Let the party begin

Press, 7 August 1978, Page 6

Let the party begin

By

STAN DARLING

I We have seen the future, and it works. The future is a concert ! film called “The Last Waltz,” I which will start in Christ- ; church on Friday. If all rock ! concerts were as good as that, we could sit through (one a day. A long time ago, when innocence was in flower, someone trained cameras on the Woodstock festival and made a superb film. This one is even better. Without all the frantic Dr Rock zooms and hype, it leaves punk rock for dead and shows what can be done to weave together different styles by people really interested in music. Some viewers overseas have i seen the film and said this I is what music used to be I like, sort of a journey through

the past — the 1960 s — and a fit subject for nostalgia. It is more than that. None of these musicians are faders. they are stayers. Their music is today, even though some of it — especially songs by The Band — has strains of 100 years ago in Canada and the United States. Bob Dylan can take an early song, “Baby Let Me Follow You Down,” and kick it into such a different gear that you would hardly know it.

Watch the faces on these musicians. There is little posing, there are lots of smiles. It is the kind of music that makes some of us want to yank, out the stops and say yippee.

Muddy Waters comes out on stage. He is now 74, and he is still the best blues man.

Four years ago, Dylan had been lying low for some time

and decided to tour again. He got together with The Band, formerly Iris back-up musicians, and when word leaked out concert stadiums all over the United States were booked out within days. Bob Dylan was good

enough, but The Band made it the most popular tour in years. “The Last Waltz,” in 1976 was supposedly The Band’s last concert, and it has the same infectious spirit of the earlier pairing. The bringing on of friends — Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Van Morrison, Ronnie Hawkins and the rest — makes it a carnival of sound. Anyone interested in music should see the film. Up on Cripple Creek, it will send you; if you spring a leak, it’ll mend you.

The partv is not over, it is just beginning.