Robbie Robertson was with the influential group The Band when he wrote “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” in 1969. The song still touches a nerve, according to this tribute by Sheldon Zoldan, who also writes Song of the Day, a music-related story sent daily to an email list of subscribers.
In this video, you can hear "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" in a scene from Martin Scorsese's "The Last Waltz" about The Band's farewell concert on Thanksgiving Day, 1976, in San Francisco. On hand to help say goodbye to the group were some of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 1960s and '70s. You can go here to rent or purchase a copy of the film or watch it on Amazon Prime.
And here, you can go to a video of Joan Baez doing the song in 1971. There's a cute anecdote in the comments about a cane. I won't spoil it for you by saying more.
The picture in the chapters of this episode is of Robertson performing with The Band. The image was provided by Capitol Records and is available on wikipedia.org.
Also in the chapters, you can skip my introduction and go right to the start of the tribute; feel free to skip the closing remarks too. I included them to provide context for those who haven't yet listened to other tributes.
To get on the Song of the Day subscriber list, emailshzoldan@comcast.netwith the subject line ADD ME TO SOTD.
Audio engineer/musician Mike Villegas edited all the audio for this series. Hope you enjoy these intriguing glimpses into the lives of the people who made some of the music we love.
This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to Everyday Creation, available on YouTube and in podcast directories including Apple, Audible, iHeart and Spotify.
