RESTAURANT
In Troy Only
TV DAY tilLifl
view with music journalist Ben Fong-
Torres at the spring 2002 SXSW
(South By Southwest Convention), an
annual music-industry confab and
new-talent showcase in Austin, Texas.
"So just thinking we'll stop that and
we'll enter a new phase of creativity,
that was the idea behind it ... to shuf-
fle the deck and do something that
fires you up again."
With band member Manuel's severe
alcoholism "a real concern to every-
body in the group," making the deci-
sion to stop touring was a protective
move, as well as one of survival,
Robertson said. And, true to
Robertson's concern, in 1986, 40-year-
old Manuel hanged himself in a
Florida hotel.
Passing The Baton
Today, Robertson, 58, is a creative
executive with DreamWorks, the mul-
tifaceted entertainment company
founded by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey
Katzenberg and David Geffen. In
revisiting The Last Waltz„ The Band's
former guitarist became motivated to
make the film more than an epitaph
for a lost era.
"I'm not one who sits around remi-
niscing that much, but The Last Waltz
was a particular situation where I
wanted to pass the baton on to
younger generations," he said. "I'm
saying, 'Here's a good example of what
was going on then. This is something
I'm very proud of.'
"I felt a responsibility to really do it
right and bring it up to these times."
Film director Martin Scorcese also
returned, to oversee the re-editing of
The Last Waltz, which he had original-
ly scripted and shot on wide-screen
35mm film. Both the movie and a
three-LP Warner Bros. soundtrack
were first released in 1978.
That The Last Waltz even danced to
the screen was, interestingly, hinged to
a mitzvah-like gesture that concert
impresario Bill Graham (Jewish-born
Wolfgang Grajonca) did on The
Band's behalf.
From the start, Graham took a deep
personal interest in creating the right
atmosphere for Robertson's intended
concert. He ornately transformed the
Winterland (where The Band had
played their first professional gig in
1969) with a Viennese opera house
motif, draping walls in velvet, hanging
crystal chandeliers and trucking in
Roman columns.
He even prevailed upon Robertson
to let him serve a Thanksgiving buffet
dinner, charging 5,400 rock fans only
$25 each for what he envisioned as
rock 'n' roll's last supper.
Beforehand, however, Bob Dylan
had agreed only to perform and not be
filmed. He cited conflicting overexpo-
sure with his own concert movie,
Renaldo and Clara.
Yet, unknown to Dylan, he had
been offered as guaranteed collateral in
exchange for the $1.5 million that
Warner Bros. Records had given
Robertson to bankroll The Last Waltz.
No Dylan, no financing.
As Dylan waited to go onstage,
Graham ran into the dressing room
and hurriedly negotiated, landsman to
landsman, to allow two songs for the
film. When cameras began rolling,
Graham quickly did a switcheroo,
yelling and commandeering Scorcese's
crew to shoot Dylan's entire set, single-
handedly salvaging the project from a
Chernobyl-like meltdown.
•
So why is Graham unseen and not
interviewed in the updated movie? Up
until his death in a helicopter crash in
1991, he expressed bitterness that •
Robertson never thanked him for his
good deed, or for the $2,000 cash
handouts that he gave each member of
The Band after the show. Robertson
respectfully disagrees, blaming
Graham's propensity to edit his own
memory. But despite the fallout,
Robertson is still proud to hoist an
umbrella above the concert's sharps
and flats.
"Something like The Last Waltz
shows the culmination of a generation's
period of inspiration," he says. "It
makes me think about what was in the
air, what was in the water, at that time.
"You hear a lot of people complain-
ing that, in these times we're living in,
it seems like the entertainment indus-
try is aiming everything at the lowest
common denominator. The Last Waltz
represented the flavors and influences
of The Band's music, and it showed an
incredible array of artists who were
really raising the bar." ❑
The Last Waltz, currently playing.
at selected theaters, will air on
VH1 at midnight Saturday, May
11. Check your local listings.
Rhino Records' four-CD boxed
set ($59.98 suggested retail),
including 24 previously unreleased
tracks, and Special Edition DVD
($24.98 suggested retail), featuring
new performances as well as new
interviews with Robbie Robertson
and Martin Scorsese, are available
for purchase in stores or through
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