The best waltz was saved for last

Robbie Robertson: We wanted it to be more than just a concert. We wanted it to be a celebration.
Martin Scorsese: A celebration of a beginning or an end?
Robbie Robertson: Beginning of the beginning of the end of the beginning.

The Last Waltz; not only for The Band, but for the first twenty-five years that made up the golden-era, the album-era, the quintessential era, of rock music. A self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head The Last Waltz is not. With the knowledge of, “the end”, in mind and sight, their ALL, the all which never before had they delivered, did each star on stage give to the united audience below. This, The Band could sense - that their say they had had, and all those who had emerged before and slightly after had had their say too. Simply could The Last Waltz have been two sole hours of ONLY The Band and their music, but since they knew that this era’s sun was ready to set, a final chance to Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan did they give to shine in their years of prime on their same shared stage. A hello and a goodbye; a love-affair and a break-up; a wedding and a funeral; Many analogies of this sort could you use to describe what exactly this once-in-a-lifetime concert represents other than simply just describing it as a group of the most talented musicians, singers and songwriters who ever lived coming together on stage and making sounds for two hours. The emergence of more commercial acts like Talking Heads, The Cars, Journey and The Clash going into the late-1970s and early 80s helps me even more to rest my case that the golden-era, the album-era, the quintessential era of rock music, ended, in 1978, with The Last Waltz.

Of all the waltzes ever danced, the best one did Planet Earth save for last.