As a black boy growing up in the 70's I always felt some type of connection to this song but couldn't understand why. Then it me it was just feel good music with a deep emotional meaning to it. And it's those songs driven with that type of driving force makes a great song but it touches the heart, soul, mind, and emotions. Now I'm listening to this in my 50's and it still strikes a deep sensitive chord in me whoa.
As a white girl growing up in the 70's I had no idea what this song was about, it was just a song that sounded good that was played on the radio. Knowing what I know now about the Civil War and the anti-war 1970's, it's a song about tragedy. The Civil War never needed to happen, slavery could have been settled legislatively without a brutal war. There's not enough room to give a history lesson here, but this song shouldn't be villainized by people who don't know anything, especially history revisionists.
I always wondered what battle this song and eventually did some reading so as to find out. LOL. Then I found out that it was some music that a musician had in his head, he just wrote the words to fit his music! It’s not from the 19th century but the middle 20th century. So love it or hate it, it means nothing. I love it when sung well, I do not see it as a rallying cry.
@@sirmartinfrobisher OH, SO THE UNION DID NOT STARVE THE SOUTH??? LMAO... THEY DID NOT BURN THE FARMS AND KILL THE LIVESTOCK, THEY DID NOT RAPE THE WOMEN?? OH MAN...
Virgil Caine is the name And I served on the Danville train 'Til Stoneman's cavalry came And tore up the tracks again In the winter of '65, we were hungry, just barely alive By May the tenth, 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, la, la, la, na, na La la, na, na, la, la, la, la, la" Back with my wife in Tennessee When one day she called to me "Virgil, quick, come see There goes the Robert E. Lee" Now I don't mind choppin' 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, la, la, la, na, na La la, na, na, la, la, la, la, 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 eighteen, proud and brave But a Yankee laid him in his grave I swear by the mud below my feet You can't raise a Caine 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, la, la, la, na, na La la, na, na, la, la, la, la, 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, la, la, la, na, na La la, na, na, la, la, la, la, la"
I had this song in my brain all day, here in Connecticut. I'm an almost-life-long Rhode Islander who grew up listening to my older siblings' music; my oldest brother loved these guys. Love to you all, Northerners, Southerners, Democrats, Republicans, and all races. We're all God's Children, all brothers and sisters.
Richard Ellis shit if Pickett didn't run that charge and Jeb wasn't in pa. We would have won Lee and traveler would not be forced to surrender we did fire the first shot in the war of northern aggression my home state sc.
Can't believe how many thumbs down this has. This song is a masterpiece and The Band is the one of the best bands of all time. And I've heard great music...
The thumbs down likely come from the politics of it. I remember a woman in the 70's had a massive hit with this song. I don't remember her name. The first time I ever heard their version was on a documentary a few years ago that featured The Band. He sings it with such passion. Of course I wouldn't agree with the politics of the song but it is very well done and sung. What moves me most about a song is the emotion the singer(s) puts into it.
The politics of it? And what would that be? You think this song glorifies the confederacy? This song was written and recorded at the tail end of the civil rights movement. Do you honestly think it would have had airplay, much less become a classic if it was racist? Not to mention the female who covered it was Joan Baez, and never has a more liberal, anti war, leftist woman ever walked the earth. It’s a song about the devastation of a family brought on by war. The side they fought on is irrelevant.
Extraordinary songwriting......tremendous playing.... desperate, raw emotion of the vocals.....and all of it, PURE ROCK, accessible to all of us.....classic
Played drums on the Opry for 18 years, ans was thrilled to meet Levon at a studio in Hendersonville. A true gentleman, and one of my drum heroes...simple but powerful. He IS missed....
Virgil Caine 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 tenth, 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 singin' they went La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, 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 choppin' wood, and I don't care if the money's no good Ya take what ya need and ya 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 the people were singin' they went La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, Like my father before me, I will work the land Like my brother above me, who took a rebel stand He was just eighteen, proud and brave, but a Yankee laid him in his grave I swear by the mud below my feet, You can't raise a Caine 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 singin', they went Na, la, na, la, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, The night they drove old Dixie down, and all the bells were ringing, The night they drove old Dixie down, and the people were singin', they went Na, la, na, la, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na
That is because the Joan Baez version is better known and she actually sang 'so much cavalry' as she had never see the written lyrics and sang it as she heard it. The original lyrics are better, but Baez' version is far better known overall.
Nyctasia I agree with you there. It is certainly more well-known and it is also a great version. Another common mis-hearing of the lines is "till Stonewall's cavalry came". "Lady Mondegreen" I believe they call it.
***** A great song none the less, it never gets old. I loved it when I was 5, and still loved it when I got to work as casual road crew for some Baez gigs many years later. Even today, it is one of my favourites, though you hear it less on the radio now sadly.
Nyctasia You are so lucky! I'm certainly a big Baez fan. She also did, arguably, a better version of Emmy Lou's song about Gram than Emmy Lou herself did. Wonderful artist all round.
I'm very well aware of the song's background and everything. Yet I feel it is about living in the ruins and trying to survive after your world has been blown to bits. This song gives me chills and the album it is from is a masterpiece.
I mean, that _is_ what it's about. Most Southerners didn't own slaves, and certainly weren't fighting a war to save slavery. The Confederate soldiers were largely from backgrounds of poverty, hard work, and hard living, and were just fighting for their homes. They bore a massive cost for the varying agendas of men wealthier and better connected than they -- from slaveholders who wanted to keep their slaves to President Lincoln himself, who just wanted to preserve the Union ("If I could save the union without freeing any slaves I would do it..."). At the end of the war, free blacks and poor whites alike were left trying to build something out of rubble (and, more often than is appreciated, trying to do it alongside one another).
I remember my dad showing the Last Waltz and I fell in love with the drums and was amazed the drum sang so good. I ask him what’s the song about he said later In school you’ll learn it’s part of American history. Thx Pops !!
I had just started community college. I was fresh out of the nest, out on my own for the first time. I knew NOTHING, not even music. I hadn't touched a guitar yet. My roommates had this album (and many others). I listened to this one daily for the next couple years. While all my friends were listening to Beatles, I was obsessed with The Band... Is it any wonder I'm an Americana musician these days? Blues, Country, Folk... mix and match.
My great great grandfather Hiram Hamrick was 52 years old when he was mustered in to the Enterprise Tigers (regiment or battalion) out of Enterprise, Mississippi in '61 and rode to the end when Lee surrendered in '65. My great grandfather James was 12yo in 61. This song has always meant a lot to me... ,I LOVE IT!!!!! §Ć¡Œæ·€
It really is kind of funny to listen to this band... The Band, one of the shining lights of 'Americana music,' and find out that this band formed in Toronto, Canada. Thank you Bob Dylan for stealing these guys away for those fateful tours back in the day. They never looked back and music was never the same. Much love from Toronto!
Joe Ruiz What that man did was one of the most disgraceful acts in war I have ever studied...burning everything, including private property of people not involved,.....fuck. This is on a level of when the nazis and ussr were going at it in terms of fucked up...
It's soulful, mournful and really beautiful. Melodic and arranged so well. There is much accurate history in the few lines: the Danville train was the Army of Northern Virginia's last hope of refitting. Out of food, ammo, clothes, medicine, etc, the exceptional fighting army, led by Gen. Marse Robert E Lee, were walking skeletons, many shoeless, matched in rags, starving, sick, running out of ammo, w/ horses dying & being killed, w/ everything else. Richmond, the Confederate Capitol, having fallen, was in flames, the once feared Army had finally been flanked out of the long, thin Petersburg works after six months of WW1 type trench killing and dying and were being hounded by Union Gens Sheridan & Stoneman, while Grant & Meade's main eastern Union Army of the Potomac was ready to offer surrender terms or attempt to destroy the enemy. One fear the Yankees had was of the Rebels getting to the mountains and then the war could go on as an insurgency with guerrilla fighting, hit and run attacks and a country tearing itself even more. 600,000 plus were dead already, many more maimed and wounded. Thankfully, Lee and Grant brought the country together at the end, bitter and brutal as the vicious fighting had been Lee believed his men could do anything and had been remarkable, in return his men worshipped the great Lee, who, along w/ Stonewall Jackson had been potent and were held in awe. Jackson, Sidney Johnston, JEB Stuart, Cleburne, and many others had been KIA, others like Hood, AP Hill & Ewell, and Lee himself were either badly wounded or very ill. The train was slowed up, damaged and was void of resupplies for the Rebels, after another battle in which an angered Lee actually took the flag, as he had done before, attempted to lead a charge to fill a gap in the lines before the Texas Shock Troops held his horse Traveler Calls went up of "Lee to the rear" they then attacked. At winter 's end, so did the Civil War. It ended in the house of a man who moved to Appomattox Court House, after he moved his family from Manassas when his farm had been damaged during the war's first major battle in the East. Great song. Amazing history. The Confederates fought skillfully for a deplorable cause. It is with remembering, the overwhelming majority of soldiers were boys and men who held no slaves. The poor and young die in old rich men's wars. Lions for lambs...
I wouldn’t call it a deplorable cause at all..they fought for their country and homes. These poor starving men didn’t give a shit about a rich plantation owner they fought for their families and before you come back and say something about slavery go back and read the emancipation proclamation and ask yourself why Lincoln only said slavery was outlawed in the Confederate states not the Union because it was still very prevalent there. He did that to keep France and Britain out of the war because he knew his ass would be completely kicked if they resupplied us like we had an agreement for them to do.
@@scottconnor8867 Aaah, okay... sounds like something you read on da old in-tar-net, a ''conspiracy'' for sure...funny how Robertson was given the credit for the song writing on the album and... well. everywhere... part of the conspiracy, I guess. But, kudos to Helm(and his relatives?) for writing such lyrics...despite his addiction to heroin. Funny, I looked into that...where exactly did you read that... I couldn't find that anywhere.
Listened to this song today because of all the talk about removing Civil War statues from the Southern side. Mixed emotions for me. I pray for peace for our Nation and for old and new wounds to heal. God Bless The USA.
If we erase history we have nothing to learn from. We are to learn from our mistakes not do them over. Proud relative of Robert E. Lee, who by the way hated slavery. Look up famous quotes by Lee.
I fear that if they sweep everything from out collective past under the carpet, everyone will forget the Truth and we will end up repeating it again and again. This song is a song about history. Leave it be. ✌❤🎸🎶🙏 KEH 🇨🇦
Seriously, one of the best music ever created! It took a Canadian (btw, half Mohawk Indian) to pen something so simple (but poignant) as that, about the American Civil War. Great gutsy (i.e. "angry") vocals by the drummer, whose correct name is "Mark Lavon Helm" (RIP), the "Levon" spelling came from the way his friends mispronounced it (lol).
The first time I heard this song I was playing Red Dead Redemption ( I listen to music when I play). After I heard “the night they drove old dixie down” chills went down my body - because this is REAL - original music . It really makes you think about how things played out during the time of the Civil War .
I was born in Germany we moved to the states to the Northeast of USA I guess you can call me a Yankee but I have nothing but respect and admiration for the Confederacy and all of the people who passed during those awful times
Always remember, they had a belief. They fought for it and they died trying to keep it. And when General Lee surrendered his SABER to General Grant, he gave it back to him and said go home to your family General. He was still an AMERICAN. I Fear all of my brother and sister veterans that after this Civil War our once beloved USA as we new it will be only a faint memory. GOD BLESS THE U.S.A. D.D. U.S.M.C.ret.
The album is Rock of Ages:The Band in Concert (1972), recorded from a series of shows at NYC's long gone Academy of Music Dec 28-31, 1971. Allen Toussaint wrote the horn arrangement.
What a great historical song. And great music. Right or wrong history is history and its wrong to tear it down like some are trying to today. Trying to destroy our past is if of what gain. We learn from our past. It happened its over so get over it and enjoy the music. No body today would have the guts to sing this great song now days it might offend someone. As the old Canned Heat song "Lets Work Together". And move on. And yes I am a Black man who loves history and great music right or wrong. Stop Trying to tear it down.
As I sit here in at the end of my 55th year on this mortal coil I sit and lament the decline of the once great nation that America once was only a few decades ago.
@@docholiday1806 Riiight. Back when my ancestors tilled the land and yet, were forced to separate from their own families, children and blood. Shackled into slavery. Sold to buyers on the blocks. And of course, rape, murder and post-mortem desecration. Yeah... 150 years ago. Soooo great..
Too many bitter comments here! I choose to see this song, written by fellow Torontonian Robbie Robertson, as a tribute to a people who suffered a great loss, but whose pride could never be diminished. Much like the Mohawks (Robertson was half Mohawk), part of the Iroquois Confederacy. Maybe Robertson wasn't thinking only of the Confederacy in the South when he wrote this, but also the Confederacy of the North! And, just maybe, the Mohawks and other First Nations people, who were abused and denigrated by the majority white population here in Canada, are seen by Robertson as being akin to the Southerners who were treated like little more than hicks despite their rich history and great achievements, as if the stain of slavery was the only thing that ever happened there. When we talk of civil rights in the south, we have to remember it wasn't the Liberal hero John Kennedy who broke Jim Crow, it was the Southerner Lyndon Johnson who did so. Levon Helm, a Southerner, sang this song, and helped Robbie get some of the facts right. But Levon and Robbie clearly shared a passion for the Confederacy, just maybe not the same one!
The Southern planters riped off the natives and sent them on the "Trail of Tears" while enslaving the blacks and sharecropping the poor whites. This was what the poor confederate soldiers were unnecessarily starving and suffering to promote and extend. Blame Bobby Lee and Jeff Davis for the misery. And they were never grateful, never repaid the loyalty which they did not deserve.
Stories are about our heritage, our heritage is part of history and memories are about our life and we can only embrace them and grow from them! I can not amend for what happened in my families past, I can make a difference in how I want to change life! Our choice! I can not hold anyone one, today, responsible for my families pain and suffering. I was born in the early 50's and know about hardship, pain and struggles. I am old now and see that humanity forgot to let go, embrace the past, learn and grow strong from our struggles. I hope I taught my children to live their lives with love, as I raised them, never forget their past and live a wonderful life! Living for our past hurts, Never makes our children's lives better! What we teach our children to accept and honor and move forward is very different when we make our children pay for our Pain! I don't want my child to pay, I want my child to learn and grow strong! Did I ask too much?
Although the "War Between the States," as all my Southern ancestors call it, was basically about slavery and the economics of slavery, the song, for me anyway, transcends all that and touches a deep chord. I imagine a simple working man trying to live his life, and the song is about the destruction of that life, which is all he's ever known. He was a worker bee just trying to get by, doubtful too poor to even own slaves, but we feel the common feeling of a deep despair which could overtake any of us at a given moment, regardless of which side we are on.
so if some colonies had the right to rebel because they didnt feel like paying taxes on their tea and were costing the government an arm and a leg with the army they had to provide to said colonies..... why couldnt states secede from the union. makes ZERO fucking sense.and before you make the slavery human rights argument - it could have been the north that wanted to keep slavery and the south that was seceding to abolish it, and the north still would have come after the south just as hard.
It's about the price that soldiers have to pay during war, not about how great the South was. It does transcend all of that because it uses the experience of the Southern soldiers to talk about every soldier.
@joaohumbg the emancipation proc didn't occur til later in the war. the usa just had a fort that was right next to different country attacked and lincoln wanted to 'whip em back into shape'. they didn't make it any real point to fight to free slaves until the later half of that war also, this was a year old comment. you're lucky anyone even gives a shit
Captures the sadness and despair of a simple soldier seeing the loss of life, loss of a war, and destruction of his town, economy, and way of life....after a bitter, brutal war...
This is a song that resonates sorrow and bitterness. As a Southern boy, from Danville Virginia I feel the pain of my ancestors. Yanks buried in our back quarter. So much destruction, so much loss of life. Thank God that Lincoln was shot.
You miss the point of this song. The song doesn't glorify the Confederacy or the lost cause. This song is about the affects the war had on the southern working man, the civil War may have been fought over slavery but many poor non slave owning people were caught in the crossfire.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 KJV, Jesus Christ is the only way.....
** And all the people were singing! ** This is the most memorable line, the part that struck me -- Happy singing of "The People" . I guess I focused on that surprising line because I heard it first when I was a kid. (Who was singing? Oh yea the freed people.) The narrator, *Virgil - a poet story-teller, *Caine - perhaps doomed to wander in sadness - was peaceful and observant and resilient and ... defeated.
Happy Birthday Garth Hudson born on August 2, 1937. He is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist best known as the keyboardist and occasional saxophonist for rock group the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Following the death of Robbie Robertson in 2023, Hudson is the last living original member of the Band. - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Hudson
Spouse's ancestor fought for the Union and was captured. He kept a journal. He was put on a train headed for prison camp. Barely any food for either side. The train made a stop to hand out a handful of corn to each prisoner. They had not eaten in so long, that many just swallowed it as fast as they could and then immediately vomited it back up. The other prisoners would throw themselves on the vomit and eat it. That's how hungry they were.
My 3rd Great Grandfather fought & died as a Confederate soldier from Georgia in 1862. Right cause or wrong cause, over 600, 000 lives were lost on both sides by this sad, but pivotal conflict.
Where do I begin? Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris, Steve Tyler, Charlie Daniels Band, Big Country, Dave Brockie, Richie Havens, Black Crowes and Zac Brown Band, Hank Williams Jr., and the list goes on.
You're right. I am a hard core fan of The Band and I watch The Last Waltz every day. This is not The Last Waltz version, but it's still a good one. The Last Waltz version does not have the same horns, listen carefully.
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As a black boy growing up in the 70's I always felt some type of connection to this song but couldn't understand why. Then it me it was just feel good music with a deep emotional meaning to it. And it's those songs driven with that type of driving force makes a great song but it touches the heart, soul, mind, and emotions. Now I'm listening to this in my 50's and it still strikes a deep sensitive chord in me whoa.
Whether or not you agree with the South (I don't), it's a powerful story told well.
Amen
It's called the love of land and home . Southern air filled your lungs at birth and southern sun filled your eyes .
As a white girl growing up in the 70's I had no idea what this song was about, it was just a song that sounded good that was played on the radio. Knowing what I know now about the Civil War and the anti-war 1970's, it's a song about tragedy. The Civil War never needed to happen, slavery could have been settled legislatively without a brutal war. There's not enough room to give a history lesson here, but this song shouldn't be villainized by people who don't know anything, especially history revisionists.
Well, now this song is WRAYSSIS! They rob us of everything.
The one song that drives to the sole. I am 61 and remember this as a young kid. It hits you and you never forget it. Great Band!
"In the winter of '65 we were hungry, just barely alive."
Makes me cry everytime.
I always wondered what battle this song and eventually did some reading so as to find out. LOL. Then I found out that it was some music that a musician had in his head, he just wrote the words to fit his music! It’s not from the 19th century but the middle 20th century. So love it or hate it, it means nothing. I love it when sung well, I do not see it as a rallying cry.
@@sirmartinfrobisher Not true in the slightest
"They should never have taken the very best ", is the line that gets me.
@@sirmartinfrobisher OH, SO THE UNION DID NOT STARVE THE SOUTH??? LMAO... THEY DID NOT BURN THE FARMS AND KILL THE LIVESTOCK, THEY DID NOT RAPE THE WOMEN?? OH MAN...
@@sirmartinfrobisher Lot of shite.
Virgil Caine is the name
And I served on the Danville train
'Til Stoneman's cavalry came
And tore up the tracks again
In the winter of '65, we were hungry, just barely alive
By May the tenth, 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, la, la, la, na, na
La la, na, na, la, la, la, la, la"
Back with my wife in Tennessee
When one day she called to me
"Virgil, quick, come see
There goes the Robert E. Lee"
Now I don't mind choppin' 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, la, la, la, na, na
La la, na, na, la, la, la, la, 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 eighteen, proud and brave
But a Yankee laid him in his grave
I swear by the mud below my feet
You can't raise a Caine 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, la, la, la, na, na
La la, na, na, la, la, la, la, 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, la, la, la, na, na
La la, na, na, la, la, la, la, la"
A true Masterpiece 🥃
I had this song in my brain all day, here in Connecticut. I'm an almost-life-long Rhode Islander who grew up listening to my older siblings' music; my oldest brother loved these guys. Love to you all, Northerners, Southerners, Democrats, Republicans, and all races. We're all God's Children, all brothers and sisters.
@Brian Salomon Big Pink was in NY
@Brian Salomon Big pink was a house in West Saugerties, Upstate NY.
One of the best songs ever recorded, touches emotions in all of us
By far, The Band's greatest contribution (and Canadian Robbie Robertson's finest composition.)
May robbie robertson rest in peace
For me such an emotional song. Grew up and still live in Virginia. God Bless the South and the rest of the USA.
Richard Ellis shit if Pickett didn't run that charge and Jeb wasn't in pa. We would have won Lee and traveler would not be forced to surrender we did fire the first shot in the war of northern aggression my home state sc.
Richard Ellis here here, God bless the south and the Republic
@Gisselle S big facts my brotha
it will happen again america is gonna have another civil war i think
The True South thanks you.
Can't believe how many thumbs down this has. This song is a masterpiece and The Band is the one of the best bands of all time. And I've heard great music...
That's because of so called "Woke" A holes who know nothing regarding History!
The thumbs down likely come from the politics of it. I remember a woman in the 70's had a massive hit with this song. I don't remember her name. The first time I ever heard their version was on a documentary a few years ago that featured The Band. He sings it with such passion. Of course I wouldn't agree with the politics of the song but it is very well done and sung. What moves me most about a song is the emotion the singer(s) puts into it.
thumbs down have no class or anything else much
@@lesmillmanIirc it was Joan Baez.
The politics of it? And what would that be? You think this song glorifies the confederacy? This song was written and recorded at the tail end of the civil rights movement. Do you honestly think it would have had airplay, much less become a classic if it was racist? Not to mention the female who covered it was Joan Baez, and never has a more liberal, anti war, leftist woman ever walked the earth. It’s a song about the devastation of a family brought on by war. The side they fought on is irrelevant.
What a voice, rest in peace Levon.
Great glimpse into the past.. Just genius.. Record your heritage and don't let it be re-written or forgotten.
Extraordinary songwriting......tremendous playing.... desperate, raw emotion of the vocals.....and all of it, PURE ROCK, accessible to all of us.....classic
Terrific song. Long live the confederate flag and southern heritage.
Played drums on the Opry for 18 years, ans was thrilled to meet Levon at a studio in Hendersonville. A true gentleman, and one of my drum heroes...simple but powerful. He IS missed....
This song is a Hymn.
Amen!
A hymn of humanity the case we will stubbornly have war..instead of settling by lawful entreaty.
Agreeing to that brother
Virgil Caine 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 tenth, 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 singin' they went
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, 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 choppin' wood, and I don't care if the money's no good
Ya take what ya need and ya 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 the people were singin' they went
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la,
Like my father before me, I will work the land
Like my brother above me, who took a rebel stand
He was just eighteen, proud and brave, but a Yankee laid him in his grave
I swear by the mud below my feet,
You can't raise a Caine 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 singin', they went
Na, la, na, la, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na,
The night they drove old Dixie down, and all the bells were ringing,
The night they drove old Dixie down, and the people were singin', they went
Na, la, na, la, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na
There goes THE Robert E Lee (it was a steamboat)
You got to know international history to appreciate such songs!
The Band blew my mind into pieces I will always be looking for....... God bless them
Like my father before Me I will work the land. Like my brothers before me ill take a rebel stand.
It's about time some folks learned the proper lyrics to this bad boy. '"Till STONEMAN'S cavalry came" and not "till SO MUCH cavalry came". Thankee.
You are quite correct. Major General Stoneman if memory serves.
That is because the Joan Baez version is better known and she actually sang 'so much cavalry' as she had never see the written lyrics and sang it as she heard it. The original lyrics are better, but Baez' version is far better known overall.
Nyctasia I agree with you there. It is certainly more well-known and it is also a great version. Another common mis-hearing of the lines is "till Stonewall's cavalry came". "Lady Mondegreen" I believe they call it.
*****
A great song none the less, it never gets old. I loved it when I was 5, and still loved it when I got to work as casual road crew for some Baez gigs many years later. Even today, it is one of my favourites, though you hear it less on the radio now sadly.
Nyctasia You are so lucky! I'm certainly a big Baez fan. She also did, arguably, a better version of Emmy Lou's song about Gram than Emmy Lou herself did. Wonderful artist all round.
R.I.P. Levon Helm...
One of the very few songs that had a 'Billy Graham effect' on me. Six beers in and arms were waving in the air, in slow motion.
I'm very well aware of the song's background and everything. Yet I feel it is about living in the ruins and trying to survive after your world has been blown to bits. This song gives me chills and the album it is from is a masterpiece.
And everything?
It's about geti f drunk and singing alonf
@@sombrecynic4966 Done that many a times while watching the last waltz.
I mean, that _is_ what it's about. Most Southerners didn't own slaves, and certainly weren't fighting a war to save slavery. The Confederate soldiers were largely from backgrounds of poverty, hard work, and hard living, and were just fighting for their homes. They bore a massive cost for the varying agendas of men wealthier and better connected than they -- from slaveholders who wanted to keep their slaves to President Lincoln himself, who just wanted to preserve the Union ("If I could save the union without freeing any slaves I would do it...").
At the end of the war, free blacks and poor whites alike were left trying to build something out of rubble (and, more often than is appreciated, trying to do it alongside one another).
@@GlobalDrifter1000 I loathe the Confideracy however the Civil War left a giant scar on the nation's soul that obviously never healed.
I remember my dad showing the Last Waltz and I fell in love with the drums and was amazed the drum sang so good. I ask him what’s the song about he said later In school you’ll learn it’s part of American history. Thx Pops !!
I had just started community college. I was fresh out of the nest, out on my own for the first time.
I knew NOTHING, not even music. I hadn't touched a guitar yet.
My roommates had this album (and many others). I listened to this one daily for the next couple years.
While all my friends were listening to Beatles, I was obsessed with The Band...
Is it any wonder I'm an Americana musician these days? Blues, Country, Folk... mix and match.
Thanks for making all of our lives just a little better. Hope you are drummin' and singin' with God's band. You'll make it much better.
My great great grandfather Hiram Hamrick was 52 years old when he was mustered in to the Enterprise Tigers (regiment or battalion) out of Enterprise, Mississippi in '61 and rode to the end when Lee surrendered in '65. My great grandfather James was 12yo in 61. This song has always meant a lot to me... ,I LOVE IT!!!!! §Ć¡Œæ·€
+james hamrick those of us from the south do have a love for this song,always
cynthia caldwell those of us in the North like this one too. This was a sad time in the history of our country
BTW
My grandfather joined SA in 1932.
Let’s see. One GGF fought at Malvern Hill for the South. A GGGF was a Sergeant in the Union Army. Neither had any property.
Awesome song especially right now.
I heard this, the morning my Mom was dressing me for my first day of kindergarten, it was playing on the radio.
Saw this band three times back in the day...glad I did
Wow. 💕💕 This song. Sad but outstanding lyrics and music. Fantastic band.👏🍀
my dad says Levon has the perfect voice for this song.
Your dad is bang on!
@@skipraida5497 Joan Baez does it well also.
@@minnowpd It lacks the essential rawness of a voice for it to be considered worthy of comparison to Leon's rendition.
He is correct.
Joan Baez sounds great
Just watched when we were brothers about the band really cool. I love this song.
i agree it was great
That's right
Feel like I was there, every time I hear it.
Thank you for this. It brings back wonderful memories. The Band was the very best.
It really is kind of funny to listen to this band... The Band, one of the shining lights of 'Americana music,' and find out that this band formed in Toronto, Canada. Thank you Bob Dylan for stealing these guys away for those fateful tours back in the day. They never looked back and music was never the same. Much love from Toronto!
What a great band. One of the best ever.
born and raised in New England proud yankee and still love this beautiful American song
Mike Forbes: Many Yankee officers committed honorable suicide over the guilt of what Sherman did to Dixie. A shame people don't learn that in school.
Joe Ruiz
What that man did was one of the most disgraceful acts in war I have ever studied...burning everything, including private property of people not involved,.....fuck. This is on a level of when the nazis and ussr were going at it in terms of fucked up...
It's soulful, mournful and really beautiful. Melodic and arranged so well. There is much accurate history in the few lines: the Danville train was the Army of Northern Virginia's last hope of refitting. Out of food, ammo, clothes, medicine, etc, the exceptional fighting army, led by Gen. Marse Robert E Lee, were walking skeletons, many shoeless, matched in rags, starving, sick, running out of ammo, w/ horses dying & being killed, w/ everything else. Richmond, the Confederate Capitol, having fallen, was in flames, the once feared Army had finally been flanked out of the long, thin Petersburg works after six months of WW1 type trench killing and dying and were being hounded by Union Gens Sheridan & Stoneman, while Grant & Meade's main eastern Union Army of the Potomac was ready to offer surrender terms or attempt to destroy the enemy. One fear the Yankees had was of the Rebels getting to the mountains and then the war could go on as an insurgency with guerrilla fighting, hit and run attacks and a country tearing itself even more. 600,000 plus were dead already, many more maimed and wounded. Thankfully, Lee and Grant brought the country together at the end, bitter and brutal as the vicious fighting had been
Lee believed his men could do anything and had been remarkable, in return his men worshipped the great Lee, who, along w/ Stonewall Jackson had been potent and were held in awe. Jackson, Sidney Johnston, JEB Stuart, Cleburne, and many others had been KIA, others like Hood, AP Hill & Ewell, and Lee himself were either badly wounded or very ill.
The train was slowed up, damaged and was void of resupplies for the Rebels, after another battle in which an angered Lee actually took the flag, as he had done before, attempted to lead a charge to fill a gap in the lines before the Texas Shock Troops held his horse Traveler Calls went up of "Lee to the rear" they then attacked. At winter 's end, so did the Civil War. It ended in the house of a man who moved to Appomattox Court House, after he moved his family from Manassas when his farm had been damaged during the war's first major battle in the East.
Great song. Amazing history. The Confederates fought skillfully for a deplorable cause. It is with remembering, the overwhelming majority of soldiers were boys and men who held no slaves. The poor and young die in old rich men's wars. Lions for lambs...
I wouldn’t call it a deplorable cause at all..they fought for their country and homes. These poor starving men didn’t give a shit about a rich plantation owner they fought for their families and before you come back and say something about slavery go back and read the emancipation proclamation and ask yourself why Lincoln only said slavery was outlawed in the Confederate states not the Union because it was still very prevalent there. He did that to keep France and Britain out of the war because he knew his ass would be completely kicked if they resupplied us like we had an agreement for them to do.
Ironically, written by a Canadian Aboriginal...but, awesomely deep...history can be cruel...and, as a Canadian...thanks.
@@codylebleu951 great commentary!.........
@@geoffreygushue2280 You mean stolen by him, Most of the ideas for the song came from Levon and his relatives.
@@scottconnor8867 Aaah, okay... sounds like something you read on da old in-tar-net, a ''conspiracy'' for sure...funny how Robertson was given the credit for the song writing on the album and... well. everywhere... part of the conspiracy, I guess. But, kudos to Helm(and his relatives?) for writing such lyrics...despite his addiction to heroin. Funny, I looked into that...where exactly did you read that... I couldn't find that anywhere.
I don't mind chopping wood.
And i don't care, if my money's no good.
thank you
Just 18, proud and brave but a yankee laid him in his grave.
Looking like those days are coming back, FJB
I love Joan Baez more than any word can show
Thank you TDS for showing me this song. Very cool
Listened to this song today because of all the talk about removing Civil War statues from the Southern side. Mixed emotions for me. I pray for peace for our Nation and for old and new wounds to heal. God Bless The USA.
If we erase history we have nothing to learn from. We are to learn from our mistakes not do them over. Proud relative of Robert E. Lee, who by the way hated slavery. Look up famous quotes by Lee.
I fear that if they sweep everything from out collective past under the carpet, everyone will forget the Truth and we will end up repeating it again and again.
This song is a song about history.
Leave it be.
✌❤🎸🎶🙏
KEH 🇨🇦
@@debbiescanlan9462 exactly!
katherine hunter .....👍🙏🇺🇸
God is great they'll never come after this!
I'm Italian-American from Brooklyn. Always loved this song.
Seriously, one of the best music ever created! It took a Canadian (btw, half Mohawk Indian) to pen something so simple (but poignant) as that, about the American Civil War. Great gutsy (i.e. "angry") vocals by the drummer, whose correct name is "Mark Lavon Helm" (RIP), the "Levon" spelling came from the way his friends mispronounced it (lol).
I love the lyrics, but the brass instruments in the background really make the song!
these guys can really music
Oh yea I love to music
My favorite comment
It might be better if you actually proof read what your about to post to the comments section.
If you find a cute girl who can really music, marry her.
Great, puts me in a different time in the country
Used to play this all the time at the VFW. Back when people were nice and civilized.
Excellent song right now!
The first time I heard this song I was playing Red Dead Redemption ( I listen to music when I play). After I heard “the night they drove old dixie down” chills went down my body - because this is REAL - original music . It really makes you think about how things played out during the time of the Civil War .
But it’s not music of the time; it’s something that was written in about 1970, not 1860. It just sounds old.
Levon Helm, vocals and drums. Rest in Peace, Levon. I loved you. ♥♥♥
So many thumbs down... because the south lost like some man under many indictments ❤
i was lucky to see the band in 1973 and 1974
I was born in Germany we moved to the states to the Northeast of USA I guess you can call me a Yankee but I have nothing but respect and admiration for the Confederacy and all of the people who passed during those awful times
It's a wonder TH-cam haven't taken this down, so glad they haven't
Since 1965, you have brought your soulful music........
The Band always #1 with me! Thanks
Always remember, they had a belief. They fought for it and they died trying to keep it. And when General Lee surrendered his SABER to General Grant, he gave it back to him
and said go home to your family General. He was still an AMERICAN. I Fear all of my brother and sister veterans that after this Civil War our once beloved USA as we new it will be only a faint memory. GOD BLESS THE U.S.A. D.D. U.S.M.C.ret.
magically beautiful from ton van zutphen in Gaziantep...64 years young!
The album is Rock of Ages:The Band in Concert (1972), recorded from a series of shows at NYC's long gone Academy of Music Dec 28-31, 1971. Allen Toussaint wrote the horn arrangement.
The very essence of the South back then. Brings tears to the eyes!
Saddest song I've ever heard. RIP Levon Helm
Hero
Not to me. ** All the people were singing! ** I guess I focus on a different part
What a great historical song. And great music. Right or wrong history is history and its wrong to tear it down like some are trying to today. Trying to destroy our past is if of what gain. We learn from our past. It happened its over so get over it and enjoy the music. No body today would have the guts to sing this great song now days it might offend someone. As the old Canned Heat song "Lets Work Together". And move on. And yes I am a Black man who loves history and great music right or wrong. Stop Trying to tear it down.
Great southern song of the ages.
MAN,THESE GUY'S & DYLAN.WHERE ARE THEY.THAT IS MUSIC.
Partied with them in Watkins Glenn in 73
The shame still makes both North and South The Civil war killed more men than any War has.
Civil wars tend to be the most savage.
@@Springbok295 Truit..
Are you sure? The South seceded to defend slavery and oppression.To me, the South is only to blame! Long live General (and President) U.S.Grant!
As I sit here in at the end of my 55th year on this mortal coil I sit and lament the decline of the once great nation that America once was only a few decades ago.
TheFaceless Men
This republic has come a long way....I hope we can keep it together
You're having a laugh you septic tank.
TheFaceless Men more then 150 years ago it was great. Now it is an imperialistic craphole.
@@docholiday1806 Riiight. Back when my ancestors tilled the land and yet, were forced to separate from their own families, children and blood. Shackled into slavery. Sold to buyers on the blocks. And of course, rape, murder and post-mortem desecration. Yeah... 150 years ago. Soooo great..
Lunacyk it was great. Slaves had it way better here than in Africa. Gradual emancipation was on its way until yankee tyrants engaged in a war with us.
Too many bitter comments here! I choose to see this song, written by fellow Torontonian Robbie Robertson, as a tribute to a people who suffered a great loss, but whose pride could never be diminished. Much like the Mohawks (Robertson was half Mohawk), part of the Iroquois Confederacy. Maybe Robertson wasn't thinking only of the Confederacy in the South when he wrote this, but also the Confederacy of the North!
And, just maybe, the Mohawks and other First Nations people, who were abused and denigrated by the majority white population here in Canada, are seen by Robertson as being akin to the Southerners who were treated like little more than hicks despite their rich history and great achievements, as if the stain of slavery was the only thing that ever happened there. When we talk of civil rights in the south, we have to remember it wasn't the Liberal hero John Kennedy who broke Jim Crow, it was the Southerner Lyndon Johnson who did so.
Levon Helm, a Southerner, sang this song, and helped Robbie get some of the facts right. But Levon and Robbie clearly shared a passion for the Confederacy, just maybe not the same one!
I agree here, wholeheartedly
Well written and well said. Have a good night buddy.
Well said. I agree with you 100%. Cheers from Nova Scotia
The Southern planters riped off the natives and sent them on the "Trail of Tears" while enslaving the blacks and sharecropping the poor whites. This was what the poor confederate soldiers were unnecessarily starving and suffering to promote and extend.
Blame Bobby Lee and Jeff Davis for the misery. And they were never grateful, never repaid the loyalty which they did not deserve.
Its a good take on it. Its hard to lose.
As a yankee who doesn't care about southern heritage in the slightest, I can still say that this is great song.
Thank you yank from Johnny reb
It’s the only heritage!!!
What a tremendous version!
This song reminds me off the movie "The Outlaw Josie Wales".
Stories are about our heritage, our heritage is part of history and memories are about our life and we can only embrace them and grow from them! I can not amend for what happened in my families past, I can make a difference in how I want to change life! Our choice! I can not hold anyone one, today, responsible for my families pain and suffering. I was born in the early 50's and know about hardship, pain and struggles. I am old now and see that humanity forgot to let go, embrace the past, learn and grow strong from our struggles. I hope I taught my children to live their lives with love, as I raised them, never forget their past and live a wonderful life! Living for our past hurts, Never makes our children's lives better! What we teach our children to accept and honor and move forward is very different when we make our children pay for our Pain! I don't want my child to pay, I want my child to learn and grow strong! Did I ask too much?
well said sir
Amen
I can listen to this song again and again.....
Thanks to Levon for the vocals and the emotion behind them; made for a great song.
Although the "War Between the States," as all my Southern ancestors call it, was basically about slavery and the economics of slavery, the song, for me anyway, transcends all that and touches a deep chord. I imagine a simple working man trying to live his life, and the song is about the destruction of that life, which is all he's ever known. He was a worker bee just trying to get by, doubtful too poor to even own slaves, but we feel the common feeling of a deep despair which could overtake any of us at a given moment, regardless of which side we are on.
so if some colonies had the right to rebel because they didnt feel like paying taxes on their tea and were costing the government an arm and a leg with the army they had to provide to said colonies..... why couldnt states secede from the union. makes ZERO fucking sense.and before you make the slavery human rights argument - it could have been the north that wanted to keep slavery and the south that was seceding to abolish it, and the north still would have come after the south just as hard.
Dexter Charles especially since the union didn't use slavery as a fighting point until later on in the war...they just wanted to keep the south
It's about the price that soldiers have to pay during war, not about how great the South was. It does transcend all of that because it uses the experience of the Southern soldiers to talk about every soldier.
how well said - the deep grief anyone can experience, but somehow the "South" has avoided facing
@joaohumbg the emancipation proc didn't occur til later in the war. the usa just had a fort that was right next to different country attacked and lincoln wanted to 'whip em back into shape'. they didn't make it any real point to fight to free slaves until the later half of that war
also, this was a year old comment. you're lucky anyone even gives a shit
Captures the sadness and despair of a simple soldier seeing the loss of life, loss of a war, and destruction of his town, economy, and way of life....after a bitter, brutal war...
Bless-Robbie,Rick,Levon,Garth and Richard!
One hell of a song after so many years. People should listen and mind the text.
very fitting song for the day
Rodney Hubbard Thank you for your service sir
Miss walking into the local shit hole bar in the afternoon getting wasted and blasting the band, good days might go do that tomorrow
This is a song that resonates sorrow and bitterness. As a Southern boy, from Danville Virginia I feel the pain of my ancestors. Yanks buried in our back quarter. So much destruction, so much loss of life. Thank God that Lincoln was shot.
You miss the point of this song. The song doesn't glorify the Confederacy or the lost cause. This song is about the affects the war had on the southern working man, the civil War may have been fought over slavery but many poor non slave owning people were caught in the crossfire.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 KJV, Jesus Christ is the only way.....
I played this in protest of canceling this years the Civil War Re Enactment of the Battle of Lains Mill!
** And all the people were singing! ** This is the most memorable line, the part that struck me -- Happy singing of "The People" . I guess I focused on that surprising line because I heard it first when I was a kid. (Who was singing? Oh yea the freed people.)
The narrator, *Virgil - a poet story-teller, *Caine - perhaps doomed to wander in sadness - was peaceful and observant and resilient and ... defeated.
Love the song.
Happy Birthday Garth Hudson born on August 2, 1937. He is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist best known as the keyboardist and occasional saxophonist for rock group the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Following the death of Robbie Robertson in 2023, Hudson is the last living original member of the Band. - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Hudson
Spouse's ancestor fought for the Union and was captured. He kept a journal. He was put on a train headed for prison camp. Barely any food for either side. The train made a stop to hand out a handful of corn to each prisoner. They had not eaten in so long, that many just swallowed it as fast as they could and then immediately vomited it back up. The other prisoners would throw themselves on the vomit and eat it. That's how hungry they were.
My 3rd Great Grandfather fought & died as a Confederate soldier from Georgia in 1862. Right cause or wrong cause, over 600, 000 lives were lost on both sides by this sad, but pivotal conflict.
RIP Levon
Where do I begin? Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris, Steve Tyler, Charlie Daniels Band, Big Country, Dave Brockie, Richie Havens, Black Crowes and Zac Brown Band, Hank Williams Jr., and the list goes on.
Heard this on RTÉ Lyric FM last night. Terrific rendition! Jim x
This song is a historical piece. It's not a lost cause anthem.
Абсолютный Шедевр.
thank you for posting this great Song!!
You're right. I am a hard core fan of The Band and I watch The Last Waltz every day. This is not The Last Waltz version, but it's still a good one. The Last Waltz version does not have the same horns, listen carefully.
Stonemans raid went right through my town of boone nc.
You’re 30 minutes from me. Did they go through ashe county as well?
@@ZoSo1973 don't think so, I'm from Ashe co 😂.