The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Live Edit /1975) - Joan Baez

By J.R.Robertson.

© 1970 Canaan Music, Inc.

Virgil Caine is the 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 tenth, Richmond had fell, it's a time I remember, oh so well,

(Chorus)

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and the bells were ringing,

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and the people were singin'. They went

La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La,

Back with my wife in Tennessee, When one day she said to me,

"Virgil, quick, come see, there goes Robert E. Lee!"

Now I don't mind'em choppin' wood, and I don't care if the money's no good.

Ya take what ya need and ya leave the rest,

But they should never have taken the very best.

(Chorus)

Like my father before me, I'm a workin' man,

Like my brother above me, I took a rebel stand.

He was just eighteen, 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 and fade)