Strangely, when I heard that Robbie Robertson—lead guitarist and chief songwriter of The Band—had died on August 9th at the age of 80, I did not turn to The Band’s music for solace. I have listened to The Band since my early teens. I have embraced them, loved them, emulated them, played their songs, and watched Martin Scorsese’s 1978 film of their final concert, The Last Waltz, religiously over the years. But it was not “Up on Cripple Creek,” “The Weight,” “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” or any of The Band’s other standards that came to my mind in the wake of Robertson’s death.
I turned instead to “Dry Your Eyes,” the standout track, produced and co-written by Robertson, on Neil Diamond’s 1976 album Beautiful Noise. It is at once an anthem and a meditation on the upheavals of the 1960s and ’70s, sounding a note that is sad but also brassy and defiant. Its lyrics are simple, uncompromising, and uplifting, and it works hard for its moments of ecstatic resolution. “From the center of the circle, to the midst of the waiting crowd,” Diamond sings, “If it ever be forgotten, sing it long and sing it loud. And come dry your eyes.”
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