I'm reading the autobiography of Al Kooper, which has me revisiting a bunch of music I never paid much attention to. I went looking yesterday for a copy of the Monterey Pop Festival DVD, which I did not find, but I did run across (for $6) a copy of Marty Scorcese's 1978 documentary about the final concert of The Band, with guests Dr. John, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Neil Diamond and Ronnie Hawkins. This is widely touted as the best concert movie ever made, because Scorcese blocked out all of the camera shots ahead of time so every soloist is covered, he installed additional lighting and elaborate stage dressings*, and interspersed with the concert footage is interview footage talking about the same song or matters related to the song. I'd never seen the film before, but from a technical standpoint it is masterful.
Unfortunately I hate The Band. I hate Dylan. I hate Van Morrison. These folks all subscribe to a style of singing where pitch is approximate if not totally irrelevant. In many of The Band's songs everybody is singing at once, and no two of them have settled on the same pitch. Not even thirds or fifths or octaves -- they're just all over the place. Music for the tone deaf I guess. It really grates on my ears.
Hearing Neil and Joni in this mix is odd, like two islands of tonality in a sea of atonality. They sound out of place. It's an odd sensation.
Then there's the dichotomy between Scorsese, as the interviewer, talking so fast you can barely understand him and Robbie Robertson and Rick Danko and the rest of The Band, who speak so slowly and deliberately (albeit inanely) that it's apparent they're all wasted on hashish.
* - It's also apparent, though not mentioned, that the band's performance was "spiffed up" by professional musicians after the concert. In particular, the bassist's hands never match what you hear on the soundtrack.
Home 
