"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down".


 

I am very fortunate in having heard this amazing song performed live by The Band on their tour in support of the s/t "brown" album. The only other live music experience I’ve had that equals it was hearing Little Village perform John Hiatt’s "Lipstick Traces" on a soundstage in Burbank in ’92. The Little Village album was not so hot, but they sure were!

The Beatles? Saw them in ’65. Hendrix? Saw him in ’68 and ’69. Cream? Saw them in ’67 and ’68. The Who? Saw them in ’68 and ’69. Who else ya wanna name? Sorry, hearing The Band live spoiled me for just about EVERYONE else. Not Iris DeMent, whom I just saw this past Thursday. Stunningly great!

 

Here’s J.R. Robertson, Eric Levon Helm, and some other guy talking about the song and its’ creation:

 

https://youtu.be/nVYBW_zCvOg?t=1

 

 

128x128bdp24

Showing 1 response by garebear

........at the expense of sounding disrespectful at this time so close to Robbie Robertson's passing ; I still have a tough time thinking about how Robbie maneuvered all of the copyright / royalties to himself. It was well known that when this was being done the rest of the Band members where having a great time of it and Robbie felt that he needed to take control of the business portion of the Band. I can understand somebody doing that if the rest of the members were out of control and he felt he needed to step in. However, from what I read he took all of the music copyrights and placed it under his name or control. The rest of the Band suffered some financial hardships as a result of this change in the ownership and copyrights of their own music. Now, if someone else here knows more on this or if I am wrong ( which I do not think that I am ) please let me know. 

I still recall hearing the Band's Brown album for the first time as I was a junior in High School and it was the 70's .......I initially didn't like it or even better yet ; I didn't understand it. It was many years when I went back to listen to the Band's music and I was older and much more mature, I finally got it. They were really were a great Band with a sound that has never really to this day been duplicated. RIP Robby and thank you for some great memories.....