The Onion AV Club recently presented this cover of The Band’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” as part of its Underground series. Here, Glen Hansard is joined by Lisa Hannigan, who is touring with Hansard, and John Smith to sing the song at Chicago’s Architectural Artifacts, a museum and store.
In the first part of the video before they sing the song, Hansard talks about the first time he heard “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and how he always remembers that moment in his life when he thinks of the song. Check it out.
“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” which evokes the waning days of the American Civil War in the South, first appeared on The Band’s self-titled album in 1969. Since then, there have been a number of live versions released by The Band, including on The Last Waltz (1976), and the song has been recorded by other artists, including a hit version by Joan Baez in 1971. As in the case of the artists in the video above, Baez does a great cover on the song, but the definitive versions remain with Levon Helm’s lead singing with The Band.
Even though the songwriting is officially credited to Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm later noted that he helped with the research and the writing. Whether or not he wrote the song, it became his song when he sang it. Apparently, Helm never sang the song again after his performance at The Last Waltz, shown below when all the people were singin’.
What is your favorite version of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
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