Een Shoot the Moon site
Virgil Caine is my name and I drove on the Danville train
'Til so much cavalry came and tore up the tracks again
In the winter of '65 we were hungry, just barely alive
I took the train to Richmond that fell
It was a time I remember oh so well
The night they drove old Dixie down
And all the bells were ringin'
The night they drove old Dixie down
And all the people were singin'
They went: Naa nanana nanaa, na na nanaa, nanaa nananaa
The night they drove old Dixie down werd geschreven door Robbie
Robertson (van The Band), omdat hij zich realiseerde dat liederen over de
Amerikaanse Burgeroorlog altijd de Noordelijke kant bezongen (de winnaars
tenslotte). Hij vond dat ook de Zuidelijke kant (en hun nederlaag) bezongen
moest worden. De bekendste versie van het nummer is niet die van The Band,
maar die van Joan Baez, die er in 1971 haar enige hit (in Nederland) mee
scoorde. Het lied past naadloos in haar repertoire, dat getuigt van een sterk
sociaal en politiek bewustzijn. Haar carrière bestrijkt de periode van 1958 tot
de dag van vandaag. Zij ontdekte, en trad vaak samen op met, Bob Dylan.
laatst bijgewerkt op:
14 juni 2022
© 2022
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
The night they drove old Dixie down
And all the bells were ringin'
The night they drove old Dixie down
And all the people were singin'
They went: Naa nanana nanaa, na na nanaa, nanaa nananaa
Like my father before me I'm a working man
And like my brother before me I took a rebel stand
Oh, he was just eighteen, proud and brave
But a yankee laid him in his grave
I swear by the blood below my feet
You can't raise the Caine back up when it's in defeat
The night they drove old Dixie down
And all the bells were ringin'
The night they drove old Dixie down
And all the people were singin'
They went: Naa nanana nanaa, na na nanaa, nanaa nananaa.
Joan Baez
Robbie Robertson - 16/10/1971 (9)