The Band - The Last Waltz Suite: Evangeline - 11/25/1976 - Winterland (Official) 

Not sure sure what you mean by "deserving better. They were together for 16 years, more than most bands. By the time Robbie wanted to call it quits he was dealing with 3 heroin addicts. He was exhausted from being the caretaker and he was married with 3 young children. They didn't take a vow to be together for eternity. All the other members had the opportunity to go on in their own direction, just like Robbie did, which they did, the continued to play music, either as a group, sans Robbie, or with other great musicians. Levon acted in several well received movies. Probably Richard had the hardest time, but it was not Robbie's fault, he had serious addiction problems his whole life. I'm not being judgemental, I'm of that generation I get the drug use, and I love ALL the Band members, with Rick and Robbie being my favorites.

Your grasp on The Band's history is badly flawed and I suspect it's because you assume Levon Helm was the only important member. All the band members were well aware what the Last Waltz represented. Robbie said it was going to be his last participation in the Band's travelling events. The other members of the band played together and with other singers well into the 90s. Robbie did'nt stop anyone of them. Of course the remaining members never added any new music to their retinue, thus were stuck playing Robbie's musical creations. Robbie never signed up for life and frankly went on to do what he wanted, writing music for movies and creating a massive amount of Indigenous style music.

@@Alwayswilling I assume your reply is to mikefitch, and not to me, because I couldn't agree with you more. So many on Utube and the net jump on the Levon bandwagon, and are ready to make Robbie the villain, without doing much research. I love Levon's singing and drumming, but he had some serious personality flaws, according to several sources he was not that ambitious, didn't like to practice that much (or too stoned) Robbie had a different vision and followed it, not that he was perfect, but he was not the jerk that many want to make him out to be. I love all The Band members, but Robbie and Rick are my favorites.

I was there. I think first time I saw this clip. Great song.

He can't sing though can he

Considering he had to sing Richards lines at the last second he wasn't that bad. But that wasn't the point.

Haven't you ever heard him sing out of the blue ? He sings it great.

Apuleius Robbie takes it up the ass though

Listen to any other audience recording after 1970, even any other from this show. It's only turned on because he's supposed to sing that bit like on the studio version, those were not richards lines. You can hear robbie sing harmony on the woodstock 69 set

They left out so many great songs that didn’t make the cut on the last waltz :(

and it sound so much better with levon and rick than with the recorded version

probably John Simon

Yes, it's John Simon. He also played piano on Tura Lura Lural (Wikipedia says he's on Georgia On My Mind, but I don't think this is true.) In Levon's book, he says that this song wasn't finished come the day of the concert, and during intermission Robbie and John Simon scrambled to come up with an arrangement that was playable without much of a rehearsal. Cue cards were used to prompt lyrics, and the lack of a real rehearsal is on full display here. A very unfortunate version of the song, no wonder there's no official release of the concert version, but the version they did with Emmylou Harris showed that it really was a great song.

more true here . More levon more danko ..

the kids are alright