The onscreen stars of The Last Waltz will always be Rick Danko and Robbie Robertson , both of whom were galvanizing throughout Martin Scorsese 's bittersweet 1978 film.

Yet the project, conceived as the Band 's concert farewell on Thanksgiving night, Nov. 25, 1976 at San Francisco's Winterland, would be threatened – and ultimately defined – by others.

Bob Dylan almost didn't go on, while drummer and singer Levon Helm made his enduring dissatisfaction with the whole production abundantly clear in his 1993 memoir This Wheel’s on Fire. Yet, those two ended up providing the all-star The Last Waltz with its heart and soul – something that translates just as well on the triple album.

Helm's voice is the concert's conscience (by turns bawdy, guttural and sincere), while his p

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