In about 1969, I used to listen to The Band and this song, Bob Dylan's side band , and all that. My roommates were white guys from Georgia ( Jewish too). I used to sing along. I still know the tune. Actually, I don't much listen to words to songs mainly the tunes. Anyway, later, (but before I was a CPUSAer; pace Baez; still think it stank to bang on Viet Nam), I noticed the words, more. I'm thinking "damn, they are singing nostalgically about Robert E. Lee. That's kinda racist."
The South started the Civil War because if Lincoln's and the Republicans' program to prevent territorial expansion of slavery were implemented, the slave mode of production would die , because ( as Marx analyzed) slavery needs constant expansion of territory ,because it can't become more intensive, must become more extensive. That the North was not primarily motivated by freeing the slaves, but by expanding wage-labor doesn't mean that the Confederacy was not racist (!). Fighting to retain the slave system was uhhhh yea, racist.
In my opinion, nostalgia about the Confederacy and Robert E. Lee is racist. Of course, I'm Black, so that might impact how I think about it :>). Yea, Virgil Caine is a victim too , being a poor farmer or something, yadayadayada. But romanticizing nostaligia about Robert E. Lee, a real symbol of the Confederates ,ain't too cool, a mon avis.
On the other hand, I wouldn't be too upset if somebody liked The Band. I doubt they meant any harm.
Wasn't Eric Clapton in a fascist org or something ?
Romantic art and politics can be problematic.
Jesse James was a Confederate, but at least he was robbing banks.
CB
^^^^^^
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