[bodiddley]

I'm sure we have talked about this at some point but does anybody know if they were even invited to be in the Last Waltz movie or were they just too busy touring? Or some other reason? I don't recall anything ever being officially written about this omission. Just seems strange because it was a Bill Graham event right?

[tcsned]

Yeah, that woulda been cool. I have an acquaintance that is in that movie - he was playing guitar with Muddy Waters. I know there was a lot of politics about who was going to play - Levon apparently fought hard to keep Muddy in the show.

[Maybeck09]

There was a lot of politics going on that I never knew about. Its all in Levon's book. Dylan was just a brat about going out and playing. And of course Robbie Robertson's mic was off because he couldn't sing. But he did anyway. It was crowded as it was, not sure where the boys would fit in. But the film, which apparently is also not as naively put together as I first thought, is excellent and Scorcese should be commended.

[tcsned]

There was a lot of politics going on that I never knew about. Its all in Levon's book. Dylan was just a brat about going out and playing. And of course Robbie Robertson's mic was off because he couldn't sing. But he did anyway. It was crowded as it was, not sure where the boys would fit in. But the film, which apparently is also not as naively put together as I first thought, is excellent and Scorcese should be commended.

+1
here's Bob Margolin's take on the whole thing:
http://www.bobmargolin.com/last_waltz.html

Recently, I read Levon Helm’s inside story of The Last Waltz in his autobiography, “This Wheel’s On Fire” (recommended!). I was shocked to find that because of time and budget constraints and Band politics, Muddy was nearly bumped from the show. Levon fought bitterly behind the scenes and prevailed to not only keep Muddy in but to indulge him with me and Pinetop too. We were treated as honored guests at The Last Waltz and I enjoyed the once-in-a-lifetime jam afterwards, but Levon never told us about making a stand for us. He just made us welcome. Ultimately, this gracious, classy, and tough gentleman was responsible for my good time there.

[jeffm725]

While I always wondered why no Dead members at the last waltz, it did not surprise me they were not there. You cant include everybody! Also, I dont know if this is true or not, but rumor has always had it that the Watkins Glen show with the Allmans, the Band and the Dead was not a backstage love fest. Supposedly there was bickering and real competitive ego trips taking place between all 3 bands. Whether this played part in nobody being invited to the last waltz, who knows?


The real shocker to me was that there were no Dead members at the Bob Dylan 30th anniversary concert in October 1992. We are talking about a band (the Dead) that was Dylans backup band for a whole tour! Plus no band in existence came near to the amount of Dylan songs covered as the GD and JGB did! How could at least Jerry or Weir not be a part of that!

[tigerstrat]

The real shocker to me was that there were no Dead members at the Bob Dylan 30th anniversary concert in October 1992. We are talking about a band (the Dead) that was Dylans backup band for a whole tour! Plus no band in existence came near to the amount of Dylan songs covered as the GD and JGB did! How could at least Jerry or Weir not be a part of that!

iirc, Jerry was still recovering from his serious heart ailment, which is also why the Dead's 1992 fall tour was totally cancelled.

[jeffm725]

The real shocker to me was that there were no Dead members at the Bob Dylan 30th anniversary concert in October 1992. We are talking about a band (the Dead) that was Dylans backup band for a whole tour! Plus no band in existence came near to the amount of Dylan songs covered as the GD and JGB did! How could at least Jerry or Weir not be a part of that!

iirc, Jerry was still recovering from his serious heart ailment, which is also why the Dead's 1992 fall tour was totally canceled.

Makes sense.....although Weir could have made the trip.He could have done a good reading of Ballad of a thin man or Queen jane or any number of the tunes he was doing. He didnt need Jer or the rest of GD. Nobody really had their full band there. Pretty much everyone was backed up by Booker T and the MGs.


Also, Jerry was back on stage with JGB a mere 14 days later (Dylan concert was 10/16, jerry did Halloween with JGB in Oakland)

However it is not a reach to say the GD cops were not gonna let Jer take a cross country trip so early in his recovery. They did not want Jerry doing ANYTHING except feeding the Grateful Dead touring monster.

[ugly rumor]

Hmm...no "Byrds" either. I think without the Byrds Bob Dylan would not have gotten near so far so fast as he did. My humble opinion.

Eventually the members of The Band hated each other so much they wouldn't even stay in the same hotel or share limosines. How you can make good music that way is beyond me. "Without love in the dream, it can never come true".

[jeffm725]

Hmm...no "Byrds" either. I think without the Byrds Bob Dylan would not have gotten near so far so fast as he did. My humble opinion.

Eventually the members of The Band hated each other so much they wouldn't even stay in the same hotel or share limosines. How you can make good music that way is beyond me. "Without love in the dream, it can never come true".

Roger McGuinn was there and played a couple tunes.

[tcsned]

Here's Muddy's performance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQzZhkn0h98

I thought this was hilarious:

Fatefully, only one camera was operating during our song, zooming on Muddy, but not changing angle. Standing close to Muddy, I was in every frame. Pinetop, at the piano way off to the side, unfortunately was never seen in the film. But as Muddy hollers “I’m a MAN” and we shout “Yeah” to answer, as we always did in that song, you can hear Pinetop also yelling, “Wahoo!” -- which is a line from a politically incorrect joke that Pine had heard on the road, and was fond of telling over and over in 1976.

I know what joke he was talking about - those inside jokes that make their way to the stage crack me up.

This was also cool:

Around dawn, I put my old guitar back in its case, and started to leave. Bob Dylan caught me in the hall and said, “I thought we were going to jam...” I decided to stay awake a little longer. We had Dr. John on piano, Ron Wood on bass, Levon on drums, Butterfield on harp, and Clapton, Dylan, and myself playing guitars. There were no vocal microphones, and we all played softly enough to hear Dylan sing “Kind Hearted Woman” and a few other well-known blues songs. His trademark vocal eccentricities sounded outlandish in the blues, but he did make them his own. Generally, the blues we played that morning were not remarkable, but I was honored to be jamming with these fine musicians, and I realize that they belong to the same “club” as you do -- deep blues lovers.

[Rusty the Scoob]

Hmm...no "Byrds" either. I think without the Byrds Bob Dylan would not have gotten near so far so fast as he did. My humble opinion.

Eventually the members of The Band hated each other so much they wouldn't even stay in the same hotel or share limosines. How you can make good music that way is beyond me. "Without love in the dream, it can never come true".

Band dynamics are a funny thing. Cream hated each other, too... Ginger Baker used to throw drumsticks at Jack Bruce. And Buddy Rich was hated by nearly every person who was ever a member of his band.

Who knows, sometimes it just works.

[tcsned]

Yeah, I remember hearing Clapton say "Ginger and Jack loved each other's playing but couldn't stand each other's sight."

Django used to get pissed at Stephane Grappelli for taking long violin solos and would toss his guitar down, go across the street and start drinking.

Being able to make good music is somewhat irrelevant to whether or not you get along - makes life much happier if you do.