The Band frequently performed the song in concert, and it is included on the group's live albums Rock of Ages (1972) and Before the Flood (1974). According to Rob Bowman's liner notes to the 2000 reissue of The Band, the album has been viewed as a concept album, with the songs focusing on the peoples, places and traditions associated with an older version of Americana.Ī highlight of the group's repertoire, it has been included in every compilation covering their recording career 1968 to 1977. "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" is considered one of the highlights of The Band, the group's second album, which was released in the fall of 1969. In the winter of '65, we were hungry, just barely aliveīy May the tenth, Richmond had fell, it's a time I remember, oh so well Till Stoneman's cavalry came and tore up the tracks again Virgil Caine is the name, and I served on the Danville train The song's opening stanza refers to one of George Stoneman's raids behind Confederate lines attacking the railroads of Danville, Virginia, at the end of the Civil War in 1865: Dixie is the historical nickname for the states making up the Confederate States of America. The lyrics tell of the last days of the American Civil War, portraying the suffering of the protagonist, Virgil Caine, a poor white Southerner. I remember taking him to the library so he could research the history and geography of the era and make General Robert E. In his 1993 autobiography, This Wheel's on Fire, Helm wrote, "Robbie and I worked on 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down' up in Woodstock. Then the concept came to him and he researched the subject with help from the Band's drummer Levon Helm, a native of Arkansas. Robertson said he had the music to the song in his head and would play the chords over and over on the piano but had no idea what the song was to be about. The song was written by Robbie Robertson, who spent about eight months working on it. However, on the Record World Top Singles chart for the week of September 25, 1971, the Baez single hit #1 for one week. Joan Baez's version peaked at #3 on the Hot 100 on 2 October 1971 it did likewise on the Cashbox Top 100 chart. The song appeared at number 245 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. The song is a first-person narrative relating the economic and social distress experienced by the protagonist, a poor white Southerner, during the last year of the American Civil War, when George Stoneman was raiding southwest Virginia. " The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" is a song written by Robbie Robertson and originally recorded by the Canadian-American roots rock group the Band in 1969 and released on their eponymous second album. "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" by The Band on YouTube
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