{"id":246416,"date":"2025-11-06T01:53:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T01:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/246416\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T01:53:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T01:53:10","slug":"the-reason-why-joni-mitchell-hid-herself-from-the-last-waltz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/246416\/","title":{"rendered":"The reason why Joni Mitchell hid herself from ‘The Last Waltz’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Why<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ United Artists)<\/p>\n

Wed 5 November 2025 21:19, UK <\/p>\n

On November 26th, 1976, The Band<\/a> danced their \u2018last waltz\u2019 in a farewell performance at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, California. <\/p>\n

The Canadian-American group assembled their contemporaries to join them onstage, with Neil Young to Bob Dylan attributing The Band\u2019s influence on their work, turning the night from sombre to celebratory.<\/p>\n

Guitarist Robbie Robertson invited filmmaker Martin Scorsese<\/a> to document the occasion, who captured what would become one of the most pivotal music documentaries of all time in the form of The Last Waltz. Recalling the concept for the film to Rolling Stone<\/a>, Scorsese described it as being \u201cstructured like a musical tapestry. The music of The Band being influenced by different strains of music throughout America\u201d. <\/p>\n

His perspective elevated the film from a live concert document to a depiction of music history, and a nod to the folk tradition, showing the mutual influence of musicians within their insular worlds.<\/p>\n

On Thanksgiving Day, an enviable lineup of musicians descended on San Francisco alongside the icons, including Muddy Waters, Ringo Starr, Ronnie Wood, Van Morrison, Neil Diamond, Mavis Staples and Joni Mitchell. With The Band performing as a backing group, each artist appears in the film as though by surprise, an anticipatory debut of some of the era\u2019s biggest voices. <\/p>\n

Early in the night\u2019s set, Young<\/a>, who had flown cross-country to attend, walked onstage, acknowledging, \u201cIt is one of the pleasures of my life to be able to be onstage with these people tonight\u201d, before they launched into their performance of \u2018Helpless\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Joni<\/a>(Credits: Far Out \/ Press)<\/p>\n

Upon the chorus, merging with the organ\u2019s song, Mitchell sings backing vocals, appearing not onstage, but backstage, shown in The Last Waltz as a silhouette hidden in the shadows. The idea to have Mitchell sing without revealing herself was not her idea, but Robertson\u2019s, wherein, during a rehearsal for the show, the guitarist saw an opportunity. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Neil Young sang \u2018Helpless\u2019,\u201d Robertson recalled, \u201cJoni did a high background vocal that sent shivers through the hall. In the show, Joni wasn\u2019t going to perform until after Neil, and I did not want to give away her appearance before that.\u201d Asking Scorsese to instead film her from behind the curtain. Robertson envisioned one of The Last Waltz\u2019s most memorable moments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Joni Mitchell\u2019s high falsetto came soaring in from the heavens,\u201d Robertson says, \u201cI looked up and I saw people in the audience looking up too, wondering where it was coming from.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mitchell\u2019s sorrowful vocals added yet another layer of emotion to the already mournful song with unprecedented impact, which she would follow up with her songs \u2018Coyote\u2019<\/a> and \u2018Furry Sings The Blues\u2019 from her then-forthcoming album Hejira, and a rendition of \u2018Shadows and Light\u2019 from her previous album, The Hissing of Summer Lawns. <\/p>\n

Her performance is one that Robertson remembers with the image: \u201cShe seemed to glow in the dark\u201d. Indeed, her presence on stage with The Band was a stellar moment, though he recalled the performance as possibly \u201cthe most challenging of the night\u201d, explaining, \u201cHer syncopation and chord structures kept you on your toes\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mitchell remained effortless, giving beautiful and timeless renditions of her soon-to-be classics, and her presence in The Last Waltz, whether it was behind the curtain or centre stage, remains one of the most core moments of the film, and showcases her as a masterful force.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ United Artists) Wed 5 November 2025 21:19, UK On November 26th, 1976, The Band…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,47936,128,23564,34510,103104,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-246416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-joni-mitchell","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-neil-young","12":"tag-the-band","13":"tag-the-last-waltz","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}