You Tube Gold: The Last Waltz

Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns (L-R) Garth Hudson, Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Richard Manuel and Rick Danko of The Band pose for a group portrait in London in June 1971.Rock music has a sort of hit-and-miss history. The earliest days were amazing when it wafted up out of New Orleans. Then rockabilly erupted and that was cool too. Elvis was great until he lost his way. The British Invasion kind of rewired it all and then psychedelic music just went off the tracks.

Rock was brought back from the brink, as much as one band could it, by The Band. You can hear interviews with their contemporaries who just realized that their roots in older music grounded their work in ways that…