That "drummer" was Levon Helm. I'm 59 years old and have attended and promoted concerts for 45 years. He is still one of the greatest performers I have ever personally seen.
The fact that a drummer from the Deep South could get together with a bunch of Canadians, be the back up band for two Musical Legends, and then break out on their own, is a story unparalleled.
One of my good buddies, who introduced me to a lot of great music when we were younger, said to me one time, expressing his point in the simplest of terms "there's a reason they were called 'The Band'...."....and I think you summed up very well exactly what he was talking about.
There's a reason they were called "The Band" and it was never disputed. All of them had more talent in their toenail clippings, than modern musicians have in their body and souls. LEGENDS!
losing family to a stupid thing you don't really believe in but you have no choice but to fight in. And the song asks does the end justify the means when you've lost half of your country to a devisive war?
Many people have a misunderstanding of this song. They hear a couple of "keywords" and dismiss it as some kind of Southron Memorial. I am a Bluest of the Blue Yankee and this song expresses the sorrow of the utterly vanquished Gray. It breaks your heart and yet compels you to sing along. This is something only music can do. It is a Tragic Opera in 4 minutes. It is not a tale of "The Lost Cause".
That's a great comment thank you. It's certainly a sorrowful song in a live setting. Backing vocals by Rick Danko and Robbie Robertson lends to the emotion felt. Listening in 2023 from New Zealand in the South Pacific. Happy holidays.
There are conflicting reports as to if Robbie's mike was turned off. Some say that is what Levon wrote in his book, or his editor wanted to put in. However, Robbie wrote the song, and plays a great guitar, so what if he can't sing. The Band had 3 great singers, Richard, Levon and last, but not least Rick Danko.@@alexkimi5060
Its not "lost cause" It's the average person's perspective. There was no "blue" and "grey" to most beyond uniforms. And in the south, grey wasn't even universal. This is a rural man who had his life upended by a war. It could be any war, any side. It's not about your noble pity for someone you imagine would be your enemy. It's about how any and all wars just cause suffering. And the ones that do have little to no idea why.
It's not really about war. It's more about the suffering and humble heroism of the survivors of the losing side of a war. The civilians. It's about humanity and dignity.
I am 73 years old and was raised in a small town in Virginia. When I was a child just playing outside we found all kinds of civil war relics just lying around my grandparents property. This town was taken back and forth between the North and South over 70 times. In fact I thought the war was just fought in my parents life time until I went to school and found out differently. My daughter and her family live in a house that was a hospital for each side depending on who had the upper hand. I love this song and it always takes me back home tho I am now living far away
Yep, my grandmother lived in Hopewell, VA. I'd visit in the summer. We'd go to some of the old battlefields. Not necessarily the government protected ones. We'd find stuff all the time. Long ago and far away.
Likewise, for about a year, I lived in Catlett,Virginia, just south of Manassas also known as Bull Run, I was never really looking for Civil War artifacts, but while out hunting along the cornfields, I would pick up quite a few mini balls, and that’s without looking for them, this particular area saw a lot of action, and movement of troops both north and south.
Robbie Robertson (the guitarist and writer of this song) said in interviews that a lot of the inspiration for this song came when he visited Levon Helm's family in the South for the first time. Levon's father told Robbie that, "The South will rise again". That stuck with him and helped him create this masterpiece.
Exactly! Back when the Band was playing a lot of people in the South were still very prejudiced and didn't want integration. Levon Helm was a genius! I loved his acting too in Coal Miners Daughter and especially in The Shooter. You could see that he was weak and old in that movie but did an incredible job. Love The Band!
Drummer singer Levon Helm was born in Arkansas,may be that´s why he sings about this issue with special passion.The song is so well written that it widens the perspective on American civil war.Every war has its Virgil Cains.
Robertson claimed sole credit for the writing of many of their songs, but in interviews, other members said all of their songs were created by collaboration with all members.
@john harkness I'm not a big fan and neither were the rest of the Band, especially Levon. Robertson was the one who wanted to break them up. Plus they didn't like Scorsese make the movie more about Robertson than the whole band.
This is from the 1969 album The Band. It's about the last days of The Civil War, written by Robbie Robertson after he read up on The Civil War. The 3 part harmonies of Levon Helm, Rick Danko and Richard Manuel fuse together to create a wonderful blend. Levon's voice carries the tune and delivers a great story. Joan Baez did a cover in 1971, and this was her highest charting song reading Number 3 in the US. Great reaction Harri. Thanks Harri and Miss Blondie. 👏👏 Cheers from Canada 🇨🇦
Levon Helm was just an all around special guy. His late in life albums after the throat cancer diagnosis are just as magical. His acting in the movie Shooter and just him being himself in some documentary footage from the early 2000s really made me appreciate more of his talent. RIP Levon.
Rick Danko singing "It Makes No Difference" from this concert (The Last Waltz) will stop you dead in your tracks. Just a bunch of lads from my home province of Ontario (and 1 from Arkansas) making a beautiful noise together. Great rxn, Harri - cheers!
Love The Band, have since 1969 when I first heard "Up on Cripple Creek". All of them so talented, but I have a soft spot for Robbie and Rick Danko. Love Robbie's guitar playing, and he was so handsome in his younger days. Love Rick's voice, and he seems like a real sweetheart, very cute.
@@missblondie2393 If you ever look at your old comments you should check out the version Rick sings in Tokyo, older with more pain, Richard Manuel had already committed suicide. The emotion is profound
I think you hit the nail on the head about this being a love song. It's set during a war - a Civil war, the hardest kind - but it's actually a love song about family and home. The loss, destruction and pain of the war are used to show the intensity of one's love for family and home. The old cliche applies: "you don't know how much you love something until you lose it".
It is a love song, but you've got it not quite right. What night is the song talking about? April 9, 1865 when General Lee surrendered and the Civil War ended. That night there were celebrations in Washington. The love of family and loss is used in the song to explain the love the south had for the Confederacy, and the loss felt as Old Dixie died. The song works because everybody, not just the South, can feel that love and that pain. Incidentally, as I write this, it is April 9th.
Even though it looked like the guitarist was singing backup vocals the truth is his mic was dead. It was well known among followers of The Band that Robertson liked to sing along but the mic wasn't on. The higher backup vocal was being supplied by Richard Manuel. It was him along with the bassist Rick Danko singing back uo vocals to Levon Helms lead.
One of the greatest live vocal performances ever !!! Performed by Mr Levon Helm This live performance is so superior to the actual recording it almost like two different songs
I agree, I have clicked on reactions to this song only to find that the reactor is listening to the studio version. This is by FAR the best version, you can hear and feel the devastation of the Civil War in Levon's voice.
@@laudanum669 It's one of those occasions where a song is performed live and it puts the original recording to shame Much like Paul McCartney and Wings live version of "Coming Up" or Bob Segers "Turn the Page" Challenge for everyone out there to name some more
I agree. This LIVE version is so rich, with so much raw instrumental depth, plus the excitement of the LIVE audience adds so much to the power of the performance.
Anything by The Band is an eargasm. Just genius. Eric Clapton once asked (only half-jokingly) if he could join the group. Clapton told the story when he inducted The Band into the R&R Hall of Fame. Fun fact, Harri: Levon Helm was the biological father of Donald Fagen’s step-daughter Amy Helm (she’s a singer too). Thanks Miss B and Harri.
George Harrison was denied to! The Band got both The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead and Cream/Clapton to go and make more down to earth albums.
The guys were asked to come back and re-shoot parts of the concert due to issues (cameras not working, etc.) Levon was the only one who refused to come back and reshoot anything. This version is original and unedited, and the best version of the song every done by anyone. RIP Levon, Rick, and Richard. You are very much missed.
The drummer, Levon Helm, was the only member from the south (Arkansas). The rest were Canadians, but touring with Ronnie Hawkins exposed them to southern gospel and folk music. They had a sound like no others, so musical and real.
Yes, but remember the time they spent with Bob Dylan working on The Basement Tapes. That was the real basis of their mastery of Americana, before that term was even in use. Music from Big Pink is the first album in the genre, and probably the best, recorded right after the Basement Tapes period.
The song isn't about war. The song is about losing everything and having a wind blow the hot ashes of your life away and you cant even cry. And you don't even know what will happen next.
Leon Helm the drummer/vocalist was from Turkey Scratch Arkansas, so he well knew the pain of the South in the aftermath of the Civil War. This song and anything from the last waltz concert on Thanksgiving day, 1976 is fantastic and arguably the best concert of all time.
@@wangofree I have heard both, Marvell Arkansas is about 2 1/2 to 3 miles south of Turkey Scratch. I live northwest of there in the Ozarks on the Arkansas Missouri border.
Robbie Robertson wrote that song specially for Levon Helm who was from the south and the only American in the group . They were from Canada . The song is of course about the American civil war and the south’s surrender “on May 10th Richmond fell, it’s a time I remember oh so well “.
We visited the childhood property of drummer Levon Helm a few months ago. Miles and miles from any town in the middle of thousands of aces of Mississippi Delta farmland in a small settlement named Turkey Scratch Arkansas. Yes, we spotted quite a flock of turkeys as we approached and not much more.
Levon Helm was such a interesting genuine character. I could listen to him talk all day about his life stories in the music business. Great story teller. Sadly he’s passed on like the majority of the Band members. Only two members remain, Robbie Robertson and Garth Hudson.
@@ShazzPotz RIP Robbie Robertson. He wrote this song. It was inspired by a moment Robbie spent with Levon's father, who had said that the south would rise again. He remembered that moment when this tune started to form in his head.
The drummer / singer Levon Helm was the only so called dixie in the group and he wanted to make sure that the writer Robbie Robertson would treat general Robert E. Lee with respect in the lyrics, which he did.
I always thought this song was about after the civil war. He talks about his brother dying, and he's just going to work the land. Seems post war to me. Since "The night they drove old dixie down" feels like the end of the war. Dixie was driven down. Also, RIP Robbie Robertson. (guitar).
Thanks for the review. It's an amazing tune. The word you used "emotive" is a great description. This tune and "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda," are the two greatest songs about war and loss.
Great story telling of an everyday southern man and his family during the Civil War and their struggles and sufferings they endured over the years of fighting. The legendary Levon Helm was an outstanding singer / drummer was the only one that was actually from the south, the rest were Canadian. Always got a kick of the band being name The Band. LOL
Harri, I think it's a song about loss, on a lot of different levels. A loss of family, innocence, and the destruction of the home he grew up in. That's why it invokes such feelings. Kind of like the way Neil Young's Powder Finger does.
I'm a Yankee from Ohio. Thank God they drove ole' dixie down. It was a horrible war but a righteous one. Just think of what we would be if the South had won.
Levon Helm was from Arkansas, the rest of The Band from Canado, Toronto and nearby areas. Robbie Robertson wote this song after visiting Levon and his family.
This is just a song that gets to me. I heard it on a transistor radio on a school field trip to Harper's Ferry WV in maybe 1970. Stuck right there and then.
When I was in the Navy, one of my jobs was choosing & showing movies. A lot of the crew thought I got a dance movie "The Last Waltz". I had a lot of negativaty directed my way, until the start. This was 1980. Levon Helm was also in "Shooter" with Mark Wahlberg. He played the shooting/fire arms expert.
The story behind the band is awesome. All but one member was Canadian and they started life as the house band for Rompin' Ronnie Hawkins (an Arkansan who moved to Toronto in the 60's and never looked back, becoming a fundamental contributor to the development of a native pop/rock/county music scene in Central Canada (or, as Torontonians call it, Canada!)). Hawkins just passed away last year, if memory serves. Selfless and true to his mentorship mission, he didn't stand in the way when his friend, Bob Dylan, expressed an interest in having "the band" back him instead. The next step after a successful time with Dylan was international stardom. They just never bothered to come up with a more specific name than "the Band." Come to think of it, they actually welcomed back Ronnie Hawkins to sing with them as part of this fabled concert of which you've just seen a small portion.
Im presuming you've never heard this track before, and as a person who was 16 when this was recorded, its extraordinary to me that in one generation, so many have no idea the greatness that came before them.. and this is one of the best examples.
One member not shown really in this clip is keyboardist and vocalist Richard Manual who you can hear singing along with bassist Rick Danko. I highly suggest "Makes No Difference" from this same concert movie, sang by Danko. Stunning performance. It has been noted that often during live performances the sound guy would turn down or turn off guitarist Robbie Robertson's microphone because he wasn't the strongest singer but boy does he look like he is giving it hell in this concert movie. He was good friends with the movie producer and thus got a lot of screen time while Richard Manual was cut out of a lot (band politics at its finest). The band members actually considered Richard Manual the lead singer of the group and he sang more songs than the others.
Amazing song because it was written during the most violent racial tensions in American history and helped smooth the edges. The average Confederate was fighting for family, not slavery. Everyone can shed a tear listening to this song.
Robertson says the Band were for the most part a-political. Naive to institutional racism, their writing this song was a mistake. The song grieves the loss of white supremacist's kin, security, and freedom to perpetuate the rewards of white elevated status. The song enables today's white supremacy. -Doug Pratt, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
@@edouglaspratt If you want to believe that woke drivel, you'r entitled to that freedom. The Band played for Bob Dylan who was definitely Not a-political. The song is a metaphor for all wars. It's what the Romans did to Carthage, what the Vandals did to Rome. It's what the Germans did to the Jews and when I heard it sung by Joan Baez after the Kent State murders, I started marching because it's what America was doing to the Vietnamese. Ideas cannot be silenced because they are misunderstood. If they are misunderstood they should be repeated. And I repeat, it smoothed the edges because I realized that people were encouraged to hate Hippies because the government was afraid of Hippies.
Well said! Art has a way of beautifying the worst in us and restoring faith in the human spirit! loved the review, I'm also a fan of Drummer/Vocalist. I believe its one of the hardest things to do and as you identified the harmonies are exceptional!
Levon, the drummer, was a Southerner. The rest of the guys were Canadians or maybe from the Northern states. They all did justice to this song's sentiments.
The Band is one of the finest bands ever. I'd love to see a reaction to King Harvest (Has Surely Come), their funkiest song. So glad you appreciate them!
Robertson was inspired to write this song when The Band was touring down south -- conversations with locals would often have some old-timer saying "The South will rise again!" So he wrote about their lowest moment. A classic.
It was Robbie Robertson, who wrote this classic and specifically matched it to Helm's style .@@tomst.antoine7742 Without Robbie's writing skills the Band would likely have ended up covering other performers.
The entire Last Waltz concert, The Band and every guest performance I highly recommend. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down was a mighty fine submission, Miss B. Harri, your review was once again sterling-level.
This a song "about after the war". The north went and distroyed every thing in the south. They even plowd salt into the feilds. so food could not be grown.
It isn't about the war itself so much as it is about the realities left behind for the ordinary people, most of whom had little to no stake in the issue the war was about, after the war was over: death, loss, destruction, devalued currency ("And I don't care if the money's no good"), etc. Levon's performance here is just heart wrenching.
