Hasn’t that been banned?
I’ve always enjoyed Joan Baez’s version too.
I understand she’s an acquired taste.
Not everyone likes her persistent vibrato at every ending of every line in the verses.
The Band took an obscure history lesson and spun it into gold with this song. It’s a great song, by both performers. Almost cinematic in the narration.
Great song about loss and suffering, even us New England yankee descendant of Union soldiers appreciate the solace in the lyrics.
mark
I was not impressed with anything on “Sweetheart of the Rodeo”
When I was in high school in Louisiana, our main rivals were the “Rebels”. Our high school band would play that song at football games.
Great fun!!!
Lyrics have never made any sense to me.
Back with my wife in Tennessee
And one day she said to me
“Virgil, quick! Come see
There goes Robert E. Lee”
Now I don’t mind, I’m chopping wood
And I don’t care if the money’s no good
Just take what you need and leave the rest
But they should never have taken the very best
There goes THE Robert E Lee. That’s what you hear in the song. A riverboat. Lee was never in Tennessee during the war.
AmTag als Conny Kramer Starb (the day that Conny Kramer died)--Juliane Werding (1972)
We lay in the grass dreaming,
Our heads full of crazy ideas.
Then he said just for fun,
"Come, let's take a trip."
But the smoke tasted bitter,
Yet Conny told me what he saw:
A sea of light and colors.
We didn't suspect what would happen soon after.
Refrain
The day that Conny Kramer died,
And all the bells were ringing.
The day that Conny Kramer died,
And all his friends were crying for him
That was a black day
Because inside myself, a world was shattered.
He often promised, "I'll quit."
That gave me new hope,
And I told myself,
With love, everything will be all right
But the joints turned into trips,
There was no stop on the crooked path.
People started to talk,
But no one offered Conny help.
Refrain
On his last time, he said,
"Now, I can see heaven."
I screamed at him, "Oh, come back!"
But he could no longer understand.
I didn't even have tears anymore,
I had just lost everything I had.
Life just keeps moving on,
All that is left for me is the flowers on his grave
Refrain
I grew up with this song. Loved it being a Southern boy. Upon seeing the empty shelves this year, the song would come back to me. -The “take what you need and leave the rest, but they should never have taken the very best” reverberated every time I came across an empty isle of no toilet paper or paper towels.
My 2 cents FWIW.
It is a great tune. A very emotional melody. Joan Baez’s cover is enjoyable, but not because of her singing, but because it’s a great melody to begin with.
But no one could compliment the melody and lyrics better than Levon Helm. That’s the other half of the equation IMO.
Haven’t Southerners suffered enough? I mean, there was also that night that the lights went out in Georgia! ;)
Love this song. I’m in the ‘Joan Camp’ as far as performances go on this one. :)
I loved Levon Helm’s voice.
Deo Vindice
Great song.
I found a rather good version of this song by Dobie Gray.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SYtqI0PQLY
I always loved this beautiful song by The Band:
All La Glory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLXgPThb-WQ