By Mickey Dunaway

Robbie Robertson, founder and musical groundbreaker of the Folk-Rock group, The Band, passed away yesterday in Los Angeles at 80.

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Many years ago, in the age of cassette recorders and vinyl albums, we were living in Mobile. I am guessing it was 1978—the summer before I started as an assistant principal. 

To save money on albums, I often went to the Mobile Public Library in downtown Mobile where they had a collection of albums to loan. On a hot and humid Mobile day in the summer of 1978, I went down as always, hoping to find a hidden gem. Not knowing what I would find, I looked for albums with minor wear on them that also fit my taste of mostly country and folk. 

This day, I came upon a new white album with three records inside that had just been placed on the shelf. It was a pristine copy of The Band’s “Last Waltz.” I had never heard of The Band, but it looked ripe for recording on my cassette recorder back home, and maybe it had a song or two that I liked. 

When I got it back home and on my turntable, whoa! Was I ever surprised when I turned up the volume. I was hooked from that summer day and have been for the last 45 years. As musical replay machines evolved, I bought it as a CD when CD players came along in the mid-’80s. Then, I made it part of my favorite albums on my iPod and iTunes on my computers, with every other album they recorded.

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Then when I rediscovered turntables, it was the first album I bought at a local antique market. The Band, as rockers, are storytellers, perhaps as best noted in “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” or “The Weight,” their rock standard. Their songwriting chops, and the remarkable and varied musical abilities of all the members, made them unique long before I first heard them on that album from the Mobile Public Library. 

My taste in music is mostly finding people who are hard to categorize and can span genres. The talents of the members of The Band fit that criteria. They remind me of Mark Knopfler on tour, and maybe it was the influence of The Bandthat connected me to Mark Knopfler. If you have never heard Mark Knopfler, listen to his duets with Emmylou Harris. I think you will see the connection to the “Last Waltz.”

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It has been 47 years since the “Last Waltz,” The Band’s goodbye concert. Makes one wonder how many of today’s artists will have someone sadly yet fondly reminiscing about the day he discovered the extraordinary singularity of “The Band” on a trip to the library!

I leave you with my best-loved song. 

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
Lyrics by Robbie Robertson

Virgil Kane is the name
And I served on the Danville train
'Till Stoneman's cavalry came
And tore up the tracks again

In the winter of '65
We were hungry, just barely alive
By May the 10th, Richmond had fell
It's a time I remember, oh so well

The night they drove old Dixie down
And the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down
And the people were singing
They went, "Na, na, la, na, na, la"

Back with my wife in Tennessee
When one day she called to me
"Virgil, quick, come see,
There goes Robert E. Lee!"

Now, I don't mind chopping wood
And I don't care if the money's no good
You take what you need
And you leave the rest
But they should never
Have taken the very best

The night they drove old Dixie down
And the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down
And all the people were singing
They went, "Na, na, la, na, na, la"
Like my father before me
I will work the land
And like my brother above me
Who took a rebel stand

He was just 18, proud and brave
But a Yankee laid him in his grave
I swear by the mud below my feet
You can't raise a Kane back up
When he's in defeat

The night they drove old Dixie down
And the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down
And all the people were singing
They went, "Na, na, la, na, na, la"

The night they drove old Dixie down
And all the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down
And the people were singing
They went, "Na, na, la, na, na, la"

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Be sure to check out The Band’s founder, Robbie Robertson, writer of “The Weight,” playing and singing it simultaneously with musicians worldwide on YouTube at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ph1GU1qQ1zQ.