The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

Robbie Robertson said that he was always interested in the American South, its culture and literature, Tennessee Williams . Trips to the southern states made a strong impression on him - "Probably in contrast, like yin and yang ... I did fly directly from Toronto to the Mississippi Delta." Robertson said that he liked everything there: the speech of people, their manners, the inner rhythm of space itself ^[4] . “I thought: it is not surprising that they came up with rock and roll: everything here sounds like music ... I came to this world as a cold-blooded (almost literally from the cold north) stranger, and - precisely because I didn’t take it for granted, I was able to write a song like The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down. ” ^[5]

Lyrics

“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” talks about the last days of the US Civil War and its end; the narration is conducted on behalf of the southerner and - with sympathy for the rebels. Confederate army soldier Virgil Caine , whose surname, on the one hand, is consonant with the main agricultural product of these places, sugarcane ( English cane ), on the other hand, as if hinting at an analogy with the biblical story symbolizing fratricide ^[6] , - serves on a food Danville train ( Eng. ... served on the Danville train ), plying the only route that Richmond, Virginia , the center of the Confederation, connects with the outside world.

Army of General Robert E. Lee , based in Northern Virginia, is besieged in another strategically important center, Petersberg . During the counterattack, the army of the northerners of General George Stoneman once again violates the railway communication between the two cities ( English ... tore up the track again ). The siege, begun in June 1864 , ends in April 1865 with the fall of Petersberg and Richmond. Army General Lee - and with her Kane - are on the verge of starvation ( Eng. We were hungry, Just barely alive ).

Vergil, mourning the death of a brother who fell at the hands of the Yankees ( English He was just eighteen, proud and brave, but a Yankee laid him in his grave ), in the footsteps of which he followed ( English Just like my brother before me I took a rebel stand ... ), returns to his wife on a looted farm in Tennessee, where he is doomed to spend the rest of his days experiencing events that shook the foundations of his whole life ^[6] . The narrative ends with a bitterly ironic: “I swear by the ground that under my feet, Kane will not be raised <to the fight>, since he was defeated” ( eng. I swear by the mud below my feet / You can't raise a Caine back up when he's in defeat ... ).

Audience Response

Robertson recalled that when he first started performing this song in the American South, he often heard the phrase: “Don’t worry, the South will rise again” ... The author of the song recalled:

It seemed to me - at first strange, then - in a sense, and touching. I thought: God, if I hear it again and again, it means that they left both pain and sorrow. The kingdom of 'Americana', it is permeated with this beautiful sadness ^[7] .

Original text

At one point when I heard it I thought it was kind of a funny statement and then I heard it another time and I was really touched by it. I thought, 'God, because I keep hearing this, there's pain here, there is a sadness here.' In Americana land, it's a kind of a beautiful sadness.

According to the old people (in particular, Helm Sr., the elderly father of the group’s vocalist Levon Helm) that “The South Will Still Rise”, Robertson, he said, was serious: he said that people who are so keen on history deserve sincere respect. ^[5]

Criticism Reaction

Ralph J. Gleason wrote in the Rolling Stone magazine (American edition, October 1969) why, in his opinion, the song has such a strong effect on the audience:

Nothing that I had to read presents us with a story so vividly told in the language of human feelings. The only thing that can compare with <this song> is the " Red Badge of Courage ". This is an outstanding song. The rhythmic structure, Levon's voice, bass part, accented by drums, then the tight vocal harmony of Levon, Richard and Rick - it's hard to believe that this is not a folk work, not a retelling of events from father to son, from the winter of 1865 - to our time. The song exudes an aura of sincerity and truth. ^[5]

“Robertson went further than Dylan in his songs: he took a step from metaphoricality to a realistic recreation of events. “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” is not a Confederation song, it is a Confederate song ” ^[5] , wrote Mick Gold (“ Let It Rock ”, April 1974).

Jason Ankeny notes that no other rock-era artist was able to “document the American history“ as gracefully, thoughtfully and beautifully ”as The Band did (4/5 Canadian band). The Allmusic reviewer considers the latter circumstance a key factor: “it’s hard to imagine that a native of America would be able to create such a vivid and balanced picture of the post-war South, as Robbie Robertson did in The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” a picture that “not only revives the spirit of that turbulent time, but excites sympathy for the rebel narrator. " The song, which created a "chilling soul, but at the same time a deeply touching portrait of the American tragedy," the critic believes, has "all the authenticity of a folk ballad." ^[6]

The most famous is the cover version recorded by Joan Baez and released in 1971. Baez's single “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” climbed to # 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and for five weeks topped the lists of US Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks ^[9] .

In the Baez version, the original lyrics were changed. Instead of the original: “Until the Stoneman’s cavalry arrived” ( English Till Stoneman's cavalry came ) Baez sang: “Until the great cavalry arrived” ( English Till so much cavalry came ). Instead of “ May the tenth ” - “ I took the train ”, instead of “Like my father, I will cultivate the land” ( English like my father before me, I will work the land) - “like my father before me, I'm a working man”, which is why the main character turned from a farmer into a hired worker.

Baez later admitted to Rolling Stone correspondent Kurt Lauder that she remembered the words of the song by ear, without any lyrics (there was no corresponding tab in The Band's album). In the Baez version, therefore, the text was presented in the form in which it was heard to her - with obvious errors that distorted the meaning of the original text. At later concerts, Baez sang the song as Robertson wrote it. ^[10]

In 1975, the song was recorded by Johnny Cash , who included it in the album John R. Cash . Other musicians who recorded The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down included Jimmy Arnold ( Southern Soul , Civil War Southerners ' Album), Steve Young ( Honky Tonk Man album, 1975), Richie Havens ( Live at the Cellar album) Door , 1990), John Denver ( Whose Garden Was This , 1970), The Black Crowes , The Allman Brothers Band, and others.

• Rick Danko - Bass
• Levon Helm - vocals , drums
• Garth Hudson - melody, trumpet
• Richard Manuel - piano , backing vocals
• Robbie Robertson - Acoustic Guitar

• The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down , from the movie The Last Waltz (1978)

• The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down @ theband.hiof.no
• Classic Tracks: The Band 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down'
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