For those unfamiliar with The Band, they were much beloved as an opening act and background band by some of the biggest names in rock ‘n’ roll in the 1960s and 1970s.
When The Band was going to break up, they did a final concert in 1976, and director Martin Scorsese asked to do a documentary about them, featuring their final concert, entitled The Last Waltz. It is regarded as one of the best rock documentaries ever made, and when it hit the theaters in 1978, finally The Band became very popular, though they hadn’t been together for two years.
From that movie, here is The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down. Written by Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm, the vocals are performed by Levon Helm.
“Robbie and I worked on ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’ up in Woodstock. I remember taking him to the library so he could research the history and geography of the era and make General Robert E. Lee come out with all due respect.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VShpcqd3zE
Ralph J. Gleason (in the review in Rolling Stone of October 1969) explains why this song has such an impact on listeners:
“Nothing I have read... has brought home the overwhelming human sense of history that this song does. The only thing I can relate it to at all is The Red Badge of Courage. It’s a remarkable song, the rhythmic structure, the voice of Levon and the bass line with the drum accents and then the heavy close harmony of Levon, Richard and Rick in the theme, make it seem impossible that this isn’t some traditional material handed down from father to son straight from that winter of 1865 to today. It has that ring of truth and the whole aura of authenticity.”
A lot of southerners *assumed* that it was a Civil War-era lament, and Helm’s passionate and heartfelt performance brought many to tears.
(Ironically as all heck, it was later ‘covered’ by Joan Baez, who ignorantly mangled the lyrics horribly.)
bttt