Springsteen and Clapton on their favorite, heh, band.

@tomcy6: Because at the time of The Last Waltz, the plan was to take some time off, then later regroup to recommence recording. Robertson wanted to get off the record/tour/record/tour merry-go-round, which he thought was an unhealthy lifestyle. In his book Testify, Robertson says for some reason that just never materialized. I don't think it could have, given Levon's feelings toward Robertson.

Also, while in '68 Clapton wanted to be in The Band in the worst way, by November 25th of 1976 he had established his own "brand", and had a healthy career that he liked going.

As for The Band, they brought in Jim Weider on Telecaster guitar to replace Robertson, a better player in my estimation. But Weider isn't a songwriter, and I don't think Clapton's writing would have fit The Band. And then there is the fact that Levon didn't want to be a backing band for a frontman, which would certainly have been the public's perception had Clapton joined.

It was their lack of new material (both Rick Danko and Richard Manuel never again writing as they had for Music From Big Pink and to a lesser extent the brown album) that crippled The Band Mk.2. And then Richard Manuel committed suicide, a fatal blow. One of the best singers in the history of Rock 'n' Roll, impossible to replace.

As either Clapton or Springsteen said in one of the clips I referenced in the op, The Band were "A miracle".

@bdp24

And then Richard Manuel committed suicide, a fatal blow.

I saw them in concert the night before. I had a great time, even without Robertson, they were great.

I was completely shocked to hear that news a day later.

@bkeske: The night before! Upon hearing the news, I for the first, last, and only time cried at the passing of a musician or singer. I'm tearing up now; I loved Richard SO much. So did Clapton.

@bdp24 

Yep, the night before, and Richard seemed to be in great spirits from what anyone could tell. Strange.

Yea, after I heard the news, as terrible as it was, I was also thankful I got to see them, for what was, their last performance. Sad, but thankful.

Elvis Costello on The Band

I was wondering really where you got your odd singing style from? It's very nasal and it has a lot of American inflections.
That comes from the time when most of the music I liked was either R&B or white acts influenced by R&B, like Van Morrison. But my favourite singer other than the obvious ones was Rick Danko of The Band. He was my absolute hero. I always suspected white singers that sounded like they were trying too hard to sound like soul singers. I was never that struck on Joe Cocker or the Paul Rodgers type of I'm-a-soul-singer voice. But Rick Danko had a kind of unique style. It was kind of nasal and it had a little bit of what I now realise is Country in it, but at the time it was just so unusual to me, such a lovely relaxed falsetto. At one time, when I was about 18, The Band were it for me. I though they were the best. I liked them because they had beards. They didn't look pretty. It appealed to me that they looked really ugly. And they weren't boys. They were men, and all their songs seemed to be about olden days but they weren't dressing up as cowboys or anything. It wasn't phoney.

https://www.elviscostello.info/articles/d-g/fa8308a.html

Irony 1:  All the members of The Band other than Levon were Canadian

Irony 2: The Band had 3 fabulous lead singers.  Levon was a force of nature, and probably the one most would pick.  Levon's favorite singer (and drummer - "he played rhythm on the piano and melody on the drums") was Richard Manuel.

Irony 3: Many seem to have bought the "Brown Album is all Robbie" story - he is credited with writing or co-writing every song and even scored a engineer credit).  What about Garth?  He played 9 instruments on the album, and it's well known that "Honey Boy" was the most involved Band member on the recording/production side.

Irony 4: Robbie was a great talent, and did write some fine songs even after leaving The Band.  He never did reach that level again, though.  The one thing he did learn (and thoroughly exploit) was that the $$$ were in the songwriting credit.  Maybe he wrote all the words.  Maybe he even composed all the music.  There's no way that he wrote all the arrangements, though (Garth - play these measures in your written score on slide trumpet, OK?).  He knew what he was doing to his bandmates.

Irony 5:  He left because he wanted to be more than 1/5 of The Band.  Instead, he walked out on far and away the most important part of his legacy.