Virgil Caine is the name . . .

[RoyGBiv]

One of my more enduring memories of my childhood is the song that begins with this line. I'm not entirely certain why. I must have been about seven or eight when I heard it and had it stick in my memory for the first time, which would have been six or seven years after it was first released. It was among the first 45s I purchased, and presently I own it in various forms and versions. I don't like the version by Joan Baez, but I still have it. My favorite is probably the version The Band did with Bob Dylan.

I've often wondered about the full story of the song. This is about the extent of what I've been able to find on the Internet:

All of the songs for the Brown Album were all either written or co-written by Robertson — some were started in Woodstock; a couple emerged from a trip Robertson and Simon took to Hawaii just before the pool house sessions; and a few were written once the group was in Hollywood. This month's Classic Track was started in Woodstock and completed in Hollywood. “I remember Robbie writing ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’ piece by piece,” Simon says. “He had a certain section, then another that wasn't finished, and he was sort of chipping away at it over a period of time. That was one of the ones he really didn't have together when we arrived at Sammy Davis Jr.'s. We also had a piano in the house in which we lived, and I remember him playing that song on the piano in the house before we got to recording it.”

As for the song's inspiration, Robertson told writer Rob Bowman, “I had the music in my head for ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’ and had no idea what the song was about. I was just humming it and playing these chords, and I liked the chord progression I'd come up with. At some point, blurted out of me. Then I went and I did some research and I wrote the lyrics to the song.”

When I spoke to Robertson more recently, he added, “It just seemed to fit in with the combination of flavors in the music and the time period we were dealing with at that time. It was like that record was in sepia tone or something. To this day, people ask me, ‘Whatever possessed you to write that song?’ And the answer is, I don't really know; it's the only thing I could think of at the time.” (Robertson says the group's resident Southerner, Levon Helm, nixed a verse about Abraham Lincoln. The song's Robert E. Lee reference — more appropriate to Virgil Caine's viewpoint — survived.)

But that doesn't tell me everything. I seem to recall reading somewhere that Robertson had a conversation with an elderly lady in Tennessee, which formed the basis of the thought process behind the lyrics and that the "research" that was conducted was actually a collection of memories of stories either Levon or Richardson had heard in various places in the South.

I could deconstruct the song and try to analyze it, but I don't like to do that. As it is, it just speaks to me, the deeper meaning coming out without any close examination of the lyrcis and tune.

I'm wondering what others think of it. Is it a progressive song in a Southern wrapper? Does it have something to say about the challenges Southerners face, elements that would be applicable to our current political, economic, and social climate?

The full lyrics, just because:

The Band---The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
(J. Robbie Robertson)

Virgil Caine is my name and I served on the Danville train
Til Stoneman's cavalry came and tore up the tracks again
In the winter of '65 we were hungry, just barely alive
By May the 10th Richmond had fell, it was a night I remember oh so well.

Chorus:
The night they drove old Dixie down and all the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down and all the people were singing
They went, Na nana...

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

Chorus

Like my father before me I will work the land
Like my brother above me who took a rebel stand
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 Caine
back up when he's in defeat.

Chorus (twice)

[ribrepin]

1. I'm a northerner, but I've always loved that song

It touches something deep inside. I've got southern roots, but have lived north of the Mason-Dixon line most of my life. My family got back to visit every few years.

I always took the song to be about the Civil War and how southerns felt in defeat.

Reading through the words of the song tonight, my first thought was "this is how I feel about the old U.S.A. today." "Ya take what ya need and leave the rest, but they should never have taken the very best." Words to live by.


I recently reread "Gone with the Wind" and felt a real kinship with the southerners after the Civil War when the carpetbaggers invaded the South. I was most impressed with how the Georgians dealt with the Yankees. They couldn't defeat them, but they never gave in and accepted the Yankee occupation.

I guess us northerners have a few things to learn from Southerners about Carpetbagger occupations.

[SCantiGOP]

2. I had never seen the words

I thought for sure the final line was: "You can't raise the cane back up when its in the field" -- a play on the name of the family. I actually like my version better.
I'm 54 and have seen probably 50 concerts in my life. Without any question, the best ever was the Dylan/Band Rolling Thunder tour, I believe it was in 73 or 74. I remember them playing this one, but the biggest response of the evening was the line in "It's Alright Ma..." "But even the President of the United States must sometimes have to stand naked." Unfortunately, this is one of the last overt political statements I remember from Dylan. Where was he during the war?

[supernova]

3. I used to think it was

"You can't raise the cane back up when it's into feed." :rofl:

I thought there was something poetic about that too, a Caine going back to the earth to become feed.

I've always thought the song struck a nerve with any defeated population. It's about the real, human cost of war. That's something that all humans can relate to.

[bluedonkey]

4. This is one

of a few songs that bring tears to my eyes everytime I hear it.

[Skittles]

5. I heard it on the radio

"he was just 18, proud and brave" - it reminded me of some of the fallen in Iraq

[RoyGBiv]

6. Me too ...

I listen to songs like this when I get down about what's going on in the world. It helps to remind me that other generations have dealt with similar things and that some among them have found ways to express their anguish without destruction or hate. A lot of hate existed after the Civil War, just as a lot of hate then existed during the time this song was written. But some people, like the members of The Band and people such as my personal Southern heroes of the 19th century, found ways to live and progress despite the odds and despite occasional missteps.

The current generation is going to need these examples.