Much of The Band’s self-titled record captures an older view of America, particularly during the Civil War. One of the most enduring songs from the record, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” is perhaps the most straightforward effort in that arena.
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Behind the Meaning of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”
Virgil Kane is the name
And I served on the Danville train
‘Till Stoneman’s cavalry came
And tore up the tracks again
“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” is a first-person narrative from the final days of The Civil War. Drummer (and vocalist on this song) Levon Helm calls himself Virgil Kane, a soldier who is witnessing the Confederate states begin to lose the war.
It’s apt that Helm took on vocal duties for this song, given that he was the only Southerner on the band’s roster. In fact, frontman Robbie Robertson was inspired to write the track after visiting Helm’s parents in Arkansas.
“I flashed back to when he first took me to meet his parents in Marvell, Arkansas, and his daddy said, ‘Don’t worry, Robbie – the South is going to rise again,'” Robertson once said.
Robertson, a Canadian, wasn’t educated on the Civil War. Helm offered only a morsel of advice on writing a song like this: “Don’t mention Abraham Lincoln in the lyrics.”
“They didn’t teach that stuff in Canadian schools,” Robertson continued. “When I conjured up a story about Virgil Caine and his kin against this historical backdrop, the song came to life for me. Though, I did stop and wonder, ‘Can I get away with this? You call this rock ‘n’ roll?’ Maybe!”
He was just 18, proud and brave
But a Yankee laid him in his grave
I swear by the mud below my feet
You can’t raise a Kane back up
When he’s in defeat
“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” gave Robertson a place in the Americana community. He co-opted a Tennessee Williams-esque style of writing to help capture the energy of the time he was attempting to write about.
“Tennessee Williams just appealed to me, the flavor of writing, the titles of the things – this catches my attention, partially because I had gone to the South from Canada, really ying and yang,” Robertson once said. “I liked the way people talked, I liked the way they moved. I liked being in a place that had rhythm in the air. I thought ‘No wonder they invented rock ‘n’ roll here. Everything sounds like music.
“I got to come into this world, a cold outsider and because I didn’t take it for granted, it made me write something like “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” he continued. “These old men would say, ‘Yeah, but never mind Robbie. One of these days the South is going to rise again.’ I didn’t take it as a joke. I thought it was really touching, that these people lived this world from the standpoint of a rocking chair.”
Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns
