The Night They D rove Old Dixie Down by Joan Baez

1. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down by Joan Baez By Travis McAuliffe For song discussions click here

2. First verse of the lyrics 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, 

3. Second verse of the lyrics (Chorus) 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, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la,

4. Third verse of the lyrics Back with my wife in Tennessee, when one day she called to me,"Virgil , quick, come see, there goes the 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.

5. Forth verse of the lyrics (Chorus) 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 Cain back up when he's in defeat.  (Chorus and fade)

6. citations "Joan Baez." Contemporary Musicians, Volume 1. Gale Research, 1989. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2010. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC "Chorus." Glassary of Literary Terms. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 May 2010. <http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/literature/bedlit/glossary_a.htm>. "Quatrain." Glossary of Literary Terms. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 May 2010. <http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/literature/bedlit/glossary_p.htm>. "Allusion." Glossary of Literary Terms. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 June 2010.      <http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/literature/bedlit/glossary_a.htm>. Songfacts. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 June 2010. <http://www.songfacts.com/      detail.php?id=1106>. "Major General George Stoneman Led the Last American Civil War Cavalry Raid." history.net. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 June 2010.      <http://www.historynet.com/      major-general-george-stoneman-led-the-last-american-civil-war-cavalry-raid.htm>. "Winter." Crater road. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 June 2010.      <http://www.craterroad.com/Winter1864.html>.

7. Joan Baez Joan Baez was born on January 9, 1941, in Staten Island New York. Her time in Boston got her noticed by Bob Gibson, who invited her to play in the 1959 Newport folk festival. In 1960 she started her association with vanguard records. This is the record company that helped her make her first record Joan Baez. After she ended her association with vanguard records Joan started her association. She has been feathered on the front cover of Time magazine. She was an anti-war and civil rights activist. This song was a good example of her ideals and beliefs. back

8. Quatrain A four-line stanza. Quatrains are the most common stanzaic form in the English language; they can have various meters and rhyme schemes. See also meter, rhyme, stanza. back Learn more literary terms

9. Danville train The Danville train was a 140 miles track that linked Richmond to the rest of the confederacy. back Learn more

10. Stoneman’s cavalry Stoneman’s cavalry is talking about the Major General George Stoneman witch Led the Last American Civil War Cavalry Raid. back Learn more

11. The Winter of ‘65 The winter of 1865 was a harsh cold winter the food was expensive the people were hungry and the food was rotting. back Learn more

12. Old Dixie Old Dixie in this context refers to Richmond when it was the capital of the confederacy during the civil war. By the fraise the night they blow old Dixie down they mean the night the union besieged the capital of Richmond. back

13. Repetition Repetition is the repeating of a word, phrase, or sound. This can be used to make a point, as a break, or to help remember. back

14. Allusion A brief reference to a person, place, thing, event, or idea in history or literature. Allusions conjure up biblical authority, scenes from Shakespeare’s plays, historic figures, wars, great love stories, and anything else that might enrich an author’s work. Allusions imply reading and cultural experiences shared by the writer and reader, functioning as a kind of shorthand whereby the recalling of something outside the work supplies an emotional or intellectual context, such as a poem about current racial struggles calling up the memory of Abraham Lincoln. back

15. The Robert E. Lee Where you would think that this refers to the general it actually is a boat. It is a steam engine boat that runs off burning logs. The of the song is named Virgil and he is a wood cuter that makes the boat more relevant than the general Learn more about the boat back Learn more about the general

16. Chores In Greek tragedies (especially those of Aeschylus and Sophocles), a group of people who serve mainly as commentators on the characters and events. They add to the audience’s understanding of the play by expressing traditional moral, religious, and social attitudes. The role of the chorus in dramatic works evolved through the sixteenth century, and the chorus occasionally is still used by modern playwrights such as T. S. Eliot in Murder in the Cathedral. See also drama. back

17. Rhyme schema The rhyme schema to this part of the song is AA, BB, CC. This means that the first two lines rhyme. The second two lines rhyme. Then the third two lines rhyme. back

18. Yankee A yankee is a word used to describe a person from the union. This term is used mostly used as a person from the south talking about a person from the north. Back