It's been a peaceful morning. Everyone is still sleeping. I got Aurora, our bird, up at her usual seven o'clock hour. By her soft squawking, I can tell she's enjoying it too.
After handing out a few votes on posts I wanted to support, plus a comment here or there, my mind started to wander. Like most people, I assume, my mind's on a constant quest to learn. To make a better understanding of current events and the world at large.
I often turn to music for entertainment and escape. But some music serves a more worthy pursuit than simple entertainment.
History was never a subject I went to extra lengths to pursue. There were mandatory classes in US and World History that did catch my attention at the time.
Musics of America
Now here's a class I took while living in Denver, CO and attending Metro State College. The combination of art and history was a rare lense in which to view my country's past.
We studied some American Indian music. Music wasn't as much for singular entertainment as it was for ritual purposes. Even upbeat music played at a Pow Wow has purpose and meaning.
Our class also studied that period of American History that brought the creation of the blues. After the South surrendered unconditionally to the North in the Civil War, plantations were shattered. Slaves were now free men and women to make their own way in the USA.
Though it was abhorrent to be a slave, it was often tougher to be a free man in a land that had no work to offer. This is where the blues started. A black man could learn the guitar and make coin playing on the street corner. The blues were also born out of a necessity to express their deepest sufferings. They were out of the frying pan, but into the fire.
The Story Told Through The Eyes Of The Defeated
How many times during the course of history is the story told by the defeated? As the saying goes, history is written by the winners. That saying falls flat when it comes to the US Civil War.
Which brings me to the first song that entered my thoughts as my mind wandered this morning. It was a war that pitted brother against brother. Cain against Abel.
No song I know of relates the final painful defeat of the South and jubilation of victory from the North. Listeners through the years describe the song as having the ability to put a person directly in the shoes of Virgil Caine. A poor white Southern Soldier at the end of the war.
"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
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, la, la, la, na, na
La la, na, na, la, la, la, la, la"
"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
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, la, la, la, na, na
La la, na, na, la, la, la, la, 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 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 Caine 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, la, la, la, na, na
La la, na, na, la, la, la, la, la"
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down - The Band
Reading Up On The Song
I fell a bit deeper down this rabbit hole of history on top of history by looking into the song. Perhaps the best thread out there takes a close look at interpreting the lyrics.
http://theband.hiof.no/articles/dixie_viney.html
Though the song isn't historically accurate in every regard, it comes very close. Liberties taken by Robbie Robertson in writing the lyrics add to the aura of the setting instead of diminishing the facts of the time period.
My final thoughts before I move on to the business of the day? We can never stop working toward true equal rights and liberty for all. It's just as important to look back sometimes and remember the cost of how far we've already come.
Happy Hiveing!!!
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Bottom Image Courtesy Of Hive.io Brand Assets
