"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down".

bdp24 

08-13-2023 at 11:35pm 

I respect the Hell out of Joan Baez. But she became the object of derision amongst myself and my peers when she sang "till so much calvary came" instead of the correct "till Stoneman’s calvary came" in "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". Come on Joan, if we could hear it surely you should be able to!

And surely those living in glass houses should be wary of throwing stones 😀

I assumed @roxy54, our resident grammarian, would have seen to this, but since he hasn’t, I feel obliged to point out that “Calvary” (the place where Jesus was crucified) and “cavalry” (military troops on horseback) are very different words.

And don’t you think you should really cut Joan a little slack:  I mean who among us has never been the victim of a mondegreen (a misinterpretation of a word or phrase heard, especially in the lyrics of a song)?  So ‘scuse me while I kiss this guy, since I hear there’s a bathroom on the right!

With apologies to Jimi and Credence, respectively.

@moonwatcher + 1 - I've seen Jerry Garcia Band many times in the late 80's and early-mid 90's, and their version of 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down' has always been one of my favorites of their's. 

@asvjerry ,

My favorite RR song!

Whole album is good.

@rel: Touche!

In my defense, my only excuse is that I never before typed either Calvary or cavalry. Looking at the word calvary now, it doesn’t look even close to how cavalry sounds. Now that I think about it, I've been aware of Calgary (the city in Canada), but being the heathen I am I don't think I was aware of the word Calvary. Sunday School was a LONG time ago!

On the other hand, in The Band’s recording of "TNTDODD", the word Stoneman’s is clearly audible. At least to everyone but Joan. Maybe she heard the LP on a crappy turntable 😉. I love her anyway.