The Night they drove Old Dixie Down - The Band | ANDY & ALEX FIRST TIME REACTION!
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- Опубліковано 23 сер 2024
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While it may be from a southern perspective, it's theme is universal - it's regular folks who pay the price for the wars started by the elites.
Wars started by elites sounds like it's more modern day. This time period was civil war... ish and not started by elites. Sorry that I'm off track a bit cuz this is music not politics. My apologies. Just a slightly different take
Tell that to the young people who’ve criticized it as an endorsement of slavery, the blues of slave owners, and supporting the Confederacy. Idiots probably don’t even know it was written by a Canadian with no dog in that hunt.
@@bobbyreno2990 "Elites" have always been with us.
@@bobbyreno2990 Well, the term "elites" is certainly a modern one with political baggage. The truth is a tiny percentage in the Confederacy owned slaves. But the landowners who owned slaves - and sure we can call them elites - whipped up a war to protect their economic interests and got ordinary schmoes to fight it. Same as almost every other war. (I'd make an exception for WWII and in theory Afghanistan, though the latter was only in theory: it had no clear goal or exit strategy and then lasted almost 20 years, so that makes a guy skeptical as well.)
Every war ever was started by "elites." They're very expensive to conduct
Always be careful judging a song from 50 or 60 years ago by today’s opinions. This story is more about simple people losing all they had.
Very true. It is not lamenting the loss of the Confederacy but the loss of his brother, his career as a railway man, and the waste of so many lives.
Yes and about something that happened 100 yrs before that
Very well said . They were pioneers and so incredibly talented.
There is a kind of interesting irony that this song is written by a half indigenous / half Jewish Canadian. The Mohawk side of his lineage was very musical.
I’m a bit late to the party here - but just want to say that when you do one of your whole album listens The Band - The Band has to be one of those albums. You need to listen to the whole album in one sitting and then you’ll start to appreciate their greatness.
It was written by a Canadian. Levon Helm was from Arkansas, all rest were Canadian. One of the best bands in all of rock history.
Robbie Robertson is a Canadian of half Jewish half Native ethnicity, raised partly in the city of Toronto and partly on the Six Nations Reserve outside of Toronto. He became obsessed with rockabilly and blues at an early age, learned guitar and managed to join Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks, who were from Arkansas (Levon was the drummer). When he went down to Arkansas to rehearse with the band and work on his chops, he took in the whole culture of the Mississippi Delta and used that knowledge to eventually write songs like this.
From Ronnie Hawkins biography:
In 1958, on the recommendation of Conway Twitty - who considered Canada to be the promised land for a rock'n roll singer - Hawkins came to Hamilton, Ontario to play a club called The Grange. He never left. Adopting Canada as his home, Hawkins became a permanent resident in 1964.
I'm a Yankee from Illinois visiting Wilmington North Carolina and I walk into a Civil War museum. It was somber. My first thought was, "oh, we lost." We. I had never thought about it that way before. No politics. These were Americans and I felt the loss.
God Bless Dixie
A belated happy birthday to Robbie Robertson. Leader of band who turned 80 this past week.
His birthday is actually today, July 5.
Garth Hudson is 85.
I love his Music for the Native Americans-with the Red Road Ensemble.
The only 2 left.
.....and who is KILLING it on the new Scorsese movie. He does the music for it and the first two trailers have some great stuff in it. Best stuff he's ever done since the Band. Usually I don't like his movie scores, but this is really good. "Killers Of The Flower Moon", there are two amazing trailers for it. See the first one first......then see the one that dropped yesterday.
Incredible song about a difficult subject matter. There are always victims on both sides of a war.
Great song firmly in the genre of "Americana". I'm so very thankful the North won, but can appreciate a masterpiece that can put you in another's shoes for a few minutes. RIP Levon!
In war, no one really wins. So much loss.
This song gives me the chills from all aspects…the pure talent from The Band, the tragedy of war, and the story told so well from the personal perspective of the storyteller.
"I guess we all died a little in that damn war" - Josey Wales.
The only loser was the confederacy.
Note that most of these guys are Canadian, so this is a pastiche of southern sentiments. It’s one of the great albums of the sixties, I’d highly recommend hearing the entire thing
All but one was Canadian.
Levon Helm the singer and drummer was from Arkansas the only one of the 5 members not Canadian. Robbie Robertson wrote it with help from Levon to research. Robbie is First Nations born to a Cayuga and Mohawk mother.
Another song that hits the "feeling Southern by someone who isn't" is Elton John's My Father's Gun. It's beautiful and sad... And I'm still not sure how he and Bernie settled on the subject matter, but I'm glad they did.
As a sentient liberal northerner who grew up w/ this song, I don't believe it's ever been a redneck anthem. It was released the year after MLK and RFK were assassinated and Civil Rights Era feelings were raw. But it was universal in that it expressed the plight of regular working people caught up in war and exploited by both sides; Viet Nam was going on at the same time.
Just a suggestion, but you might think about doing the whole album. It really paints the whole picture of what they were doing. Also, you haven't really gone into the Americana/Roots genre. John Prine, a lot of early Randy Newman, Bonnie Raitt, Johnny Cash were all getting a lot of attention from Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin fans.
P.S. On the off chance you listen to the album ("The Band") please be sure to do the issue that has "King Harvest.) And that's all I have to say about THAT. ☮
I think the Last Waltz version is by far the best. They knew it would be the last time they played it as band and it just slaps a lot harder.
Absolutely!! Levon poured his entire soul into that performance! I have heard that Levon never performed that song after the Last Waltz, and I can't find evidence that he ever did.
That album, "The Band," is, without doubt, their masterpiece.
There was nobody like them; they were true originals.
Edit: When Clapton heard that album, he crossed the Pond and volunteered to play with them.
They were Bob Dylan’s band in the mid to late 60s
Correct.
"The Basement Tapes" is an interesting collection of unique songs, a collaboration between Bob and The Band.
Right, after hearing this album, Clapton left Cream and wanted to join them, George Harrison had his fill of The Beatles, the Stones turned away from psychedelia and plugged into their purple patch, and Fairport Convention gave up trying to be the British Jefferson Airplane and plugged into their British roots. Not to mention Deja Vu by CSN&Y (just look at the cover!).
@@JCPJCPJCP yes. Million Dollar Bash is a favorite of mine from that lp
@@imabeliever85 they were and always will be The Band
I'm as Yankee as it gets, and this song still tugs hard at the heart strings for me because of one thing: Levon Helm's drumming. Very few drummers can set the emotional tone for an entire song, but Helm could. Rock critic Jon Carroll ones said that he was "the only drummer who can make you cry" and boy is that the truth.
I don’t disagree with your sentiment, but you are convoluting what happened to the Native people of America and the United States Civil War. They were both horrific events, but they’re not related.
I grew up 12 miles from Woodstock and met Levon when I was eighteen. He invited me to his studio, what a thrill.
@@waynegray1380 Nice! What a good memory. :)
@@richardsimpson9039 He's saying both sides went on to obliterate most natives in the western half of what is now teh continental US. And he's right in that happening and that it is classic US imperialism.
Another pro tip: George Washington's false teeth were not made of wood.They were made of teeth from slaves.
It was written by a guy from farther north than you...
I believe Joan Baez does a great versionof this song. It was hers that became a radio hit, if I remember.
She's a great singer, but she completely fucked up the lyrics in her version
It was a radio hit, at least where I grew up. And honestly I like her version much better than this one.
Heard a rumour - maybe untrue - that her version has different lyrics because she wrote them down while listening to the song on MW radio and misheard some lines.
@@CycolacFan It's true. For example, that part about "Stoneman's Cavalry came and tore up the tracks again" is referring to Union general George Stoneman and his 1865 raid across 6 Confederate states that covered 2000 miles . When Joan Baez covered the song she misheard the lyrics and sang it as, "So much cavalry came and tore up the tracks again..." It's odd because the Band had been Bob Dylan's backup band previously and she was Dylan's girlfriend. So, you'd think it would have been very easy for her to get an actual lyric sheet from either the band, their management or their publisher before she decided to record it.
That's the version I remember. It was on the radio a lot. I do prefer Baez's version to the Band's.
The summer of '65 is 1865, at the end of the civil war. This song by Levon Helm is a lament not necessarily about the end of the Confederacy and slavery, but wrenching social and economic change that the end of the war and the destruction of the war brought to the south. The north boomed after the end of the war; south took 100 years to recover. You can be sad about the post-civil war south without being a member of the KKK.
The Band, like, CCR, was widely admired by artists like Clapton for its authentic and very American blend of blues/folk/country, despite many of the band being Canadian. It was a very tight band that played very loose. After The Weight and Cripple Creek, you could hit Ophelia, Stage Fright, It Makes No Difference, or Acadian Driftwood.
This.
Yes- it’s more about the destruction that followed the war. Lincoln wanted the country to heal and the worst thing for the South was his assassination. Andrew Johnson didn’t share that sentiment and punished the South so there was little healing and the rise of the Klan followed.
The song is NOT by Levon Helm. It is a song sang by Levon Helm as a member of The Band. The song was written by Canadian Robbie Robertson of The Band.
@@BobSoltis1 Robertson definitely wrote the tune, so my error; I associate the song with Levon and should have checked. Levon and Robbie worked on the lyrics together; some say Levon deserved more of a song-writing credit than he got; he was certainly the source of knowledge regarding the post-civil war south. Call it 80% Robbie, 20% Levon.
@@Tommeadowcroft The ONLY person who made the claim that Helm worked on the lyrics with Robertson was Helm and that was AFTER Helm became a broke-ass jealous junkie.
Helm's abuse of drugs broke him and altered his mind into an almost pathological jealousy and hatred of Robertson. Helm had every opportunity to make his claim when the song was written and released. He didn't. Why? Because he had no case. He did NOT write it with Robertson - he added some drumming, possibly a word or phrase in the final mix, and maybe made some suggestions as to the arrangement. That does NOT give him any song writing credits. Everyone in the industry and in the world of copyright knows that. If any lawyer thought Helm had a chance at gaining something they would have worked on a contingency. The other band members would have backed him in court if it were true.
Helm was not a songwriter. Period. He covered other people's songs his entire life. Robertson sold songs to Ronnie Hawkins when Robbie was 15 and Hawkins and his band (with Helm drumming) recorded them.
Helm couldn't and didn't write back then and he died as a musician and actor and producer but not a song writer.
Robbie Robertson has written songs all his life and is still doing so at age 80.
On the Rolling Stone magazine list of 500 greatest songs.
Pitchfork Media named it 42nd best song of the 60s.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included it in 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
Time magazine included it in its All-Time 100.
Many young folks in the 21st Century have criticized the lyrics, but then again, a southern man don’t need them around anyhow.
Levon Helm said “This was when we started halving the beat on a lot of tunes which gave us a distinctive thing. Instead of keeping full time rhythmically, we found if we halved the beat we could lay the lyrics in a different place, and the pulse would be easier to move to, more danceable. And it made it easier for us to learn to really sing with one another and behind Richard. My problem was that I had to learn to sing and play in half-time meter at the same time.”
Oh, and the Robert E. Lee mentioned in the second verse of the song is a steamboat named after the general that was launched on the Mississippi river in 1866, not the actual general.
Levon said that the lyric refers to the actual Robert E Lee. He criticized Joan Baez’s version for putting a “the” before Lee’s name.
@@billdouglas8701 Helm didn't write the lyrics - Robbie Robertson did - and Robbie said it was referring to the steamboat.
If that were the case originally, I would think the band’s version would have Levon sing “the Robert E Lee” instead of omitting the article. Levon said he directed Robbie toward certain Civil War histories so that “General Lee would come out with all due respect.”
I'm guessing the lyric: "And I don't care if the money's no good" refers to the Confederate States dollar.
Dixie was the old south, the confederate states of America. Virgil Caine is lamenting the loss of his livelihood as a train line worker and the end of the confederacy.
Respectfully, nah.
Read/listen to the lyrics:
It’s about how, when they lost, they were ready for it, ready to move on.
- All the bells were ringing, all the people singing: It’s the locals (Southerners) celebrating the end.
He laments his lost father and brother, and is getting back to life.
About loss of loved ones, having your home and crops burned.
Strange how we're still remembering ( some would say living ) this conflict in song and sentiment.
Virgil was in the army, during the war, serving on the Danville (VA) train, moving military supplies and troops.
@@lilbuglerThe aren’t celebrating, they’re mourning.
Levo'n's voice was a national treasure...
Now this is the roots of rock and roll I wish you guys would do a much deeper dive into this band
I admit that it never fails to make me smile that a song that is considered quintessentially "Southern (American)" was written by an indigenous Canadian.
It was written by a Canadian who was born and raised in the city of Toronto whose mother was First Nations and father was Jewish.
@BobSoltis1 , fail to see your point??? Aren't we saying the same thing?
@@telebender You left out 1/2 of his ancestry. Why is the fact his mother was an First Nations person more important than his father was Jewish? He certainly was not raised as a First Nations person. He was a city kid through and through and only visited his relatives on the reserve a few days once or twice a year.
@BobSoltis1 Wow...ok. Why so salty on a Wednesday, Bobby? Sorry, I must have misplaced the memo, putting you in charge of the editorial board that comprises my stream of consciousness. Please re-fwd. Btw, I think HR wants a chat...just sayin'.
if you watched "The Last Waltz" then yes you have heard this song, sung by the Drummer Levon Helm. An ode to the rural Southerners during the U.S. Civil War.
The story reflects those that were just the pawns of war.
"Acadian Driftwood" is another great song by The Band, also based on tragic history.
I agree. Plus, it's a song about what my direct ancestors were put through. I guess if this didn't happen there wouldn't be Cajuns (a nickname for southern Acadians).
The drummer, Levon Helm, is perfect. It truly is a funeral dirge.
"Dixie" is another name for the South. I mean, c'mon y'all, you are college grads. The line where Virgil says he served on the Danville (VA.) train until Stoneman's cavalry came and tore up the tracks again refers to the 1865 cavalry raid by Gen. George Stoneman into Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina where his troops plundered and burned towns and destroyed railroad tracks along the way. Joan Baez did a cover where she sang "So much cavalry" instead of Stoneman's because she misheard the lyrics when listening to The Band's version.
Yes, Joan got several of the lyrics wrong. She also changed "Robert E. Lee" to "the Robert E. Lee" - from a man to a ship. Oddest of all was "I will work the land" became "I'm a working man"; she changed the lyric to one that didn't fit her gender.
Back when this was on the airwaves I was going to school in Danville, VA (referenced the Danville train in opening lyrics, short time capitol of the Confederacy)… my English professor got himself all worked up during a lecture one day, pointed his finger at me and yelled “you god damn yankees”… caught me by surprise, growing up in the NYC metro area we weren’t fighting that war anymore! Needless to say, I spent the next 3 years of college in VT.
A beautiful song about the waste of War.
The Band , one of the greatest collection of musicians ever assembled.
They started out with Ronnie Hawkins, then moved on with Bob Dylan.
Love this song!! That Band had such a rawness to their sound. The three vocals are so distinctive. Helm, Danko and Manuel were just so unique in their way they harmonized.
"Dixie" is the Confederacy. From the Southern standpoint the Civil War was not about slavery; that was the (Yankee) Republican Party line. The South believed it was about states' rights, the 10th and 11th Amendments to the Constitution, that the Declaration of Independence and the Treaty of Paris (which ended the Revolutionary War) referred to 13 independent nations united for a single purpose. There's a ton of stuff not taught in schools even when I was a kid in the 1950s and '60s. I lived in Ohio (descendant of men who fought for the Union) until one week shy of my 15th birthday and moved to Georgia, where they stood and doffed hats for both "The Star Spangled Banner" and "Dixie." I think that gives me a perspective on both points of view. That Baez sang it is a clue as to how the definition of "liberal" has changed. She sure as hell never was conservative. I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea and hope you will chase the ideas on your own. Thanks, A&A, for a great blast from the past.
It's a song about the fall of the South after the Civil War from the perspective of a confederate soldier written by a Canadian. The drummer is also the singer.
What's cool about the Band is they have a few different guys who sang lead and everyone else sang harmony. You noted the drumming and vocals on this one, both done by the same guy, Levon Helm.
That part about "Stoneman's Cavalry came and tore up the tracks again" is referring to Union general George Stoneman and his 1865 raid across 6 Confederate states that covered 2000 miles . When Joan Baez (Bob Dylan's girlfriend) covered the song she misheard the lyrics and sang it as, "So much cavalry came and tore up the tracks again..."
There also story that when Levon Helm heard Joan's version he hated it so much, he swore he would never perform the song again. I don't know of that was true or not.
I believe it is true. I've read about it in several sources.
The drummer was also the singer levon helms
As good as the Band is studio wise the live version of this is much better.
Agreed
Definitely. Either the one on rock of ages or the one from the last waltz.
Yep, a rare case where the live version is better.
Last Waltz was perfect! Love (and miss) Levon!
"Stage Fright" would be my next choice
As a black American, I've got no problem with driving Dixie down, lol! Alex did a great job describing how I imagine "certain people and places" react when this gets played, but I don't want to be unfair to The Band. It's very . . . evocative. It gets lost now, but I read it's meant as a metaphor for loss during wartime, referring to feelings during the Vietnam War.
EXCELLENT explanation!! That’s exactly what this song is.
Joan Baez made this a hit.
Been to many Rambles at Levons barn before he passed. Him singing songs like this live, even after his throat cancer, was always moving.
Levon gets right to my heart every time. If I’d had a son I would have named him Levon.
Damm you went to the Barn...man I betcha that was sublime 👍
@@evangeline3152me too
Guitarist Robbie Robertson for The Band and writer of this song passed today at 80.
My great grandfathers fought for the South !! We are from Southern Appalachia and we never owned any
slaves !! I’m thankful to the Lord to be a Southerner !
The Band! Enough said.😎
Thanks to Bob Dylan and Ronnie Hawkins, we have The Band
@@HamiltonRb 👍😎
@@HamiltonRb Dylan had nothing to do with the forming of the band. As a matter of fact - they lost Levon Helm when he quit because he hated touring with Dylan. It was only after the band left Dylan and they promised not to tour with him that they convinced Helm to return to the band.
@@BobSoltis1 The original band with Dylan, was Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Harvey Brooks and Al Kooper. When they went on tour in 65 they included other members of the Hawks, and the reason Helm left was not that he disliked Dylan, it was that he got frustrated with the audience booing when Dylan started playing electric.
Yes - he hated touring with Dylan which is exactly what I said. Nowhere did I state he disliked Dylan.
This album served as inspiration for Bernie Taupin and Elton John to write their Tumbleweed Connection album.
Maybe my favorite Elton John album. But it did have a decidedly southern bias, especially with songs like "Burn Down the Mission"..
The Band’s debut album ‘Music from the Big Pink’ is considered a masterpiece from its era. Both George Harrison and Eric Clapton were reportedly very inspired by that album. And The Band composed the music for it when they were at their peak of being Bob Dylan’s backup band. This was when they were staying in a big pink house and recorded a lot of tracks with Dylan that later came out as The Basement Tapes.
George Harrison met the Band while visiting with Dylan in Woodstock.
They did NOT compose the music to "The Big Pink" while they were "Bob Dylan's band". The members of the band - minus Levon Helm - played as Dylan's backing band for a while but they were not backing Dylan when they moved to Woodstock and wrote and recorded the album.
The drummer, who is also singing in this song, is the late great Levon Helms. And Dixie refers to the Southern States that seceded from the Union as is allowed under the Constitution. But that is a history lesson for another day. ;)
Dixie is the South
S tier for emotional impact alone.
In Texas here.. thought we were the only state with "Truck Nuts"... sadly, I know some of these people... just look for the "Don't Tread on Me" flag and I, for one, steer clear. Anyway, Levon Helm grows on you. Loved him as an actor as well. Good job, as usual guys! Try to stay cool all.. It's hot as Hedes here in Texas
Friend in the UK has truck nutz on her ‘86 Caprice hearse 😀
Joan Baez covered this also. At heart it’s an anti war song. The Band created a genre we now call Americana as opposed to music. They were just simply put, a genius mix of well trained musicians who learned a lot from Bob Dylan about both song writing and performance, as they were his backing band, and before that The Hawks. By the time we get to this album they’d already have played every dive and large Venue in American as well as England and beyond. That’s why they’re so tight. Ironies abound in this song as every member is Canadian except the drummer and singer in this song, Levon Helm. He’s from Arkansas. But the songwriter is Canadian - native Indian. Dylan said of Robbie Robertson, “he was the best mathematical guitarist he ever had.” Meaning every note resolves and everything is perfectly placed in his playing.
Hard to imagine the band was formed in Canada and only had one American member, eh?
🇨🇦🎸🇨🇦🎸🇨🇦
But remember that the band was formed in Canada by an American - Ronnie Hawkins.
Gents, you two are hysterical. The bad jokes, the good jokes, lol.
You heard this in The Last Waltz - its the best version
My Great Great Grandfather was in The Civil War.
He was injured and captured and sent to the Prison in Richmond.
9 months later, they did a "Prisoner Swap" and he he was returned to General Lees March to The Sea, but was injured again and formerly discharged.
He is buried in Leavenworth, A National Military Cemetery in Kansas.
🇺🇲🎶♥️🕊️
"Rag Mama Rag" should your next choice off this epic album.
About the end of the Civil War in 1865, and how after the North won, they looted all of the farms and homes, and stole from many people at gunpoint. General Sherman and his troops rode into Atlanta and burned the city down. It was terrible for people and the animals etc. This is a great song about an actual historical event.
Thaks Fellas
Iconic song & Fantasticly, sentimentally captured the historical perspective of a former Confederate soldier of the period.
It's a valuable timepiece.
Drummer/singer Levon Helm was from Arkansas, so he understood the mindset of the song. The rest of The Band, including guitarist/songwriter Robbie Robertson were Canadians.
King Harvest off this same album would be a great one to do next. Such a good song that I think you’d both enjoy!
There's a great live (in a studio) version here in UA-cam that's worth seeing.
Love that song but hit a deer a couple years ago while it was playing and now always think of that when I hear it.
@@oceanfrogThat version was my introduction to the song close to ten years ago. It’s been my favorite Band song ever since.😊
@@randomperson-dy6kjSorry to hear that. I can see how it would definitely change the song for you.
How ironic is it that the quintessential “Americana” album of the era is by a Canadian band?
Joan Baez made this song a top hit at #3 in 1971
Great song no matter your class or politics. It conjures up a sense of struggle driven by circumstances beyond a common man's ability to change or influence. We all know the reasons behind the civil war... the song magnifies one man's experience. Written (music and lyrics) by a Canadian traveling through the South with his band. Levon Helm brings an authentic and moving performance as singer and drummer. Live version, in my view, is better. Either one gives one the same emotional feeling in the gut. Not from the south and could never fully understand the cultural impact. This song touches us all no matterone'slocal. It's our history as Americans, though. Thanks again gentlemen!
It is a song from a Confederate soldier's eyes during the civil war . Hungry, just barely alive , Dixie is the term for the confederate states , in 65 as in 1865 the end of the civil war . Levon Helm is from the south , the only American inThe Band , the rest are from Canada .
From a Confederate soldiers brothers eyes, after the war...
It's a pop cultural historical definitive song; folky; slow n sad... but good. It paints a picture. Is it my fav? Not really... but it IS someone's fav.
Wife here . The Band are one of the greatest to ever create. So good in fact Clapton want in with them . Incredible musicians . Listen to more young lads ! Stage fright , Dixie , up on cripple creek , shape I’m in ,Makes no difference.
That group
You should do It makes know difference One of the best songs I’ve ever heard
Alex that line killed me, "they did drive Dixie down" too fuckinh funny! I'm still laughing!!! Great stuff guys!!!
What you didn't learn in school was the truth about how bad Sherman burned his way thru Georgia. The North burned down family farms killed all the animals and raided their pantry's of food burned down their fields and left the farmers to starve to death. We can all agree that slavery shouldn't have existed but this was leaving people to die with nothing and many starved to death that never owned a slave.
We did learn that in school, they covered Sherman’s March to the sea
I’ve always been conflicted about this song. My family traces back to the 1600s in what became the South and stayed there for generations. Most of my male relatives of the era fought in the Confederate army (not always voluntarily - a distant cousin was shot and killed when he tried to escape being drafted and a couple of ancestors and some cousins actually went North and joined the Union Army).
Regardless of all that, the song usually gets me in the feels because it *is* more about being on the losing end of the war and not centered on the slavery aspect.
Dude, it was over 100 years ago, let it go
Levon Helm played Loretta Lynn’s father in the movie Coal Miners Daughter, not only could he drum and sing he was a pretty good actor.
Written by the Canadian guitar player in The Band. Similar to John Fogerty, a Californian, writing songs like he grew up near a swamp
The Band's first two albums are really special - they're perfection, but also rough around the edges - intentionally so. It's a group of guys who, at that time and place, were so forward thinking in their understanding of making music, while also grounded in the traditions of rock, Americana, roots, blues, gospel, soul. It was a new approach and a really old sound and they just absolutely re-wrote the rock book. After this everybody - Clapton, George Harrison, the Stones ... everybody wanted to get rootsy.
And all the songs are infinitely re-listenable because the sounds, the production, the harmonies - there's just so much going on every song, but at first you don't know it because they make it all sound so effortless. Desert-island records.
Yes...Well said....
As his statue was removed from its prominent location in the city square i was reminded of this song and the lyrics,
'Look, there goes Robert E Lee.'
Well that ain't just whistling Dixie
LMAO!!!
I would pick "When I Paint My Masterpiece" as the next song. It's a cover of a Bob Dylan song, but they make it their own.
Absolutely!
Acadian driftwood, Ophelia, Tears of rage, Chest fever, I shall be released, King harvest(Has surely come)
Dixie is just a generic term for Southern States. However there was a minor controversy several years ago when the female country band ‘Dixie Chicks’ dropped the ‘Dixie’ because there was a negative racial connotation.
Levon Helms drumming is so perfect.
The Joan Baez version will grab your heart. Much more poignant. And yes, it is about the Civil War so not a very PC song at the moment.
lol
It's more PC than almost everything else out there right now. Talking about the civil war is not what is un-PC. Being on the side of Dixie is. This is just a historically accurate tale, a folk song. And I agree with the Joan Baez recommendation. And also the Band's live version is more amazing. JMO.
Thankfully is was written when there was no such thing as PC , because then this classic would never have been made .
Baez almost spoiled this song for me. Very whiny.
@@johnbrowne2170 Hmm, exact opposite for me. Maybe it's just personal preference.
The Band is a southern band in the same sense CCR is a Louisiana band. No snark intended - it's fascinating that a Canadian band invented the Americana genre and a California band invented swamp rock.
Levon Helm is from Turkey Scratch, Arkansas. He received the first grammy given out the new category 'Americana'
Met Levon Helm a few times - he had concerts in his home. I live near Woodstock. Levon the best!
The singer is the drummer.
He was the only American in the band. The rest were Canadians. Levon Helm. He did some acting too. And is the source of the name Levon in the Elton John song.
It’s like a halftime waltz type feel then at 3:09 under “yankee laid him in his grave” he plays 2/4 I’ve always loved that. I don’t even know that it means anything it just feels urgent for an instant
Rest in Peace to Robbie, Levon, Rick, and Richard.
Dixie was the southern states collectively
RIP Levon!
This is a masterpiece. It is also a song that could never be made today.. A sympathetic view told from the point of view of a confederate soldier in the civil war is no longer acceptable in politically correct society. Levon Helm was the best drummer/singer in rock history.
lmao
@@randybaker6042 Don Henley aint bad.
@@waynecox3958 neither is Phil Collins. Peter Hoorelbeke (aka Peter Rivera) for Rare Earth is pretty good also. The list is actually longer than commonly perceived when it comes to drummer/singers.
@@randybaker6042 I agree the statement is hyperbole. However, I don’t know why you would lyao. Levon Helm is a legitimate nomination for that statement, even if there are more… or many more.
@@willb6608 I didn't lmao at the drummer thing. Levon Helm is great. Love the guy. I was laughing at the political statement. The woman who made it a hit is one of the most woke and politically correct humans who has ever lived. 🤣
Dixie is a nickname for the South.
The singer is Levon Helm. He was originally from Arkansas.
Both magic and irony of this great masterpiece were written by the Canadian - Mohawk, Robbie Robertson of "THE BAND"
To me, it's worth an A for the piano alone. Love that slam feel.
There's ALWAYS that one dude standing on a chair or a table, swinging a mug of beer, singing along.
Great Canadian band singing bout the American south 😂
Today happens to be guitarist/ songwriter Robbie Robertson’s birthday. “Stage Fright” sung by bassist Rick Danko is another great song.
"When I Paint My Masterpiece", "Arcadian Driftwood", and "Atlantic City" are masterful tunes by the band.
Yes, these are more wonderful tracks by the boys. (note: it's actually "Acadian Driftwood" ( Canadian reference :))
Didn't Springsteen write "Atlantic City"?
Atlantic City was written by Bruce Springsteen.
@@JCPJCPJCP yes
It's on "Nebraska," of course, which is one of only two Springsteen albums I've listened to often.
No reason. Not a Bruce fan. But he has written some good songs, and his music is Americana, a genre some people say The Band invented.
(Sometimes I make a statement in the form of a question.)
The Band always sound so raw and real. Like they're a garage band who snuck into a music studio and made a record of one takes.
Growing up in the deep south, we all knew the words and the sentiment. Yall not knowing the term Dixie only goes to prove NW Fl where I live is cut off from the rest of the state.
Also remember this time period was really racking up the feelings against our involvement in Vietnam. This song was a reminder of the waste of war and no one actually winning.
The Band was so good.
Rocking Chair next. Another great story in a song
Yes...For sure....My Favourite...Rockin' Chair.
The drummer IS the lead singer.
Levon Helm is a legend.
Solid A
Such a great song. You’re gonna love it.
The Nights The Lights Went Out In Georgia, made famous by Vickie Lawrence, is a facinating tale of adultery, revenge, family honor, back-woods law and...MURDER! Put it on you "to-do" list. Ode To Billie-Joe by Bobbie Gentry is another one. A very sad tale. The Southern trifecta?