edition only) of October 1969) explains why this song has such an impact on listeners: Gleason (in the review in Rolling Stone (U.S. The song is included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll" and Time magazine's All-Time 100. Pitchfork Media named it the forty-second best song of the Sixties. The song was number 245 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. Although it has long been believed that the reason for Helm's refusal to play the song was a dispute with Robertson over songwriting credits, according to Garth Hudson the refusal was due to Helm's dislike for Joan Baez's version.
Helm refused to play the song afterwards. The last time the song was performed by Helm was in The Last Waltz. The song also appears on the film's soundtrack album as well as on the group's second box set, A Musical History and their double-disk collection of hits, To Kingdom Come. The song also was included in the Band's Thanksgiving Day concert in 1976 which was the subject of Martin Scorsese's documentary film The Last Waltz. 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. "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: The lyrics tell of the last days of the American Civil War, portraying the suffering of the protagonist, Virgil Caine, a poor white Southerner.ĭixie is the historical nickname for the states making up the Confederate States of America. 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.
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