By delaporterichard23_o0uqz186Een naam die zowel op bescheidenheid kan duiden (gewoon ‘de band die vanavond speelt’) als op het besef van grootsheid ( THE band – the one and only) en beide zijn van toepassing. Ze waren achtergrondmuzikanten, the Hawks achter Ronnie Hawkins en the Band achter Bob Dylan, maar ook de supergroep die weergaloze albums maakte en grote successen vierde met haar concerten.
Ik houd van Americana, en hun opvatting daarvan, een mix van country, folk, blues en rock, maakt ze tot een van mijn favoriete bands – dus ook van hen heb ik vrijwel alle albums. Topmuzikanten, stuk voor stuk multi-instrumentalisten, die, op Garth Hudson na (de best onderlegde, meest veelzijdige en meest originele muzikant van de groep), ook nog eens allemaal fantastisch kunnen zingen, waarbij ze als een gospelgroep hun zanglijnen aan elkaar overdragen en in elkaar vlechten.
THE NIGHT THEY DROVE OLD DIXIE DOWN
Virgil Kaine is the name
And I served on the Danville train
‘Till Stoneman’s cavalry came
And tore up the tracks again
In the winter of ’65
We were hungry, just barely alive
By May the 10th, Richmond had fell
It’s a time I remember, oh so well
The night they drove old Dixie down
And the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down
And the people were singing
They went, “Na, na, la, na, na, la”
Back with my wife in Tennessee
When one day she called to me
“Virgil, quick, come see,
There goes Robert E. Lee!”
Now, I don’t mind chopping wood
And I don’t care if the money’s no good
You take what you need
And you leave the rest
But they should never
Have taken the very best
The night they drove old Dixie down
And the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down
And all the people were singing
They went, “Na, na, la, na, na, la”
Like my father before me
I will work the land
And like my brother above me
Who took a rebel stand
He was just 18, proud and brave
But a Yankee laid him in his grave
I swear by the mud below my feet
You can’t raise a Kaine back up
When he’s in defeat
The night they drove old Dixie down
And the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down
And all the people were singing
They went, “Na, na, la, na, na, la”
The night they drove old Dixie down
And all the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down
And the people were singing
They went, “Na, na, la, na, na, la”