There goes Robert E. Lee

I took the advice of my elders, cousin Bob and King Harvest, and watched the video of The Band playing "The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down" and, as they both said, it is a terrific performance.

I was one of those, as Bob mentioned, who was only familiar with the Joan Baez version. And it's fine in it's own right. In fact, as a young adolescent, I remember listening to that tune on KBHM-AM, Branson, Mo., and I liked it. Like Bob, I thought it odd that a woman was Virgil, a working man, however, I was content to let her to tell her story.

Bob quoted from Rolling Stone magazine which captured the spirit of the song: “Nothing I have read … has brought home the overwhelming human sense of history that this song does…It has that ring of truth and the whole aura of authenticity." This was much more evident in the version by The Band. It has a great feel to it, emotional heft.

Here's the video, if you have not already seen it.

One more musical note, totally unrelated to King Harvest. (Gee, I hope we're not keeping those guys from something important!) The song I most enjoy on my Yahoo radio station these days is "Aime" by Pure Prairie League. Those guitars are perfect and elegant, in a mountain music way. To play like that would be a delight!

If one played like that however, he must have a front porch - it's not even an option.