On 1/11/06, John Lacny <jlacny at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Pittsburgh, for instance. I don't know where Lee's been, but there are CPUSA
> people all over the place -- but the old-timers rarely identify themselves
> as such, and since they're almost all old-timers (and that's putting it
> mildly), you rarely know.
The folks I knew were my age (young in the 1970s, old-timers now).
me:
> > One referred to Joan Baez as singing a "racist" song ("The
> > Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," originally by The Band).
John Lacny:
> But that IS a racist song -- arguably as bad as or even worse than
> "Sweet Home Alabama."
here are the lyrics:
<Start> 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 singin'.
They went La, la, la, la, la, la, La, la, la, la, la, la, La, 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 choppin' wood, And I don't care if the money's no good. Ya take what ya need and ya 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 the people were singin'.
Like my father before me, I will work the land, 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. <end>
I don't see how these lyrics are racist. The Caine brothers fought on the Confederate side (which is a bad thing) but the Union and Lincoln weren't that all-fired anti-racist until it was convenient. The Civil War didn't really start over slavery as far as I can see. -- Jim Devine "The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side." -- James Baldwin