The Band The Night They Drove Old Dixie Lyrics

Unreleased Songs

The Band Unreleased Songs Album

18.The Night They Drove Old Dixie

Lyricist:Robbie Robertson

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

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

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 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

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

Like my father before me, I will work the land
Like my brother above me, who 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

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

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

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
...


Unreleased Songs