Songfacts®:

• "4% Pantomime" holds a special place in The Band's catalog, not just because it's a rollicking soul-blues number, but because it features the unmistakable voice of Van Morrison.
  
  The title - a reference to the difference in alcohol content between Johnnie Walker Black and Red labels - hints at the tipsy inspiration behind the song, a detail that mirrors its themes of whisky-fueled storytelling and two musicians stranded in Los Angeles with nothing but time (and Scotch) on their hands.
• The creation of "4% Pantomime" was the musical equivalent of lightning in a bottle. The story goes that Van Morrison, amid relocating to California, popped by Bearsville Sound Studio in Woodstock, New York, where The Band was recording.
  
  Morrison later told Uncut magazine the song sprang to life at Robbie Robertson's house, where a casual evening turned into an impromptu writing session. "Robbie said, 'Let's write a song,'" Morrison recalled. "I remembered this phrase he used, 'It's like a pantomime.' Then we looked at a bottle of Scotch, and it said something about 4 percent. So we just put the two together and started trading lines."
  
  Robertson rounded up the band and booked studio time that very night. What followed was as spirited as it was chaotic. Drummer Levon Helm would later describe the session as "extremely liquid," with Morrison and pianist Richard Manuel particularly embracing the whiskey-fueled mood. The two shared lead vocals on the track, with Manuel opening the song and Morrison following with his trademark growl.
• The Band recorded "4% Pantomime" for their fourth album, Cahoots. Morrison and Manuel's duet, delivered at cask strength, lent an authentic energy that stood out even on a record that many critics found lackluster.
• The spontaneous, boozy song found a second life on To Kingdom Come: The Definitive Collection, The Band's 1989 compilation album.