The Band Robbie Robertson

The Band - The Last Waltz (1978) [BLU-RAY] {2006 MGM-Sony}
BLU-RAY -> 21.8 Gb | 1080p WS | DTS HD 5.1 / MLA | ~ 117 m | ISO Image | Artwork | 5% repair rar
Subs: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Chinese, Thai
© 2006 MGM / Sony Pictures / LWP | 27616 15024
Rock / Classic Rock / Country-Rock / Rock & Roll / Contemporary Rock

It started as a concert. It became a celebration. Join an unparalleled lineup of rock superstars asthey celebrate The Band's historic 1976 farewell performance. Directed by Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull, Goodfellas), The Last Waltz is not only "the most beautiful rock film evermade" (New York Times) it's "one of the most important cultural events of the last two decades" (Rolling Stone)! Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Van Morrison–these artists and many more grace the stage in The Band's farewell concert at the Winterland ballroom. More than a performance, The Last Waltz documents an important microcosm to evaluate the world of rock'n roll and many of its biggest stars in the 1970s. The concert rocks. The performers are inspired, appearing at the peak of their powers. And the Blu-ray release goes far beyond earlier DVD versions to reveal that The Last Waltz is indeed filmed gorgeously, with sound that is both rich and refined.

Recorded on New Year's Eve 1971/72, this was the Band's last gig for a year and a half. Allen Toussaint was brought in again to write horn arrangements for many of the Band's classics. The results were inspired. Highlights are many, but of particular note are a cover of the Four Tops's "Baby Don't Do It" and a live recording of a track that had earlier been relegated to B-side status only, "Get up Jake." [AMG]

On July 1, 1968, The Band's landmark debut album, Music from Big Pink, seemed to spring from nowhere and everywhere. Drawing from the American roots music panoply of country, blues, R&B, gospel, soul, rockabilly, the honking tenor sax tradition, hymns, funeral dirges, brass band music, folk, and rock 'n' roll, The Band forged a timeless new style that forever changed the course of popular music. Fifty years later, the mythology surrounding Music from Big Pink lives on through the evocative storytelling of its songs including "The Weight," "This Wheel's On Fire," "Tears of Rage," and "To Kingdom Come," its enigmatic cover art painted by Bob Dylan, the salmon-colored upstate New York house – 'Big Pink' – where The Band wrote the songs, and in myriad descendant legends carried forth since the album's stunning arrival.

It is the album where this group drops its masks and speaks directly to the audience about themselves and each other.

A Musical History is the second box set to anthologize Canadian-American rock group The Band. Released by Capitol Records on September 27, 2005 it features 111 tracks spread over five Compact Discs and one DVD. Roughly spanning the group's journey from 1961 to 1977, from their days behind Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan through the departure of Robbie Robertson and the first disbanding of the group. The set includes highlights from each of the group's first seven studio albums and both major live recordings and nearly forty rare or previously-unreleased performances…

The Band was four-fifths Canadian – drummer Levon Helm was from Arkansas – but its second album was all American. Guitarist Robbie Robertson's songs vividly evoke the country's pioneer age – "Across the Great Divide," "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" – while pointedly reflecting the state of the nation in the 1960s. The Band's long life on the road resonates in the brawn of Garth Hudson's keyboards and Helm's juke-joint attack. But Robertson's stories truly come to life in Helm's man-of-the-soil growl, Rick Danko's high tenor and Richard Manuel's spectral croon. "Somebody once said he had a tear in his voice," Helm said of Manuel. "Richard had one of the richest, textured voices I'd ever heard." www.rollingstone.com