Oh, just one more before bed

I have always admired Joan Baez, her music, and her principles. But the 45 I had as a child was this one, and although it is a cover of The Band's song, I will always associate it with her (even though she mangled the original lyrics some). I am a Southerner by birth and spent much of my life in the South, and this song called to me even at the age of four:



Incidentally, here are the original lyrics written by Robbie Robertson, with Joan's changes in brackets:

Virgil Caine is the [my] name, and I served [drove] on the Danville train,
'Til Stoneman's [so much] cavalry came and tore up the tracks again.
In the winter of '65, we were hungry, just barely alive.
By May tenth, [I took a train to] Richmond had [that] fell, it's [it was] a time I remember, oh so well,

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, when [and] all the bells were ringing,
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and all the people were singin'. They went,
Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na,
Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na,
Na, Na, Na

Back with my wife in Tennessee, when [and] one day she called [said] to me,
Said [--] 'Virgil, quick, come and see, there goes the Robert E. Lee!'
Now I don't mind [them] choppin' wood, and I don't care if the money's no good.
Ya take what ya need and ya [Just take what you need and] leave the rest,
But they should never have taken the very best.

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, when [and] all the bells were ringing,
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and all the people were singin'. They went,
Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na,
Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na,
Na, Na, Na

Like my father before me, I will work the land, [I'm a working man]
And like my brother above [before] me, who [I} took a rebel stand.
He was just eighteen, proud and brave, but a Yankee laid him in his grave,
And I swear by the mud [blood] below my feet,
You can't raise a Caine back up when he's [it's] in defeat.

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, when [and] all the bells were ringing,
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and all the people were singin'. They went,
Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na,
Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na,
Na, Na, Na


Some time after the 1971 recording she said that she'd never seen the lyrics written out and had misheard them when learning the song. Since then she's changed how she sings it to reflect the original, apparently.

Enjoy. Good night.