Said the Gramophone

Blue and Grey

Richie Havens - "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"

The Band approaches "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" - a song about the sadness of the South in the final throes and aftermath of the Civil War - as if they themselves were the vanquished. Levon Helm plays drums and sings in character, as defeated and phlegmatic as he can manage without falling behind the tempo, which he constantly threatens to do. Richie Havens, on the other hand, slows the song down and drives through it with his powerful strumming. There's no wistfulness in Havens's telling of the South's defeat, but nor is there irony in his sympathetic portrayal of the song's Confederate protagonist. We might assume that Havens, a black Yankee, was pleased with the outcome of the Civil War, but in his steady hands and generous voice, "Dixie" is ungloating. More than that, it's an appreciation of the land and heat that still make up so much of his country.

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