THE BAND: "The night they drove Old Dixie Down" (1969)

Classic Song #18:
THE BAND: "The night they drove Old Dixie Down" (1969)

Clasicazo de tomo y lomo.

“The night they drove Old Dixie Down” es la clase de canción que te hace sentir bien por dentro, o por lo menos es lo que me sucede a mí, cuando me pongo a escucharla, y eso que las letras no invita mucho a ello. Es sin duda mi tema favorito de The Band, en dura competencia con “The weight”, y se convierte por derecho propio en uno de los grandes clásicos de la música tradicional americana.

Son incontables los artistas que han recurrido a este tema y buenos ejemplos los tenemos con The Black Crowes, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash o The Allman Brothers Band. Con estos últimos tuve la fortuna de poder escucharla en uno de sus bolos del Beacon Run del 2007, en NYC y fue realmente espectacular ver a toda la gente presente en el recinto cantar el estribillo de la canción como si fuese el himno americano. De verás se me puso la carne de gallina como pocas veces.

Aquí os la dejo, sacada de la inolvidable película “The Last Waltz”.

Virgil Kane is the name

And I served on the Danville train

'Till 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's a time I remember, oh so well

The night they drove old Dixie down

And the bells were ringing

The night they drove old Dixie down

And the people were singing

They went, "Na, na, la, na, na, la"

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 chopping wood

And I don't care if the money's no good

You take what you need

And you leave the rest

But they should never

Have taken the very best

The night they drove old Dixie down

And the bells were ringing

The night they drove old Dixie down

And all the people were singing

They went, "Na, na, la, na, na, la"

Like my father before me

I will work the land

And 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 Kane back up

When he's in defeat

The night they drove old Dixie down

And the bells were ringing

The night they drove old Dixie down

And all the people were singing

They went, "Na, na, la, na, na, la"

The night they drove old Dixie down

And all the bells were ringing

The night they drove old Dixie down

And the people were singing

They went, "Na, na, la, na, na, la"