“Give us one more”: The touching story of the last song The Band ever played
Perhaps one of the most iconic final shows ever delivered in the history of rock music, The Band‘s The Last Waltz performance was anything but a relieving end of an era for a group who had chosen to call it quits.
The legendary Canadian-American group had made it clear that this 1976 performance was to be their last, had billed it as such to audiences, and even gone as far as to enlist filmmaker Martin Scorsese to document the entire night to be made into a concert film. The Band had gone all out in order to make it a special occasion, but they certainly put themselves through the wringer in order to ensure that this would be a night to remember.
Inviting an all-star cast of friends to accompany them throughout, and performing 38 songs in the main set alone, they hadn’t opted to do things by halves, and the spectacle had been thoroughly lapped up by everyone in attendance. That sentiment also applied to those closest to the band who had watched them from the wings, and after two encores of an already gargantuan performance, the group and their entourage were exhausted from the endurance test of the show.
However, according to band-leader Robbie Robertson’s autobiography, one person who wasn’t quite done with the show was concert promoter Bill Graham, who apparently came storming into the dressing room to address the band and make one final request.
“No one has left,” he allegedly told Robertson and the band. “The audience is out there stomping and cheering. You have to go back out there.” Robertson recalled how he initially reacted with a sense of incredulity, noting that they’d already been on stage for several hours by this point and had already given the audience what they wanted, responding that that was “enough,” although Graham was intent on twisting his arm.
“They know this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and they’re begging for one more,” Graham responded, with his voice beginning to crack and quiver as he uttered his final plea. “Do it for me. If this is The Band’s final concert, for god’s sake, give us one more. The final concert of The Band. Man, that’s heartbreaking.”
Robertson claimed that he was touched by hearing him use the phrase “final concert”, saying that he “felt his sadness a hundred times over, but knew I wanted to ride this train into the station with purpose and pride.” After managing to collect himself, conferring with the rest of the band, and alerting Scorsese’s crew that they were returning for a final encore, they took to their respective stations for a rendition of ‘Don’t Do It’, a Marvin Gaye song that they’d been known to cover in the past.
“When we came out again, the roar was deafening,” Robertson recalled of the moment they took to the stage for the final time. “I couldn’t believe the crowd still had this much energy. John Simon hustled the horn players back into position, and they pulled out the only chart we hadn’t used tonight. Larry Samuels alerted the mobile recording truck. ‘They’re doing another one. Hit record!’”
While the show would undoubtedly have been an outrageous success without them returning for one literal ‘last waltz’, their decision to leave fans with this parting gift was not only thrilling for the people who had gathered to send them off, but also for them, providing a fitting coda for a beloved band.
