Tag: The Last Waltz

Late Night With Jimmy Fallon’s Last Waltz

Fallon The Muppets
In the last few weeks, media attention has focused on Jay Leno’s exit from The Tonight Show, even though at the same time, Jimmy Fallon was winding down Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. The focus was understandable, considering that NBC was merely moving Fallon down the hall to take a seat behind the desk at The Tonight Show. Last night on Late Night, Jimmy Fallon had an appropriately subdued farewell show that recognized a chapter was ending, not a book. Still, the show featured a number of nice moments. One of the highlights, which illustrated Fallon’s intelligence and respect for history, was going out with a nod the The Band‘s famous last bow, The Last Waltz (1978).

Before Late Night closed with Fallon walking down the hall to The Tonight Show studio, the final musical performance on a show known for music featured Fallon playing drums with the Muppets as the group performed “The Weight.” The video recreated the look of The Band’s own performance of the song in The Last Waltz, the Martin Scorsese directed documentary about The Band’s final show. Fallon, always respectful of his audience’s intelligence, made no reference to The Last Waltz, recognizing folks would either get the reference or just enjoy the song. Check it out.

The filming of the musical performance even echos the look and lighting of The Last Waltz performance, starting with the opening shot of Fallon playing drums and singing in the place of the late great Levon Helm. Check out the song from The Last Waltz, a performance that also featured Mavis Staples and The Staple Singers:

Earlier in his final Late Night show, Fallon also told a little Muppet history, explaining how many years ago when Jim Henson and Frank Oz had visited the studio, the two had painted characters on some exposed pipes. Fallon discussed how when he took over the show, they had remodeled so the paintings could be seen by more people.

In the Late Night time slot, Fallon already has set a high bar for himself as he transfers to the earlier more high-profile show. From fun performances like this one of “The Weight,” incorporating a classic music and movie reference that respected the intelligence of his audience, I am betting Fallon will be hosting The Tonight Show for a long time.

What do you think of Fallon taking over The Tonight Show? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Robert E Lee Bobblehead The Onion AV Club recently presented this cover of The Band’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” as part of its Underground series. Here, Glen Hansard is joined by Lisa Hannigan, who is touring with Hansard, and John Smith to sing the song at Chicago’s Architectural Artifacts, a museum and store.

    In the first part of the video before they sing the song, Hansard talks about the first time he heard “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and how he always remembers that moment in his life when he thinks of the song. Check it out.

    “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” which evokes the waning days of the American Civil War in the South, first appeared on The Band’s self-titled album in 1969. Since then, there have been a number of live versions released by The Band, including on The Last Waltz (1976), and the song has been recorded by other artists, including a hit version by Joan Baez in 1971. As in the case of the artists in the video above, Baez does a great cover on the song, but the definitive versions remain with Levon Helm’s lead singing with The Band.

    Even though the songwriting is officially credited to Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm later noted that he helped with the research and the writing. Whether or not he wrote the song, it became his song when he sang it. Apparently, Helm never sang the song again after his performance at The Last Waltz, shown below when all the people were singin’.

    What is your favorite version of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Cover Songs: Wilco, Mavis Staples, and Nick Lowe cover “The Weight”

    In December, three music heavyweights got together backstage at the Civic Opera House in Chicago and jammed on The Band’s classic song, “The Weight.” Below, hear Wilco, Nick Lowe, and Mavis Staples take turns on the verses.

    Staples is no stranger to the song, having performed the song with her family and The Band on Martin Scorsese’s classic rock film, The Last Waltz.

    The song’s writer, Robbie Robertson, as well as other members of The Band have commented on the song’s meaning through the years and the fact that the characters in the song are named after people they knew. For an interesting detailed analysis of the lyrics — such as “Who was Crazy Chester?,” check out this article from Peter Viney. For example, it is “Fanny,” not “Annie” in the chorus, and the Nazareth is in Pennsylvania. The Dallas Observer has a recent short article about the song “The Weight,” including some discussion of how the song abides along with links to some other versions.

    What do you think of the jam version of “The Weight”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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