"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down".

I had the good fortune of seeing the Band twice. Once during the Last Waltz tour at the Spectrum In Philadelphia and again in Oct. 1983 at the Brandywine Club in Chadds Ford, PA. The difference between the two shows couldn’t have been more apparent. While they sounded great at the Spectrum in a big venue just a few months before The Last Waltz concert in SF, I was amazed to find how relatively small and intimate the Brandywine Club was. Seats were unreserved and we found ourselves roughly 25 feet away from the Band. Robbie was no longer touring with them but because he contributed very little in terms of vocals they sounded fantastic! I so wish I had brought my camera because it was a memorable night. 40 years later, the Brandywine Club is gone as are all the Band members save Garth. But the memories remain.

@baconboy: Robbie’s replacement on guitar in the reformed Band was Jim Weider, who imo is actually a better guitarist than was Robbie. I know, sacrilege! Plus, Jim didn’t pretend to sing as did Robbie all throughout The Last Waltz. When Levon, Richard, and Rick were singing those 3-part harmonies, what was Robbie singing? Nothing, he was "mouthing" the words. Do you hear Robbie’s vocal parts? No, because there aren’t any. Embarrassing.

What, being the guitarist and main songwriter in The Band wasn’t enough for him? And then his pal Martin Scorsese gave Robertson far more screen time in The Last Waltz than he did any other member. Again, embarrassing. As was Neil Diamond’s performance. It was Van Morrison who stole the show. He had a few years earlier duetted with Richard on the Cahoots album song "4% Pantomime".

I had not seen this before.  Great video.  Thanks very much for posting!

@therandyman: One cool thing about the video is that when Robbie is performing the song on piano, you can better hear the song's great chord progressions, and the sophisticated voicing of the chords. Majestic!

........at the expense of sounding disrespectful at this time so close to Robbie Robertson's passing ; I still have a tough time thinking about how Robbie maneuvered all of the copyright / royalties to himself. It was well known that when this was being done the rest of the Band members where having a great time of it and Robbie felt that he needed to take control of the business portion of the Band. I can understand somebody doing that if the rest of the members were out of control and he felt he needed to step in. However, from what I read he took all of the music copyrights and placed it under his name or control. The rest of the Band suffered some financial hardships as a result of this change in the ownership and copyrights of their own music. Now, if someone else here knows more on this or if I am wrong ( which I do not think that I am ) please let me know. 

I still recall hearing the Band's Brown album for the first time as I was a junior in High School and it was the 70's .......I initially didn't like it or even better yet ; I didn't understand it. It was many years when I went back to listen to the Band's music and I was older and much more mature, I finally got it. They were really were a great Band with a sound that has never really to this day been duplicated. RIP Robby and thank you for some great memories.....