Dixie

this is like one of the best songs ever writen please check out, The Band preforming it live on the Martin Scorsesse directed Last Waltz, one truely epic proformance! I wish I could be Levon Helm for a day!

Band The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down Lyrics

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,

(Chorus)
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,
[ Lyrics found on http://www.metrolyrics.com ]

"Virgil, quick, come see, there goes Robert E. Lee!"
Now I don't mind choppin' wood, and I don't care if my money's no good.
Ya take what ya need and ya leave the rest,
But they should never have taken the very best. (Chorus)

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. (Chorus and fade)


Meaning of song

The lyrics tell of Virgil Cain watching as the Union Army General George Stoneman destroys the railroad where he makes a living, and then witnessing the fall of Richmond, Virginia. Virgil relates and mourns the loss of his brother, "He was just eighteen, proud and brave / But a Yankee laid him in his grave."
The song's central lament—"You take what you need and you leave the rest / But they should never have taken the very best"—is an apparent commentary on the Union Army's policy of living off the land during campaigns--where soldiers, who were sent to requisition supplies for the troops from locals [to avoid long, campaign slowing supply lines], would not only gather needed supplies, but would also loot, pillage, and rape--and on the utter destruction of the Southern homes, cities and infrastructure that was the result of a war that lasted over four years and in which there were approximately 600,000 fatalities.

Robertson claimed that he had the music to the song in his head but had no idea what it was to be about. "At some point [the concept] blurted out to me. Then I went and I did some research and I wrote the lyrics to the song." Robertson continued, "When I first went down South, I remember that a quite common expression would be, 'Well don't worry, the South's gonna rise again.' At one point when I heard it I thought it was kind of a funny statement and then I heard it another time and I was really touched by it. I thought, 'God, because I keep hearing this, there's pain here, there is a sadness here.' In Americana land, it's a kind of a beautiful sadness.