One of the great voices in American music (not just rock and roll!)has gone silent. Who can listen to Atlantic City, or The Weight and not be moved by that voice, Rest in Peace Levon, I will miss you, play a couple of gigs with Richard and Rick, and play it LOUD so we can hear it! Icarus
Just too many of my favorites are passing away, I will always treasure the many live concerts I have attended over the years!
^ Totally agree with too many favorites passing away. I too cherish the memories of the many live concerts attended. They were the best.
PSuns, Can you translate the lyrics into Yankee for me ? All I can pick out is 'dixie' and 'rebel,' which makes me think of retarded violent racist rednecks.
I had to look it up. [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_They_Drove_Old_Dixie_Down"]HERE[/ame]. It's a beautiful song, but I've always had the same reaction as SageBrush. I was surprised, on reading the link, that it was written by a Canadian. And I was always confused by the "the" before "Robert E. Lee" mentioned in the linked article, which changes the meaning of the verse. It's a haunting song, and the singer has a beautiful voice. But I've always been conflicted about it since it's mourning the loss of a way of life built on slavery. And the racism that made that slavery socially acceptable is still with us today.
I think the song went more to the destruction of the South not so much to the loss of slavery. Many in the South were not slave holders.
Indeed, very few southerners owned slaves. The majority were poor farmers who were actually hurt by the competition from the slave plantations. And yet they were willing to die to defend those few who did. This has always mystified me. When Lincoln was elected he had no intention of ending slavery. But he was determined not to allow slavery into the western territories. This would have tipped the balance of power in the Senate as new states were admitted to the Union, something that would not in the slightest have affected the lives of the poor farmers who fought for the Confederacy. It was the plantation owners who wanted to take slavery into the new territories. Yet those poor farmers were willing to leave their families and fight and die to preserve an economic system that worked against their interests.
Not owning slaves is different than opposing slavery. Few Americans are rich, but many fight to keep the rich rich, and getting richer while they get poorer. I call it stupidity, they call it conservatism.
Sorry guys, but we are honoring the death of a great artist, we don't have to turn it into a polemic on the policitcal and social dynamics of the civil war. "the night they drove 'ole Dixie down" is a look into a historical past from an artistic view point. Besides, it was written (arguably) by Robbie Robertson,, not Levon. Let's talk about "the weight" or "life is a Carnival" or "Ophelia" or dozens of other songs that only Levon could evoke! Icarus
Here's all the music (four plus hours) from The Last Waltz concert and summary of the event. The Band | Winterland | San Francisco, CA | Nov 25, 1976 - WolfgangsVault.com#
While The Last Waltz is a great peice, Levon actually didn't like it much. I was, sort of the root of the conflict between Levon and Robbie. Levon felt the collaboration between Robbie and Scorsesie (sp?) turned into a 2 hour screen test for Robbie. Interestingly enough, Levon had a better film carreer than Robbie. The other issue was publishing royalties, which Levon felt short changed the collaborative nature of " the band" to give more credit to Robbie than he, Levon felt he deserved. It lead to gret financial hardship for Levon, Rick and Richard later on. Make no mistake, Robbie is a great song writer, and understood the dangers of the road,, as Lowell George so famously said" these old rock and roll hours,, early graves without flowers". He understood earlier than most, that there was more to music than just playing the road. To believe that Robbie didn't get much of his inspiration from Levon, and levon's life experience, so very much different from the rest of the band stretches credibility. "I'm trying' to do my best, just trying' to do my best, so don't do it,, don't you break my heart,,,please don't do it, don't you break my heart!" Icarus
lennon figured that out too early for his fans, bu then, it doesn't seem to have hurt mccartney much.
