Cover Me: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

When the dice turned up this song as my assignment for today, I gave serious consideration to throwing it back.

I’m well aware that The Band’s 1969 song is occasionally co-opted by those who believe the song glorifies the confederacy by giving a voice to a fictional defeated rebel soldier, and I have no wish to stoke those fires further, especially at a moment like this.

But I ultimately decided to run with it, because Robbie Robertson’s song is too exquisite to be defined by those who misunderstand it. There’s a difference between empathy and sympathy, and I’ve never believed that “The Night They Drove Old Dixie” down glorifies the Civil War South any more than “Nebraska” glorifies serial killers.

“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” isn’t even really about the American South–that’s just where it takes place. It’s about the human cost of war on those who survive it, regardless of the cause, and Robertson’s great accomplishment is in the way he brings the character of Virgil Caine to life through empathy that an American songwriter probably could never have mustered.

It’s a strange song, with verses that ring with southern pain and loss paired with choruses bursting with northern celebration. (Or at least, that’s how it always sounded to me. I’ve read that Robertson intended his “na la las” as a wordless lament.) It sounds so incredibly authentic that it’s hard to believe it was written in 1969 rather than 1869, let alone by a Canadian Native-American.

Last autumn, Robertson discussed the song’s origin and inspiration in an interview on Sirius XM.

At a time when confederate flags, symbols, and statues are falling left and right, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” is enduring Americana, recognized by Rolling Stone as one of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll, and by Time Magazine’s All-Time 100 list.

To hear Levon Helm’s richly empathetic vocal is to immediately appreciate “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” as genuine, non-judgmental art, and that is almost certainly why the song is able to endure as a document (albeit fictional) of an awful period of American history.

It’s been covered by bands both southern and northern, by artists both Black and White, including Joan Baez’s #3 hit version in 1971…

…and a Dobie Gray’s powerful live performance from 1980.

And yet “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” was originally a B-side (to “Up on Cripple Creek“) only charting at #25 on the Billboard Hot 100.

But that was enough to attract the attention of a young Bruce Springsteen, who turned 20 the week that “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” was released.

Bruce has long professed to be a fan of The Band, most notably in this year’s documentary, Once Were Brothers.

But there’s documented proof of Bruce’s appreciation as far back as almost fifty years. Bruce covered “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” way back in the summer of 1971 with The Bruce Springsteen Band, and amazingly, it was captured on tape.

Here’s that one-time-only performance below. The arrangement is faithful; the recording is… well, listenable. But it remains the only time to this day that Bruce Springsteen has performed “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.”

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
First performed: September 1, 1971 (Long Branch, NJ)
Last performed: September 1, 1971 (Long Branch, NJ)