The Band Caricature

The Band Caricature, illustrated here on January 12, 1978 in Los Angeles, with Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko and Richard Manuel.

The Band was a Canadian-American rock group formed in Toronto, Ontario, in 1967. Originally the backing band for Ronnie Hawkins and later Bob Dylan, the group released its debut album, Music from Big Pink, in 1968 to critical acclaim.
They combined elements of Americana, folk, rock, jazz, country, and R&B, influencing subsequent musicians such as the Eagles, Elton John, the Grateful Dead, the Flaming Lips, and Wilco.

In the mid-1960s (called The Hawks), they gained recognition backing Bob Dylan, and the 1966 tour was notable as Dylan’s first with an electric band. After leaving Dylan and changing its name to “The Band”, it released several albums to critical and popular acclaim, highlighted by the songs “The Weight” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”.

By late 1976, Robertson and other members were growing tired of touring.
The Last Waltz was a concert held on American Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. The Last Waltz was advertised as The Band’s “farewell concert appearance”, and the concert saw The Band joined by more than a dozen special guests, including their previous employers Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan as well as Paul Butterfield, Bobby Charles, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Wood, and Neil Young.
The event was filmed by director Martin Scorsese and made into a documentary of the same title, released in 1978.
The Last Waltz is hailed as one of the greatest documentary concert films ever made.

The group was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1989 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

On March 4, 1986, after a gig by The Band at the Cheek to Cheek Lounge in Winter Park, Florida Rick Manuel died by suicide (alcohol and cocaine); he was 42.
On December 10, 1999 Rick Danko died in his sleep at his home in Marbletown, New York. The cause of death was heart failure. He was 55.
Levon Helm died on April 19, 2012 due to complications from throat cancer at age 71.

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