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Martin Scorsese, The Band, and The Last Waltz: A Thanksgiving Story · DISGRACELAND

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Speaker 1: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners.
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Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information.
0:07
Speaker 2: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is a
0:23
Speaker 2: Thanksgiving story, but it's also a story about rock and roll,
0:27
Speaker 2: about living fast and trying to die young, about cocaine
0:32
Speaker 2: and suicide, about leaving blood on the cutting room floor.
0:38
Speaker 2: It's about purpose and gratitude and serving Thanksgiving dinner to
0:42
Speaker 2: five thousand rock and roll fans, and about one of
0:45
Speaker 2: the greatest rock and roll bands of all time, the
0:48
Speaker 2: band captured on film by one of the greatest filmmakers
0:52
Speaker 2: of all time, Martin Scorsese. This is also a story
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Speaker 2: about The Last Waltz, a movie that obviously features great music.
1:03
Speaker 2: Unlike that music I played for you at the top
1:05
Speaker 2: of the show that wasn't great music. That was a
1:08
Speaker 2: preset loop from my melotron called Matilda's Hustle MK one.
1:15
Speaker 2: I played you that loop because I can't afford the
1:18
Speaker 2: rights to Tonight's the Night Gonna Be Alright by Rod Stewart.
1:23
Speaker 2: And why would I play you that specific slice of
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Speaker 2: Rod the bad Geez? Could I afford it? Because that
1:31
Speaker 2: was the number one song in America on Thanksgiving Day
1:34
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy six, and that was the day that the
1:37
Speaker 2: band staged their farewell concert at the Winterland Ballroom in
1:40
Speaker 2: San Francisco, a show that was captured by director Martin
1:44
Speaker 2: Scorsese and turned into one of the greatest concert films
1:47
Speaker 2: of all time, all of it coming at a great
1:51
Speaker 2: price to those involved.
1:54
Speaker 1: On this episode.
1:56
Speaker 2: Cocaine, Chaos, Living, Fast, Dying, Young, Speedboats, Turkey, Martin Scorsese,
2:03
Speaker 2: the Band in the Last Walls. I'm Jake Brennan.
2:08
Speaker 1: And this this disgraceland.
2:42
Speaker 2: Film opens on interior of house in the Hollywood Hills,
2:46
Speaker 2: just off Mulholland Drive. We follow a POV tracking shot
2:51
Speaker 2: into the living room. It's like a cave in there.
2:54
Speaker 2: The windows are blacked out, the walls are covered with
2:58
Speaker 2: soundproof panels. We see people on couches and chairs, musicians, filmmakers,
3:05
Speaker 2: hangers on. As we pass by them. The low hum
3:09
Speaker 2: of the central air unit is drowned out by the
3:11
Speaker 2: rhythmic clatter of a film projector coming from down the hall.
3:15
Speaker 2: Camera enters the bedroom and stops. An old movie flickers
3:20
Speaker 2: on the bedroom wall.
3:22
Speaker 1: It's Lane.
3:23
Speaker 2: A thirty three year old man watches as the movie
3:25
Speaker 2: comes to an end. He has a neat beard and
3:29
Speaker 2: big eyebrows, and is dressed in a T shirt tucked
3:31
Speaker 2: into jeans, held up by a belt with a thick buckle.
3:35
Speaker 2: He talks like a guy wired on cocaine because he
3:38
Speaker 2: is a guy wired on cocaine. This man is Martin Scorsese,
3:44
Speaker 2: the great American filmmaker, recently honored with the highest award
3:48
Speaker 2: at the Canned Film Festival, the Palm d'ur for a
3:51
Speaker 2: Shocking movie Taxi Driver. But Martin Scorsese isn't resting on
3:57
Speaker 2: his laurels.
3:58
Speaker 1: He doesn't have time for that.
4:00
Speaker 2: He is reminded every day about time, about life and
4:05
Speaker 2: mortality simply by breathing.
4:08
Speaker 1: Afflicted with asthma since he was three years old.
4:11
Speaker 2: Growing up in New York's Lower East Side, surrounded by
4:14
Speaker 2: men of the cloth and men of the gun, Marty
4:17
Speaker 2: here is a frail observer who knows that Heaven and
4:21
Speaker 2: Hell are both well just a shot away.
4:27
Speaker 1: Now.
4:28
Speaker 2: In the summer of nineteen seventy six, to be exact,
4:31
Speaker 2: Marty lived well above the smog line in la on
4:34
Speaker 2: doctor's orders, suffering from not one but two afflictions, well
4:39
Speaker 2: three if you count the cocaine habit, and four if
4:42
Speaker 2: you count the need for absolute chaos in his personal life.
4:45
Speaker 1: But more on that later.
4:48
Speaker 2: I'm talking about the affliction of movies, watching them, making them.
4:54
Speaker 2: Marty truly had an obsession. He also had an obsession
4:58
Speaker 2: with work, and he was thankful for the work. He
5:02
Speaker 2: was defined by the work, by movies, by obsession. He
5:06
Speaker 2: was driven by compulsion. A compulsion not just.
5:09
Speaker 1: To keep making movies as he was doing.
5:11
Speaker 2: Now working on his follow up to Taxi Driver, a
5:15
Speaker 2: musical with Robert.
5:16
Speaker 1: De Niro and Liza Minelli called New York.
5:18
Speaker 2: New York, but a compulsion to work so hard that
5:21
Speaker 2: it would push his life right to the edge. It
5:24
Speaker 2: was this compulsion that led him to say yes to
5:27
Speaker 2: directing The Last Waltz, the Farewell concert film for the band,
5:32
Speaker 2: and to do so simultaneously while making New York New York.
5:37
Speaker 2: He wasn't supposed to say yes to the band. His
5:40
Speaker 2: contract with United Artists prohibited him from taking on another
5:44
Speaker 2: movie until New York New York was finished. But he
5:48
Speaker 2: couldn't turn down the opportunity to burn the candle at
5:50
Speaker 2: both ends, to work himself to death. And I'm not
5:54
Speaker 2: even being hyperbolic. Here, Martin Scorsese himself said about his
5:58
Speaker 2: lifestyle at the time, and I quote, I wanted to
6:01
Speaker 2: push all the way to the very very.
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Speaker 1: End and see if I could die.
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Speaker 2: But there was something else too. Marty couldn't turn down
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Speaker 2: the opportunity to work with the band for two reasons. One,
6:14
Speaker 2: Martin Scorsese was rock and roll to his core. One
6:18
Speaker 2: of his earliest professional credits came as an editor on
6:21
Speaker 2: the Woodstock documentary, and his use of music in his
6:24
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy three film Mean Streets, like that slow motion
6:28
Speaker 2: scene in which de Niro walks into a bar while
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Speaker 2: the Rolling Stones Jumping Jack flash plays there's nothing short
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Speaker 2: of masterful. And the second reason this was the band
6:40
Speaker 2: we're talking about, one of Marty's favorite rock and roll
6:44
Speaker 2: groups and also one of the most consequential groups in
6:47
Speaker 2: American music over the previous decade. It's impossible to really
6:53
Speaker 2: overstate just how revolutionary the band were when their debut album,
6:57
Speaker 2: Music from Big Pink dropped in the summer of nineteen
7:00
Speaker 2: sixty eight. That record, it sounded unlike anything else that
7:04
Speaker 2: had been released at the time, which at that time
7:07
Speaker 2: the music of the so called counterculture. Was psychedelic and
7:10
Speaker 2: super far out. But this music, the music that the
7:13
Speaker 2: band was making, was far in. As Richard Thompson, then
7:18
Speaker 2: a member of Fairport Convention put in, music from Big
7:21
Speaker 2: Pink was counter counterculture. It was organic, lived in homespun.
7:28
Speaker 2: It made Eric Clapton quit cream. It inspired George Harrison
7:33
Speaker 2: of the Beatles to visit Woodstock, New York, where that
7:35
Speaker 2: unique brand of home spawned American music was coming from.
7:40
Speaker 1: But that American music.
7:41
Speaker 2: Was in fact being made by four Canadians Robbie Robertson
7:46
Speaker 2: on guitar, Rick Danko on bass, and Richard Manuel and
7:50
Speaker 2: Garth Hudson on keys, along with just one American, Levon
7:54
Speaker 2: Helm on drums. And those guys. The band had been
8:00
Speaker 2: band for years, touring ever since they were teenagers, first
8:04
Speaker 2: as The Hawks, the backing group for a rockabilly artist
8:07
Speaker 2: Ronnie Hawkins, and later with Bob Dylan, and then briefly
8:11
Speaker 2: as the Crackers, and now simply as the band for
8:15
Speaker 2: the first time performing their own songs, most of which.
8:19
Speaker 1: Were written by Robbie Robertson. Robbie wasn't a singer, but he.
8:23
Speaker 2: Didn't have to be, because perhaps the greatest thing about
8:27
Speaker 2: the band was that they boasted three of the best
8:29
Speaker 2: singers of their time or of any time. Rick Danko,
8:32
Speaker 2: Richard Manuel, and Levon helm all traded vocals, each with
8:36
Speaker 2: the voice as compelling as the last, especially Levon, who
8:40
Speaker 2: lent his soulful, authentic Arkansas drawl the songs like the
8:43
Speaker 2: Weight up on Cripple Creek in the night they drove
8:46
Speaker 2: Old Dixie down. And just like Martin Scorsese, the members
8:50
Speaker 2: of the band were defined by obsession and driven by compulsion,
8:55
Speaker 2: a compulsion to play, to tour constantly.
9:00
Speaker 1: At this point, they've.
9:01
Speaker 2: Been doing it since nineteen fifty seven, for nineteen long years,
9:06
Speaker 2: and the demanding lifestyle is taking its toll. Richard Manual,
9:11
Speaker 2: for one, was struggling two suicide attempts in nineteen seventy
9:15
Speaker 2: six alone. First he tried to set himself on fire,
9:18
Speaker 2: and then he put a bb gun to his head
9:20
Speaker 2: and pulled the trigger. And Richard kept on ticking, at
9:23
Speaker 2: least for now, but his days were numbered and dinto
9:26
Speaker 2: for the band, or so Robbie Robertson thought as he
9:30
Speaker 2: watched his group's good fortune run out, just like he
9:35
Speaker 2: was watching as Richard almost died on a speedboat outside Austin.
9:39
Speaker 2: That summer of nineteen seventy six, the band would booked
9:43
Speaker 2: to perform a music festival at Steiner Ranch. The roads
9:46
Speaker 2: to the festival were blocked and the only way in
9:49
Speaker 2: was by water. So the five guys piled into a
9:52
Speaker 2: speedboat which was now haul and asked of the Colorado
9:55
Speaker 2: River to their destination, and the Texas heat bore down
9:59
Speaker 2: in the win and rippled through their hair. Richard stood
10:02
Speaker 2: up from where he was seated in the back to
10:04
Speaker 2: move up front, and as he did this, the boat.
10:07
Speaker 1: Hit a wave and leapt from the water.
10:09
Speaker 2: Richard felt his legs wobble and tried to steady himself,
10:12
Speaker 2: but it happened too fast.
10:14
Speaker 1: And the boat came back down hard and Richard was
10:17
Speaker 1: thrown backwards.
10:18
Speaker 2: His head swung violently and something snapped. The doctor told
10:24
Speaker 2: Richard his neck was fractured. He prescribed bedrest, but Richard,
10:29
Speaker 2: only knowing a life on the road, a life that
10:31
Speaker 2: never slowed, instead self medicated with a bottle.
10:35
Speaker 1: Of Grand Marnier.
10:38
Speaker 2: Robbie meanwhile read into Richard's accident like a fortune teller
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Speaker 2: reading a decataro cards. The band needed to hang up
10:45
Speaker 2: their rock and roll shoes. So Robbie hatched a plan.
10:49
Speaker 2: One final show at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco,
10:54
Speaker 2: the location of the band's very first show as the band.
10:58
Speaker 2: They would invite a bunch of their their friends, their
11:01
Speaker 2: influences even to join them on stage and cameo appearances,
11:05
Speaker 2: and to top it all off, Martin Scorsese, the rock
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Speaker 2: star director who was going to capture it all on film.
11:13
Speaker 2: Levon Helm, however, objected to the whole thing. He didn't
11:17
Speaker 2: want to hang out anything. In Levon's eyes, the band
11:20
Speaker 2: was at the top of their game, but there was
11:23
Speaker 2: no arguing with Robbie.
11:25
Speaker 1: He was the primary songwriter. If he was done, the
11:28
Speaker 1: band was done.
11:30
Speaker 2: So the plan was set. So the tickets went on
11:34
Speaker 2: sale for the Last Waltz, which would be the last
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Speaker 2: concert that the band would ever give, on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday,
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Speaker 2: November twenty fifth, nineteen seventy six. Robbie Robertson thought it
11:45
Speaker 2: would be a great parting gift to the fans, and
11:48
Speaker 2: levon Helm prayed it was all a cosmic joke, and
11:52
Speaker 2: Martin Scorsese hoped it would kill him. The Last Waltz
12:24
Speaker 2: is widely acknowledged as one of, if not the greatest
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Speaker 2: concert film of all time, and for good reason. I mean,
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Speaker 2: come on, from the moment the band come blasting out
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Speaker 2: of the gate with that funky cover of Marvin Gaye,
12:37
Speaker 2: don't do it. You know you're in the hands of
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Speaker 2: one of the greatest groups to ever do it, documented
12:44
Speaker 2: by one of our most visionary directors, who in that
12:48
Speaker 2: moment is bringing super rich visual vocabulary to a film
12:52
Speaker 2: genre that had never been treated with such care. But
12:57
Speaker 2: the Last Waltz, it was some monumental under taking. It's
13:01
Speaker 2: kind of a miracle that had ever happened. Nothing of
13:05
Speaker 2: this scale or scope had ever been attempted before in
13:08
Speaker 2: live concert filmmaking. Seeing as it was Thanksgiving, the legendary
13:13
Speaker 2: concert promoter Bill Graham, who ran the venue, the Winterland Ballroom,
13:17
Speaker 2: decided to serve all five thousand concert goers a full
13:21
Speaker 2: Thanksgiving dinner. That's four thousand pounds of turkey, two thousand
13:26
Speaker 2: pounds of candied yams, eight hundred pounds of pies, and
13:30
Speaker 2: ninety gallons of gravy. And there were the logistics of
13:34
Speaker 2: the dinner, which took place at tables on the floor
13:36
Speaker 2: of the ballroom. And then there were the logistics of
13:38
Speaker 2: cleaning the dinner and the tables to make way for yes, waltzing,
13:43
Speaker 2: ballroom dancing, and then the concert itself. Doors opened at
13:48
Speaker 2: five pm, dinner was served at seven, the music started
13:51
Speaker 2: around nine, and the whole thing didn't end until after
13:54
Speaker 2: two in the morning.
13:55
Speaker 1: But I'm getting ahead of myself.
13:58
Speaker 2: Even more of a cluster than the cater dinner was
14:01
Speaker 2: the film production. Martin Scorsese decided to shoot the movie
14:05
Speaker 2: not in sixteen millimeter, which was the norm for rock
14:08
Speaker 2: docs like Monterey Pop and Gimme Shelter, instead opting to
14:12
Speaker 2: shoot it in thirty five millimeter. If you're unfamiliar with
14:15
Speaker 2: the film stocks, thirty five millimeter was for a long
14:18
Speaker 2: time the industry standard. It's more versatile than sixteen millimeter,
14:22
Speaker 2: and it gives you better image quality. But that said,
14:24
Speaker 2: typically a documentary filmmaker wouldn't spare the extra money or
14:28
Speaker 2: the headache involved to shoot on thirty five To shoot
14:30
Speaker 2: a concert, the documentary budgets weren't that big. Besides, you
14:34
Speaker 2: got a raw, grainier image with sixteen. But Martin Scorsese,
14:38
Speaker 2: of course, was not your typical filmmaker. The problem with
14:43
Speaker 2: thirty five millimeter film was that it was more flamable
14:46
Speaker 2: than sixteen millimeter, and the cameras required for this caliber
14:50
Speaker 2: of a shoot were these huge panavision cameras. They weren't
14:54
Speaker 2: designed to run constantly, which they would need to do
14:57
Speaker 2: to capture a concert in real time one take only
15:00
Speaker 2: no safety net, and this led to a real concern
15:04
Speaker 2: that the cameras would explode into flames. So just imagine
15:09
Speaker 2: five thousand people running for the exits as winter Land burned.
15:14
Speaker 2: And then there was Winterland's floor. It had too much give,
15:19
Speaker 2: which is to say, it was a bit spongy when
15:22
Speaker 2: the house was full, as it would be on this evening.
15:25
Speaker 2: Amartin Scorsese and his cameraman had to drill holes in
15:28
Speaker 2: the floor to install stabilizing poles so that they could
15:31
Speaker 2: perfectly render the images that Marty had so meticulously storyboarded
15:35
Speaker 2: ahead of time. Bill Graham, for one, was less than
15:39
Speaker 2: thrilled with this plant. But here's the thing. It was
15:42
Speaker 2: a risk, and Bill Graham was a.
15:44
Speaker 1: Guy who trafficked in risk.
15:46
Speaker 2: He understood that the bigger the risk, the bigger the payoff.
15:50
Speaker 2: And the payoff for this particular risk, well it's right
15:53
Speaker 2: there in the movie after the dinner, after the dancing,
15:58
Speaker 2: and after the band's hour long open set. You're standing
16:01
Speaker 2: there in the crowd and you can hardly believe your eyes.
16:06
Speaker 2: You thought you were just gonna see the band tonight,
16:08
Speaker 2: but all of a sudden, all these heavyweight guest stars
16:11
Speaker 2: begin to appear. Each won a bigger surprise than the last.
16:16
Speaker 2: You had no idea, and now you are s Don't
16:21
Speaker 2: just look at all these icons Neil Young, Joni Mitchell,
16:25
Speaker 2: Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, Paul Butterfield, Doctor John
16:30
Speaker 2: Bob Dylan and Neil Diamond. Okay, hold up, I love
16:36
Speaker 2: Neil Diamond full stop. Okay, not full stop. But when
16:40
Speaker 2: he showed up at rehearsal earlier in the week, the
16:43
Speaker 2: band's drummer, Leavon Helm, the one who didn't want to
16:45
Speaker 2: do the whole last Waltz thing in the first place,
16:47
Speaker 2: was like, what the fuck is Neil Diamond doing here?
16:51
Speaker 2: And what the hell does Neil Diamond have to do
16:53
Speaker 2: with the band? He asked Robbie robertson these questions, and
16:57
Speaker 2: Robbie's response was that all the musicians involved represented a
17:01
Speaker 2: part of the musical hole that made up the band.
17:03
Speaker 2: For example, Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton were the blues,
17:08
Speaker 2: Doctor John was New.
17:09
Speaker 1: Orleans R and B.
17:10
Speaker 2: And you know, Neil Diamond was there to rep the
17:12
Speaker 2: great tradition of tin pan alley pop. Levon called bullshit.
17:18
Speaker 2: He knew the real reason Robbie invited Neil because Robbie
17:22
Speaker 2: just produced Neil's new album. It was Robbie looking out
17:25
Speaker 2: for Robbie, or so Levon thought. Levon also thought that
17:29
Speaker 2: Neil Diamond was one guest too many. At this rate,
17:33
Speaker 2: the concert would never end. This sentiment was shared by
17:36
Speaker 2: the studio United Artists, which sent one of its lackeys
17:39
Speaker 2: to talk to the band about making some changes, and
17:42
Speaker 2: the lackey got to leave. On first, Levon. Lackie said,
17:46
Speaker 2: there's too many damn guest.
17:47
Speaker 1: Stars in this day. We got to cut somebody.
17:50
Speaker 2: Levon assumed Neil Diamond was the logical choice, but the
17:53
Speaker 2: studio had other ideas.
17:56
Speaker 1: Levon.
17:56
Speaker 2: The lackey said, we were hoping you could go talk
17:59
Speaker 2: to Muddy Walk and tell him that he's no longer
18:01
Speaker 2: a part of the show. Levon literally could not believe
18:06
Speaker 2: what he was hearing. Time was tight, and given the options,
18:10
Speaker 2: they wanted to cut Muddy Waters over Neil Diamond, the
18:14
Speaker 2: father of modern Chicago Blues, the UCI Coucie man himself.
18:18
Speaker 2: He spells it m A and Levon looked a lackey
18:20
Speaker 2: in the eye and said, sure thing, Boss, I'll go
18:23
Speaker 2: talk to Money, and not only will I talk to
18:25
Speaker 2: him but I'll take him back to New York with
18:27
Speaker 2: me and will do the Last Waltz just the two
18:29
Speaker 2: of us. How about that I get the hell out
18:32
Speaker 2: of my sight before I have a couple of Arkansas
18:34
Speaker 2: boys stomp you to death. Thanks to levon Helm, Muddy
18:39
Speaker 2: Waters wasn't going anywhere. He stayed, and he delivered one
18:43
Speaker 2: of the Last Waltz's most riveting performances. And this was
18:47
Speaker 2: good news for the audience that night and for the
18:50
Speaker 2: millions who eventually saw the movie, but especially for Martin Scorsese,
18:55
Speaker 2: because if levon Helm had actually left, if he fucked
18:58
Speaker 2: with the plan, there would be no concert, and if
19:01
Speaker 2: there was no concert, there would be no movie. And
19:04
Speaker 2: if there was no movie, Martin Scorsese would not be
19:08
Speaker 2: able to make the Last Waltz while also simultaneously making
19:12
Speaker 2: New York New York, and thus could not work himself
19:16
Speaker 2: to death, or at least to a near death experience,
19:19
Speaker 2: as was his desire. Now, in the grand.
19:23
Speaker 1: Scheme of things, it only really mattered.
19:26
Speaker 2: If Bob Dylan left, because Bob Dylan was the only
19:29
Speaker 2: reason Warner Brothers agreed to finance this whole thing.
19:32
Speaker 1: And yeah, I know, I said.
19:34
Speaker 2: Earlier that the United Artists was a company putting out
19:36
Speaker 2: the movie, which is true, But Warner Brothers was slated
19:38
Speaker 2: to release the companion three LP soundtrack album, So you
19:43
Speaker 2: won't be surprised to hear that Martin Scorsese's heart already
19:46
Speaker 2: beating a mile a minute thanks to the cocaine just
19:49
Speaker 2: about lodged up in his throat when he was told
19:51
Speaker 2: that Bob Dylan had changed his mind and no longer
19:54
Speaker 2: wanted to perform. This announce McCaine during intermission, fifteen minutes
19:59
Speaker 2: before before he was supposed to appear on stage. At
20:03
Speaker 2: the time, Dylan was in the middle of making his
20:05
Speaker 2: own movie, Rinaldo and Clara, featuring footage from his recent
20:09
Speaker 2: Rolling Thunder review tour, and he'd come to the decision
20:13
Speaker 2: that participating in Martin Scorsese's film was a conflict of interest.
20:17
Speaker 2: When he came to this decision fifteen minutes before he
20:20
Speaker 2: was supposed to go on stage. Marty could feel his
20:24
Speaker 2: heart pounding in his head. Now this would be his ruin.
20:29
Speaker 2: That palm door wouldn't mean shit the next time he
20:31
Speaker 2: wanted financing for a movie if Bob Dylan walked.
20:34
Speaker 1: And Warners pulled the pluck.
20:37
Speaker 2: Bill Graham meanwhile, looked at the situation the way he
20:40
Speaker 2: looked at all those holes that were drolled into Winterland's
20:43
Speaker 2: beautiful old floors. He saw the risk. Furthermore, he knew
20:48
Speaker 2: that Bob Dylan was a kindred spirit to the boys
20:50
Speaker 2: in the band and to Martin Scorsese.
20:53
Speaker 1: He was obsessed with his job. He had a.
20:55
Speaker 2: Compulsion to perform, and Bill Graham knew he could change
20:58
Speaker 2: Dylan's mind. He just had to take that next risk.
21:02
Speaker 2: He went to talk to Dylan alone in the dressing room,
21:05
Speaker 2: like a hostage negotiator, and after a few minutes he emerged.
21:09
Speaker 2: Bill Graham and Bob Dylan had reached a compromise. Dylan
21:13
Speaker 2: would appear in the movie after all, but they could
21:15
Speaker 2: only film the last two songs of his set.
21:18
Speaker 1: Marty and the band agreed.
21:20
Speaker 2: Everything was good again, that is until immediately after the
21:24
Speaker 2: show is over, when Bob Dylan did the unthinkable. He
21:28
Speaker 2: stole the last Waltz audio tapes.
21:35
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after this. We're We're where.
21:45
Speaker 2: The story of the stolen Last Waltz tapes is so
21:48
Speaker 2: unbelievable that it's easy to write it off as apocryphone,
21:52
Speaker 2: Like Bob Dylan is going to beat Bob Dylan. Sure,
21:55
Speaker 2: but is he really going to steal the audio tapes
21:57
Speaker 2: that his longtime buddies in the band needed for their
22:00
Speaker 2: farewell concert film and soundtrack. According to what seems to
22:04
Speaker 2: be the best source for this particular story, it did happen.
22:08
Speaker 2: The tapes were stolen, only Dylan himself didn't take them.
22:13
Speaker 1: His lawyer did.
22:15
Speaker 2: And levon Helm's memoir This Wheel's on Fire, he writes
22:18
Speaker 2: that just as the Last Waltz concert was coming to
22:21
Speaker 2: a close, around two twenty am on Friday morning, November
22:24
Speaker 2: twenty sixth, nineteen seventy six, Dylan's lawyer walked out of
22:28
Speaker 2: the Winterland, made a b line for the mobile recording
22:31
Speaker 2: truck parked outside, and took the audio tape reels that
22:34
Speaker 2: featured Bob Dylan. He did this as a negotiating tactic,
22:38
Speaker 2: most likely to drive home the handshake compromise that was
22:41
Speaker 2: reached earlier in the evening that Martin Scorsese had promised
22:44
Speaker 2: to limit Dylan's appearance in the film to only two songs.
22:48
Speaker 2: Or maybe it was to secure a bigger windfall for Dylan.
22:53
Speaker 2: Either way, the tapes were safely.
22:55
Speaker 1: Returned soon after.
22:57
Speaker 2: But just because they were, and just because the show
22:59
Speaker 2: was a great success and Bob Dylan was relatively happy
23:03
Speaker 2: and Warner Brothers kept the checks coming, that didn't mean
23:06
Speaker 2: Martin Scorsese was over the hump. He hadn't even reached
23:09
Speaker 2: the hump yet. Back at his La home, Marty went
23:14
Speaker 2: into post production mode. Only now things were different. His wife,
23:19
Speaker 2: the writer Julia Cameron, pregnant with their first child together
23:22
Speaker 2: his second overall, moved out. She'd had it with Marty's
23:26
Speaker 2: chaotic lifestyle, his obsessions, the working around the clock, watching movies,
23:31
Speaker 2: making movies, doing endless lines of cocaine, spewing endless lines
23:35
Speaker 2: of commentary about the French New Wave and Italian neorealism,
23:38
Speaker 2: allowing his personal life to go to shit just so
23:41
Speaker 2: he could prove some point about what What was the point. Actually,
23:46
Speaker 2: it didn't matter, because the last straw for Julia was
23:50
Speaker 2: the affair. Marty had been carrying on with e Liza Minelli,
23:53
Speaker 2: who is starring in the other movie he was currently making,
23:56
Speaker 2: New York, New York. Marty didn't even seem to care
24:00
Speaker 2: that Liza, who was also married, also had her own
24:04
Speaker 2: side piece, the dancer Mikhail Barishnikov. It was all part
24:08
Speaker 2: of the chaos, all of it pushing Martin Scorsese in
24:12
Speaker 2: the direction he desired toward a great, big end. But
24:19
Speaker 2: before that end came rushing at him like one of
24:21
Speaker 2: his manic Dolly shots. He had to assemble the final
24:24
Speaker 2: cut for the last waltz. He did so with Robbie Robertson.
24:28
Speaker 1: By his side.
24:29
Speaker 2: And I mean that literally, because when Julia moved out, Robbie,
24:33
Speaker 2: who'd been kicked out of his house by his wife.
24:36
Speaker 1: Moved in.
24:37
Speaker 2: The two were the perfect pair, Martin Scorsese, the rock
24:40
Speaker 2: and roll filmmaker, and Robbie Robertson, a rock and roller
24:43
Speaker 2: who fancied himself an undiscovered Hollywood star. Robbie brought over
24:47
Speaker 2: a pair of giant studio speakers and they listened to
24:50
Speaker 2: Van Morrison's Aster A Week's at maximum volume. When they
24:54
Speaker 2: weren't watching the old movies. They parted. They enjoyed the
24:57
Speaker 2: company of the NonStop rotation of character is passing through weirdos, freaks,
25:03
Speaker 2: artists rack on tours like the Great Stephen Prince, whom
25:06
Speaker 2: Marty's good friend, who played Easy Andy the gun dealer
25:09
Speaker 2: and taxi driver, and whom already made an excellent short
25:12
Speaker 2: film about called American Boy.
25:14
Speaker 1: But I digress.
25:16
Speaker 2: And they also did cocaine, lots of cocaine, which, for
25:21
Speaker 2: someone like Martin Scorsese, with his asthma and with his
25:24
Speaker 2: asthma meds, with his other prescription meds, with his careless
25:28
Speaker 2: way of living, was a pretty bad idea. But bad
25:31
Speaker 2: ideas were what appealed.
25:33
Speaker 1: To Martin Scorsese Cirk in nineteen seventy six. In nineteen
25:35
Speaker 1: seventy seven, he.
25:36
Speaker 2: Didn't hide this, unlike the big cooke rock hanging from
25:40
Speaker 2: Neil Young's nose that was clearly visible in the last
25:44
Speaker 2: Waltz footage, which Martin Scorsese was.
25:47
Speaker 1: Forced to hide.
25:48
Speaker 2: Neil Young's manager got winded this footage and demanded Marty
25:51
Speaker 2: do something about it or else. Now, Martin Scorsese as
25:56
Speaker 2: a director isn't known for special effects, but he had
25:59
Speaker 2: his team creative bespoke special effect just for this problem.
26:03
Speaker 2: They called it the Traveling Booger Matt. I swear to
26:06
Speaker 2: God that's what they called it, which essentially acted as
26:09
Speaker 2: a concealer that floated over Neil's nose. The Traveling Booger.
26:12
Speaker 1: Matt was expensive, so expensive.
26:15
Speaker 2: That Robbie Robertson later joked it was the most expensive
26:18
Speaker 2: cocaine he had ever bought. When it came to Martin
26:22
Speaker 2: Scorsese's personal life, he wasn't interested in creative solutions like these.
26:28
Speaker 2: The bigger the problem, the better. With his wife gone
26:31
Speaker 2: and his affair with Liza Minelli winding down, Marty started
26:35
Speaker 2: a relationship with an assistant. She was suicidal and it
26:38
Speaker 2: scared Marty, but in some dark, perverse way, it excited
26:43
Speaker 2: him too. He wondered if she would actually do it.
26:47
Speaker 1: Na She wouldn't, dare She.
26:50
Speaker 2: Was just getting off on the drama of it all,
26:52
Speaker 2: as was he, and they argued to bunch it.
26:55
Speaker 1: She left him one night, just like Julia, and just
26:58
Speaker 1: like Liza. He couldn't let her go, not tonight.
27:02
Speaker 2: If she left, the chaos left with her, and the
27:05
Speaker 2: crazy left too. He wanted to wrap himself up in crazy.
27:09
Speaker 2: He dressed himself in Crazy. It's all he was wearing
27:12
Speaker 2: that night as he gave Chase. He didn't even have
27:15
Speaker 2: time to get dressed. Just Martin Scorsese out there, buck ass, naked,
27:21
Speaker 2: coked out of his mind, tearing ass down, Mahall and
27:24
Speaker 2: drive in the dark, screaming, don't go, running after her,
27:28
Speaker 2: running toward the edge, an edge that gave way to
27:32
Speaker 2: a chasm, and then in a yss where he could
27:35
Speaker 2: let himself go, then a long last be consumed by
27:39
Speaker 2: the end of his own life.
27:42
Speaker 1: Until then, at least.
27:43
Speaker 2: He had the work to make him happy. But then
27:47
Speaker 2: the work turned on him too. New York New York
27:52
Speaker 2: was a flop when it was released in the summer
27:54
Speaker 2: of nineteen seventy seven, panned by critics and ignored by audiences.
27:59
Speaker 2: It devastated Martin Scorsese. A foul mood hung over him
28:03
Speaker 2: for months and continued into the next year, nineteen seventy eight.
28:07
Speaker 2: As he was watching the last Waltz of the Cinerama
28:09
Speaker 2: Dome in Hollywood when the movie finally premiered that spring,
28:14
Speaker 2: he was watching the credits crawl just after the band
28:17
Speaker 2: played the film's final song, a haunting instrumental one of
28:20
Speaker 2: three songs in the film that they shot on an
28:22
Speaker 2: MGM soundstage after the Winterland Show. As the final seconds
28:27
Speaker 2: played out, Marty felt he'd gotten what he wanted death,
28:32
Speaker 2: but not in.
28:32
Speaker 1: A physical way. It was a creative death.
28:35
Speaker 2: He didn't know what he'd been trying to say with
28:37
Speaker 2: this film, or if he had anything else to say
28:40
Speaker 2: in any other film.
28:42
Speaker 1: Maybe this was it.
28:44
Speaker 2: And the house lights came up, and suddenly he was
28:47
Speaker 2: over the edge, falling, arms outstretched wide until.
28:51
Speaker 1: He landed hard.
28:54
Speaker 2: He looked around him. He was at rock bottom, or
28:58
Speaker 2: so he thought, because just a few months later he
29:02
Speaker 2: hit rock bottom for real. In this time, it looked
29:06
Speaker 2: like there was no coming back. Hey, guys, I'm going
29:26
Speaker 2: to get to the conclusion of our story about Martin Scorsese,
29:28
Speaker 2: the band, and the making of The Last Waltz here
29:30
Speaker 2: in just a second, But I wanted to mention real
29:32
Speaker 2: quick that, as is always the case, only so much
29:35
Speaker 2: stuff we can cover in a thirty minute podcast. So
29:39
Speaker 2: there are all these wild stories about the band secret
29:41
Speaker 2: Pact should one of them die on the road, that
29:44
Speaker 2: we uncovered when we were doing our research. And then
29:47
Speaker 2: there's the near mythological recordings that the band made with
29:51
Speaker 2: Bob Dylan in the basement of a house outside of Woodstock,
29:54
Speaker 2: New York. That house known as Big Pink, and not
29:57
Speaker 2: only what the real reason was for those recordings, but
30:02
Speaker 2: also the story of how those recordings were reasoned for
30:05
Speaker 2: the very first bootleg in rock and roll history. So
30:08
Speaker 2: if you want to hear all about that stuff, you
30:10
Speaker 2: can hear it in this week's brand new mini episode
30:12
Speaker 2: of Disgraceland, which is available only to our All Access members.
30:15
Speaker 2: Just go to disgrace lampod dot com to learn more
30:18
Speaker 2: about that and to become a member today.
30:20
Speaker 1: All right, back to her story.
30:24
Speaker 2: September nineteen seventy eight, Martin Scorsese was back in New
30:29
Speaker 2: York City, but he was thinking about Tell Your Ride.
30:32
Speaker 2: Only a few days earlier, he'd been out west in
30:35
Speaker 2: the small Colorado town for the fifth annual Tell Your
30:37
Speaker 2: Ride Film Festival, along with his new girlfriend, the actress
30:42
Speaker 2: Isabella Rosalini, and his good friend and frequent.
30:44
Speaker 1: Collaborator Robert de Niro.
30:48
Speaker 2: Tell Your Ride was a place where the unexpected happened.
30:51
Speaker 2: It's where Martin Scorsese met the great German director Vim
30:54
Speaker 2: Vendors for the first time, and quite by accident when
30:58
Speaker 2: he's trying to fix a flat tire on the side
30:59
Speaker 2: of the Even the drugs were unexpected. Then Tell Your Ride.
31:04
Speaker 2: He bought some bad cocaine. He knew as soon as
31:07
Speaker 2: it hit the back of his throat that it was shit,
31:09
Speaker 2: and it made him sick as hell that Marty suddenly
31:12
Speaker 2: felt strange. He began to cough. He covered his mouth
31:16
Speaker 2: with his hand and then pulled it back. Was up blood,
31:21
Speaker 2: and then Martin Scorsese, he blacked out. He returned to
31:27
Speaker 2: New York, awake, alive, but still not feeling one hundred percent,
31:32
Speaker 2: still creatively bankrupt, and still wondering if his time as
31:35
Speaker 2: a filmmaker was up. He felt this even as The
31:38
Speaker 2: Last Waltz received great acclaim upon its release. Some were
31:42
Speaker 2: already giving the film it's due is the greatest concert
31:45
Speaker 2: film of all time. But Marty wasn't thinking about The
31:48
Speaker 2: Last Waltz or the critics or the fans. He was
31:51
Speaker 2: thinking about that bad batch of Tell You Ride.
31:54
Speaker 1: White, and it fucked him up real.
31:57
Speaker 2: Good, and he felt like it was still inside him.
32:00
Speaker 2: He was toxic, and he knew it wasn't done with
32:02
Speaker 2: him yet.
32:04
Speaker 1: He knew this.
32:05
Speaker 2: When suddenly out of nowhere, all the strength and energy
32:08
Speaker 2: left his body.
32:10
Speaker 1: He dropped to the ground and he was bleeding again.
32:13
Speaker 1: But this time he wasn't just coughing it up. The
32:16
Speaker 1: blood was everywhere.
32:18
Speaker 2: He was coming out of his mouth, his nose, his eyes,
32:22
Speaker 2: even his ass was bleeding. His good friend Stephen Prince
32:26
Speaker 2: aka Easy Andy, rushed Marty to the hospital, where it
32:30
Speaker 2: was discovered that his blood was completely lacking platelets, platelets
32:34
Speaker 2: being the thing that helped stop bleeding and form blood clots.
32:38
Speaker 2: Marty was minutes away from a brain hemorrhage, a brain bleed,
32:42
Speaker 2: minutes away from death. Of course, Martin Scorsese did not die,
32:51
Speaker 2: thanks in part to the quick action taken by Stephen Prince,
32:54
Speaker 2: and thanks especially to the steady hands of the emergency
32:57
Speaker 2: room doctors who went to work to stabilize Martin and
33:00
Speaker 2: put him on a path to recovery. During that recovery,
33:04
Speaker 2: Robert de Niro paid a visit to Martin Scorsese in
33:07
Speaker 2: the hospital, very bluntly, as only the best friends do,
33:10
Speaker 2: and in the most Robert de Niro way possible, He.
33:13
Speaker 1: Asked, oh, what's the matter with you?
33:17
Speaker 2: Didn't Marty want to see his kids grow up? Didn't
33:19
Speaker 2: he want to make more movies? Was he not excited
33:22
Speaker 2: about this new film they were about to start production
33:25
Speaker 2: on together about the boxer Jake Lamatta, a project.
33:28
Speaker 1: Called Raging Bull.
33:30
Speaker 2: The nero's pep talk was like cold water to the face.
33:34
Speaker 2: Martin Scorsese was a lifelong Catholic. He knew he should
33:37
Speaker 2: be dead. In fact, he had purposefully flirted with death
33:41
Speaker 2: through his reckless lifestyle. But he wasn't dead. He'd been saved.
33:47
Speaker 2: Didn't matter why. He now had a second chance, and
33:50
Speaker 2: it was his duty to put it to good use.
33:55
Speaker 2: So Martin Scorsese dove headfirst into Raging Bull, another masterpiece,
34:00
Speaker 2: one that would redeem him from the failure of New York,
34:02
Speaker 2: New York, But not before he first returned home to
34:06
Speaker 2: Los Angeles, where he hosted a huge Thanksgiving dinner. On
34:10
Speaker 2: this particular Thanksgiving, Martin Scorsese was thankful that he was alive.
34:15
Speaker 2: He was thankful that he had creative purpose again, and
34:18
Speaker 2: he was thankful that he was surrounded by his friends
34:22
Speaker 2: like Robbie Robertson of the band, And he knew in
34:24
Speaker 2: many ways it was a privilege to be thankful, and
34:27
Speaker 2: that not everyone got to give and experience thanks the
34:30
Speaker 2: way he did.
34:32
Speaker 1: Like Richard Manuel.
34:34
Speaker 2: For instance, in nineteen eighty six, ten years after the
34:38
Speaker 2: Last Waltz, Richard was still on the road. The band
34:42
Speaker 2: minus Robbie, for whom the Last Waltz really was the end,
34:45
Speaker 2: had reformed a few years earlier and continued to tour
34:49
Speaker 2: in small venues, just as they had when they started.
34:51
Speaker 1: Together all those years before. But what else were they
34:54
Speaker 1: going to do?
34:55
Speaker 2: This is the only life they had ever known, and
34:57
Speaker 2: as Levon once said, that weren't in it for their health.
35:02
Speaker 2: Following a show in winter Park, Florida, Richard thanked his
35:06
Speaker 2: longtime bandmate Garth Hudson for twenty five years of making
35:10
Speaker 2: great music together, then drank his last bottle of Grandmagnier
35:14
Speaker 2: and hanged himself in the bathroom of his room.
35:16
Speaker 1: At the Quality Inn. He was just forty two years old.
35:21
Speaker 2: While Martin Scorsese continued to give thanks that he had
35:24
Speaker 2: escaped the self destructive tendencies that drove him for so long,
35:28
Speaker 2: Richard Manuel was not so lucky. And that is a disgrace.
35:35
Speaker 2: I'm Jake Brennan, and this is disgraceland, all right. That
35:55
Speaker 2: was a lot of fun. Thank you, guys, Happy Thanksgiving
35:58
Speaker 2: to all of you. I am grateful for all all
36:00
Speaker 2: of you. Hope you dug this episode. This week's question
36:02
Speaker 2: of the week, It's an obvious one, It's an easy one.
36:04
Speaker 2: What is the greatest concert film of all time?
36:08
Speaker 1: And tell me why?
36:09
Speaker 2: Six one seven nine oh six six six three eight,
36:11
Speaker 2: Leave me a voicemail semi text and let me know.
36:13
Speaker 2: You can also reach me at disgracelampod as well on Instagram,
36:17
Speaker 2: x and Facebook. Leave a review for the show on
36:19
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, Spotify and win some free merch. All right,
36:23
Speaker 2: here comes some credits. Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly
36:26
Speaker 2: and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for
36:30
Speaker 2: this episode can be found on the show notes page
36:32
Speaker 2: at disgracelampod dot com. If you're listening as a Disgraceland
36:36
Speaker 2: All Access member, thank.
36:37
Speaker 1: You for supporting the show.
36:38
Speaker 2: We really appreciate it. And if not, you can become
36:41
Speaker 2: a member right now by going to disgracelampod dot com,
36:45
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36:48
Speaker 2: and Facebook at disgracelamppod and on YouTube at YouTube dot com,
36:52
Speaker 2: slash at disgracelampod rock a Rolla. He's a bad, bad man.