"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down".


 

I am very fortunate in having heard this amazing song performed live by The Band on their tour in support of the s/t "brown" album. The only other live music experience I’ve had that equals it was hearing Little Village perform John Hiatt’s "Lipstick Traces" on a soundstage in Burbank in ’92. The Little Village album was not so hot, but they sure were!

The Beatles? Saw them in ’65. Hendrix? Saw him in ’68 and ’69. Cream? Saw them in ’67 and ’68. The Who? Saw them in ’68 and ’69. Who else ya wanna name? Sorry, hearing The Band live spoiled me for just about EVERYONE else. Not Iris DeMent, whom I just saw this past Thursday. Stunningly great!

 

Here’s J.R. Robertson, Eric Levon Helm, and some other guy talking about the song and its’ creation:

 

https://youtu.be/nVYBW_zCvOg?t=1

 

 

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I think that there's more value in living the right way in the present moment than dissecting the past and reliving pain that we as individuals weren't directly involved in.

@roxy54 the old cliche is that people that don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

@onhwy61 As a general history buff, and having had many holocaust survivors and victims in my family, I am pretty “read up” on the subject.  I understand that sometimes pain has to be inflicted upon civilians and soldiers in order to shorten conflicts and minimize further suffering down the road.  That doesn’t mean that we can’t have sensitivity to the suffering of all involved 

@mahler123 

That's true, but living in the past you will miss the present. It's useful to go there occasionally, but not to linger.

I believe "...all the people were singin’ ; Na- nanana- nanana-nana-nana-nanana-nana..." to be historically inaccurate. Can any historians confirm this?