Joan Baez - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

You tube ^ | 1969 | Joan Baez

[SamAdams76]

That Cowsills song ("The Rain, The Park, and other Things") was one of the first songs I remember growing up. I was about 5 years old when it was playing on my mom's kitchen radio. It's a terrific pop song and a bit on the trippy psychedelic side.

Actually the Cowsills were the inspiration for The Partridge Family but they were not deemed telegenic enough for a TV Show. So enter Susan Dey, David Cassidy and the rest of the clan to put together a hip TV band for the 7-14 demographic. They sold a lot of breakfast cereal with that show. Used to be on 8:30 on Friday Nights (just after The Brady Bunch).

Partridge Family actually had some decent pop songs. "Summer Days" and "Point Me In The Direction of Albuquerque" are two good examples of that.

Speaking of TV bands, the Monkees actually played all their own instruments and were very talented. They even started writing some of their own songs like this one here: "Mary Mary". Michael Nesmith of that band went on to a successful solo career and wrote hits for others such as Linda Rondstadt.

Another lost favorite from that time is the duet of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood called "Some Velvet Morning." which is quite a trippy song. In fact, the video linked here reminds me of the ending of "Planet of the Apes."

[Lurker]

The live version from The Last Waltz is my fav.

L

[Lurker]

“but I love Levon Helms voice.”

Same here.

L

[Lurker]

“Well ok I thought the monkees were tolerable....so shoot me”

Look into who wrote some of their songs. Some Tin Pan Alley legends.

L

[nomorelurker]

Cowsills, one of my favorite groups, don’t get the recognition they deserve.
Michael Nesmith might have been better off without the Monkees one of the most talented songwriters out there.

[SamAdams76]

Her singing this song makes about as much sense as a dude singing “I Am Woman”.

I wouldn't be surprised if a male covered that song today. And he'd probably win a Grammy for doing so.

Anyway, this is another song that reminds of of growing up. I was about 8 or 9 years old when Joan's version became a Top 40 hit. A few years later, I had a dog named Dixie and she got old and had to be put down. So now the song reminds me of putting my dog Dixie down.

And I agree, it makes no sense at all, lyrically, for a woman to cover this song but it was a smash hit for Joan nonetheless. I don't think most people paid attention to the lyrics.

[Bratch]

Thanks for the tip.

That’s a great interpretation.

[FreedomPoster]

I saw Levon about a dozen or so years ago, I think he was warming up for Derek Trucks, not sure. I felt really lucky to have seen him when I did as he died a couple years later.

[nathanbedford]

The key issue seems to be that someone might see this as a glorification of the Southern cause,

You're quite right in your well considered reply but as an unreconstructed lost cause-ER I am quite ready to defend the virtues not only of the cause itself but of those who sacrificed so much on its behalf.

Those virtues include a Christian faith, a rooted belief in the virtues of federalism, of home rule and local democracy, a code of honor, defense of homeland and home and a degree of fortitude unimaginable today.

That is not to say that in the sweep of history the defeat of the Confederate cause was not only to be desired but indispensable for the nurturing of the role The United States was destined to render to the whole world in the succeeding centuries in behalf of much of the same virtues that animated "Virgil Caine." If the democracy of the South excluded African-Americans, even enslaved them, the democracy of the North excluded women and virtually enslaved those Indians it did not exterminate, but we do not despise the northern cause for that.

Woke-ness comes from a hubristic attitude that heroes of previous centuries should be judged by our freshly enshrined cultural mores of today.

Finally, I would like to observe that the song was not a genuine folk song that emerged naturally from the cauldron of a devastating Civil War, it is a 20th-century construct-but it is good music. "Virgil Caine" is himself a fictional character, he did not exist. We should no more submit to cloying sentimentality than we should submit to woke-ness

[kosciusko51]

Agreed.

[FreedomPoster]

He may be a fictional character, but he’s true to the history. Similar to a character in a properly done historic novel, like say Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sir Nigel and squire Alleyne in The White Company.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***The song was first recorded in 1969***

I believe Buck Owens and the Buckaroos recorded it before that as I remember hearing it in those years.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Qoops! They did it in 1971.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Sorry nobody did it like the Band.

[wardaddy]

Yep

Boyce and Hart

[bankwalker]

A lot of the music leftists made in the '60s and '70s sounds really great.

Reading the lyrics though, is enough to make your blood boil.

That is actually a commie propaganda technique ...

[wardaddy]

Main were they good it sounds just like the record

The way Stephen stills wore his cowboy hat he could’ve been in Nashville

A Floridian I believe

[lee martell]

The history of and the (presumed) mindset behind “Dixie” is multi layered and very complex. It’s a very easy song to misinterpret if that is one’s goal. For some of the listening pubic, they took it at face value, liked the performance and that was it. For others, it was a Ballad laden with symbols of pride, defiance and endurance.

[Mr. Mojo]

Texan. Hence the authentic hat look.

I lived down the street from him in L.A. in the early ‘90s, but man he was elusive. Never met him.

[Clemenza]

The Monkees had Don Kirshner and Burt Schneiderman as their fathers, to say nothing of the songwriting of Boyce and Hart, Neil Diamond, and Harry Nilsson. Once they actually believed the hype and thought they were actual musicians is when things went south, although hardcore Monkee fans insist otherwise. Loved the TV show as a kid and the episodes still hold up in terms of mid-late 60s goofiness.