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"
