This is probably the greatest & truest song ever written about the South and the mindset of Southerners as the loss of the Civil War became inevitable. Remarkable when you consider it was written by a Canadian. But perhaps it took an outsider to see things as they really were.
Robbie Robertson said the music came from the grit of the soil, from the thickness of the air in the South. And the lyrics came from talking to Southerns & the way they clung to their belief that the South would rise again and also from the feeling he got from Levon Helm in his reminisces of the South & the past.
The song is a quite simply about the death of a dream. Of course the Civil War was about slavery above all else, but to Southerners it was about much more than that. It was about the dream of having their own country & maintaining their way of life. And as delusional as it was, in their minds it was a righteous cause. To them as righteous as the Colonies rising up against England or American fighting the Nazis.
So what the song captures perfectly in lyrics & music and in tone & context is the emotional fallout from slowly realizing the death of your dream, the shattering effect of knowing the cause you put everything into & gave up so much for must not have been righteous after all because you lost. This was God himself saying: "you're wrong & it's over." This was an unthinkable tragedy to the South, so emotionally devastating that it can be reasonably argued that they still haven't gotten over it.
The psychic impact of their dream dying was earth-shattering and hasn't allowed them yet to feel fully proud or correct the sins of racism because racism was so tied up in their dream that to part with racism would be to part with the dream.
Now that part is not in the song. However, the song is so knowing & empathetic that it allows one a deeper understanding of the emotions of Southerners. There aren't that many songs around that change the way you see people, places, or the world. This is one of them.
This is probably the greatest & truest song ever written about the South and the mindset of Southerners as the loss of the Civil War became inevitable. Remarkable when you consider it was written by a Canadian. But perhaps it took an outsider to see things as they really were.
Robbie Robertson said the music came from the grit of the soil, from the thickness of the air in the South. And the lyrics came from talking to Southerns & the way they clung to their belief that the South would rise again and also from the feeling he got from Levon Helm in his reminisces of the South & the past.
The song is a quite simply about the death of a dream. Of course the Civil War was about slavery above all else, but to Southerners it was about much more than that. It was about the dream of having their own country & maintaining their way of life. And as delusional as it was, in their minds it was a righteous cause. To them as righteous as the Colonies rising up against England or American fighting the Nazis.
So what the song captures perfectly in lyrics & music and in tone & context is the emotional fallout from slowly realizing the death of your dream, the shattering effect of knowing the cause you put everything into & gave up so much for must not have been righteous after all because you lost. This was God himself saying: "you're wrong & it's over." This was an unthinkable tragedy to the South, so emotionally devastating that it can be reasonably argued that they still haven't gotten over it.
The psychic impact of their dream dying was earth-shattering and hasn't allowed them yet to feel fully proud or correct the sins of racism because racism was so tied up in their dream that to part with racism would be to part with the dream.
Now that part is not in the song. However, the song is so knowing & empathetic that it allows one a deeper understanding of the emotions of Southerners. There aren't that many songs around that change the way you see people, places, or the world. This is one of them.
@mda8mm Pretty ironic that one of the best songs to capture the feelings of the South after the Civil War was written by a bunch of Canadians.
@mda8mm Pretty ironic that one of the best songs to capture the feelings of the South after the Civil War was written by a bunch of Canadians.