,” Robertson revealed. “I mean, there was a ground hum on one of Garth’s keyboard things. He fixed that, and on some stuff in the horns, it was too much leakage of everything. Just trying to keep the quality and to make these things not a distraction and interfering with the quality of the sound, especially for something in a movie theater with all these speakers and everything. But nobody screwed up.”

“It was a remarkable feat. And so I’m having a good time, but I’m also really concentrating on what was happening, and that was part of the joy too,” Robertson concluded. “Just to be so plugged into the creative process and wanting so much to deliver for all of these great artists and our friends.”

Check out ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’ from The Last Waltz down below.

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