Can’t Move? Already Watched The Last Waltz? Watch These Last Waltz-Adjacent Classic Rock Docs This Weekend

Oh hey, don’t get up on my account! ‘Cos I see you, buddy: It’s 9pm or it’s midnight, some time on Thanksgiving weekend, you’ve gone for your cousin walk and now you require, even more than you’ve already had it, the warm comfort food of the soul that only the rock doc (and its cousins) can bring. Oh but no wait: You’ve already watched The Last Waltz. What to do next?

I got you, dawg. Writers far, far greater than myself have set down to sing of the Waltz’s finest moments, and on this we can agree: It would be a bummer indeed to burn out on it. We treat that movie like a special occasion, a ritual, because it is. 

But it didn’t happen in a vacuum. I wish to tell you about a place — in fact, the larger place where the film in question occurred — where the vibes are warm, the jeans are high-waisted and pressed, and there is a seemingly endless supply of questionable hats, sweater vests, and suede/leathercraft. This place was called 1976, or thereabouts. And the filmmakers and musicians were quite busy then, often together. By 1976, disco was already very much disco-ing, but many of the legacy rock and soul artists still doing work in the era were turning in peak performances. And there’s enough of it that was documented and now available online, one way or another, that you can and you should, perhaps, spend at least part of your holidays, lazing around in the Last Waltz-Adjacent Cinematic Universe. 

So let’s!

The Rolling Thunder Revue, And Mr. Scorsese At Large In The Long ‘70s

In terms of actual adjacency, Martin Scorsese’s Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story is about as close as it gets: Same director, and a lot of the same faces, and only a year before The Last Waltz was filmed. And it’s quite an assemblage: You get a great feel for the times, and there are some fantastic performances, including the transcendent moment when Joni Mitchell lays down her just-penned “Coyote” at an afterparty, to the utter stupefaction of both Dylan and Roger McGuinn. 

I will contend, though, that all mid-70s Martin Scorsese goes down well next to The Last Waltz. And some more than others: ITALIANAMERICAN, the short he made with/about his parents, is especially good holiday-feelin’, on account of all of the cooking/family content therein. And its sibling piece, American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince, is just right for you if your favorite part of The Last Waltz is the urban legend of Neil Young’s coke booger. And if you just want to feast on context, the new Mr. Scorsese docu-series on Apple TV, is very well-produced and just a great overview of Marty overall. (Skip to episode 2 if you want the Robbie Robertson stuff, and order the new Insomnia book when you’re filling up that cart later tonight. I told you I see you!)

Van Morrison: It’s Too Late To Stop Now

In my family, Thanksgiving is a holiday where we all come together to laugh at Van Morrison in The Last Waltz. The kicks! The purple sequined jumpsuit! Jokes aside, Van’s LW appearance coincided with a decade where Van was a legit road dog with a shit-hot band, and heads will know his live LP from this period, It’s Too Late To Stop Now. It is one of the best live albums ever made. As it happens, there is also a little-seen concert film of these shows bearing the same name, and it’s available for rent on Amazon Prime. The vibe, as you can see, is very much intact. 

Harvest Time & Heartworn Highways

Speaking of Neil, Harvest Time (now only available at neilyoungarchives.com) takes place a few years before The Last Waltz, but dials in whereabouts Neil was in a way that, for me, was a whole new insight into dude’s frame of mind at this time. From the infamous cries of “more barn!” to the now legendary scene where Neil happens upon some bootlegs of his own records in a late night record store (wherefore have you gone, late night record store?), it’s a keeper.

In a similar rootsy mode, there’s Heartworn Highways, also contemporaneous and with a view towards what we can now look at as the godparents of alt-country. Filmmaker James Szalapski set out to document what was then loosely known as the “outlaw country” movement and wowee, mission accomplished. Townes Van Zandt, David Alan Coe, and lots of other amazing players pop up here with a signature mix of rock, folk and bluegrass — plus some really amazing slice-of-life stuff. 

A Poem Is A Naked Person

This documentary about Leon Russell gets its own mention, not just for being an amazing chronicle of peak Leon, but also as an introduction (if you need one) to the great documentarian Les Blank. Based in Louisiana in the ‘70s, Blank’s films capture a sense of place more than any single other filmmaker I think I could name. Think of this as an immersion into old, weird America unlike any other. 

Oh, But The Beatles Of It All

I will die on this hill: All Beatles music (and Sam Cooke music) is Christmas music. And with the ushering in of the holiday season, it is my way, as A Man Of A Certain Age, to go hard into the musical Zoloft that is all Beatles content. Peter Jackson’s sprawling Get Back has been on annual repeat since it came out, but this year, there are two more to add onto the queue. 

One To One is an HBO doc that chronicles John & Yoko’s first year in New York City, and frankly, it’s mid; Johnophiles will know most of what’s included. The bigger drop, of course, is the re-release of The Beatles Anthology on Disney+ later this week. This is the big daddy of ‘em all, and say goodbye to the rest of the weekend. Order pie now. 

Honorable Mentions:

Marvin Gaye, Live In Amsterdam 1976
Aretha Franklin: Amazing Grace
Wonderland 
Car Wash 
The Song Remains The Same