Not that anybody noticed much, due to his lack of screen time. As Ronnie Hawkins was said to have joked at the screening for the film, "Was Richard still in the group when we did this?"
i quote myself,there were horn arrangements by Tom Malone,Howard Johnson,Allen Toussaint,John Simon,Garth Hudson,Henry Glover.
and the Caravan horn arrangements were Van's with Jack Schroer or Collin Tilton. Maybe John Simon did the transcriptions.
Toussaint did all the horn arrangements on "Rock of Ages" and I believe his Last Waltz credit is for the arrangement sthat were re-used there.
My guess would be that they had to make sure Garth's overdubs were consistent with the film shots. At that point they probably didn't know what performance footage of his to keep or throw away so he probably had to play parts that generally synced up with what his fingers are doing on film.
Rick was playing a fretless bass which means he had to place his fingers in exactly the right spot to be on pitch. He was a little too wasted/exhausted to do that, thus the overdubbing. Plus he changed some parts a lot. If you're a musician, watch his fretting hand. Sometimes he's playing something completely different than we're hearing, according to my ears. In Robertson's case, it's more that he cut out the bad parts of his solos rather than that he overdubbed.
My mistake, I was thinking of Rock Of Ages only. All of those guys were credited on The Last Waltz album for horn arrangements. The story is that the horns were recorded out of balance, so they had to come up with new arrangements and overdub them. IIRC, John Simon was the conductor of the horn section att he concert. If you look closely, you can see him in the background during the film. Before the start of Caravan in the film, you can hear Robbie yell "John....SIMON!". As you were
If you watch the wide shot at the start of Mystery Train as the lights go out, Ricahrd is seated at the drums. The same goes for Such A Night...Richard was on drums for that as well...I think he can be spied a little in the background at the end of the song.
speaking of John Simon, his two warner brothers solo albums from the early 70s are wonderful. still have my vinyls and you can order cds directly from his website.
yeah,it took me a long time to see that,also manuel seems to be leaving the second drum kit after such a night
How do you know Robertson was following the same rules as everyone else?? I think that is the whole premise of this thread. We know he is credited to to writing them but it's the whole process of documenting the credits that may be in question. I'll concede that Robby was the lead writer on many of the songs, but I hold out the possibility that he also credited himself as the writer of other songs that he had a more minor role. I think that is the situation Levon points out in his book "This Wheels on Fire". Truthfully we will never know but I think there is enough circumstantial evidence to put it into question. The Nelson Riddle analogy is a stretch.
Actually Rick was playing a fretted Gibson "Ripper" bass at the Last Waltz (as he had done throughout The Band's '76 tour). As for watching his fretting hand, yer absolutely right, Kevy- the audio and the visuals simply don't match up in spots. Again, comparing the soundboard recording and the film/official LP, Rick seems out of tune quite a bit on the night, although that might be down to the Ripper's intonation or whatever or simply Rick's coked-out condition. Or possibly both...either way, there was no question some of those bass parts needed some after the fact tweaking. And, yeah, Robbie was prone to some very selective editing of his guitar clams after the fact. Bottom line: hearing the soundboard or audience recordings of The Last Waltz, you hear what is actually a pretty mediocre performance in spots. IMO Scorsese and Robertson were 100% correct to include what they did on the film and official triple album...ya gotta admit, their editing and post production work made what was simply a 'good' concert a GREAT one.
I really think you can thank Mark Lavon Helm for planting the eternal seeds of dislike towards Robbie Robertson. I mean, none of us here have a dog in this hunt- but yer right, people tend to either defend Robbie or take Levon's side completely, it seems. I don't see why...as I've said more than once, neither of them were exactly saints; if Levon had spent even a fraction of the time standing up to Robbie back when it all went down that he did basically defaming the man years after the fact, then Levon probably wouldn't've had all that much to b-tch about. And I know Levon basically admitted in his book that he just didn't have the energy at the time to "fight" Robbie and the management (gee...ya think Levon's heroin addiction at the time mighta had something to do with it?), so ya gotta ask yerself, "So who's fault was that, Levon?". Levon went overboard big time IMO, whereas I don't think Rick, Richard and Garth really gave a sh-t one way or another. After all, they all worked with Robbie after he quit, Levon didn't. Sure, Robbie was an egotistical pr-ck most of the time, but I don't think he consciously set out to screw the other guys. He was looking out for himself, always. And I hope that doesn't seem like I'm defending Robertson Like I said earlier, I don't think either Robbie or Levon were right...I reckon they both f-cked up about equally...
you nailed it now, the editing was for the better,and if you think the show is a movie then THE BAND are actors,no problem fixin' their lines.
I'm not sure when Levon's bitterness for Robbie started. I think it began in 1983, when Robbie declined to be involved in the reunion. But I have no idea. I don't think it matters. Here's a photo of Levon, Diamond Helm (Levon's dad), Robbie, Albert Grossman, and Ronnie Hawkins at RCO album release party at Levon's in Woodstock...circa 1978. I doubt Levon was bitter then
Here is a link to a Sept. 2002 article from MIX magazine, The Last Waltz: Recording, Mixing and Remaking the Music: http://theband.hiof.no/articles/m02_tlw.html
