The Hawk--Ronnie Hawkins--performs Bo Diddly's great "Who Do You Love?" at his ex-employee's The Band's final performance

The Hawk a/k/a Ronnie Hawkins, performs Bo Diddly's great "Who Do You Love?" at his ex-employee's--The Band's--final performance on Thanksgiving night, 1976.  Great tune, great performance. 


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The Band's last song: Don't Do It

For their encore at their last show (documented in The Last Waltz), The Band covered Marvin Gaye's Don't Do It.  Levon Helm and Rick Danko usually shared the vocals on the song.  This is a short version (it was after midnight, leaving out a verse or two). . .

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The Band's final song: Dont Do It - the encore at their final performance

As their final song, after a very long concert with the likes of Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Neils Young and Diamond, Emmy Lou Harris, The Staples, Muddy Waters, and many more, The Band played their great cover of Marvin Gaye's Don't Do it, albeit in a shortened version. They'd been on stage for many hours. Rick Danko and Richard Manuel both died tragically years later. And the rest of them are still plugging along, but no one ever came close to the transcendent heights The Band achieved. The movie this clip is from, Scorsese's Last Waltz engendered a lot of hostility from the Band members (except Robbie Robertson). Rick Danko told a reporter that they usually turned Robertson's mike way down--because he couldn't sing. . .something easily verified by a listen to his solo recordings.

Happy Thanksgiving -- The Band cover Marvin Gaye's Don't Do It at their final show

31 years ago this Thanksgiving, The Band played the last time on stage. I always think about the band on Thanksgiving because of that show and the movie.

Bill Graham put the show together (along with Thanksgiving dinner for the attendees). They brought along a few friends like Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Emmy Lou Harris, Neil Diamond, Muddy Waters, Neil Young, and others. Don't Do It was their encore. Martin Scorsese used it over the opening credits of the film The Last Waltz released in 1977. It is a great movie of an epic event by a great band (R.I.P. Rick Danko and Richard Manuel). Buy the DVD--on sale at Amazon for a paltry $7.99!


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