Joan Baez - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down download

i wish we had another Joan Baez these days. I just love her songs and singing since 1969.

Never has a dirge been lovelier than this one. Baez has wonderful delivery. She can hold a note for ransom. She can kidnap a song and steal your heart too.

This is the story of ordinary people and they are affected by war in their homeland.

A good song about the misery of war from the point of view of poor young working man (a small farmer at most, not a plantation owner) who got caught up in it. There is no reason to dislike this song. Like so many good songs, poems, works of art, it calls forth empathy. You may not want to feel sympathy for a Confederate soldier who has lost his world, a world founded on the worst part of ourselves; you may think that he should not have been moved by his teenage brother's death to fight the enemy who killed his brother; you may think he should have taken a moment and thought critically about the evil institution he was defending, questioned the values that underlay his home, family, way of life, but he didn't. He didn't have that moment. He was swept up in passion, loss, and pain. This song asks us to respond to that pain. It does not celebrate the Confederate cause; it does not deny the injustice and cruelty of slavery, or the pain of the enslaved. If the song makes us uncomfortable because it compels us to empathize with a young man who represents something we abhor (as well as things we love, like family, home, loyalty, tradition), then it does something important: it makes us confront the complexity of being human.

Most people today miss the meaning of the song. It is about suffering.

Such a beautiful Song and one of the most fantastic voice ever!

I actually have this song on one of her albums. Brings back old memories and yes they had talent back then. No reverb, no voice auto-tuners.......etc. she knew how to frame words, words that made a song, a conversation at the dinner table, words that provoked emotions and pains of life. Some better than others, the words made you think, gave some moral thoughts to consider and guide your actions if your were ever caught in uncompromising situations as teens grew up.

Living in South now, this has special meaning to me now.

Her voice is flawless oh my god

How did Joan Baez do that without auto-tune or backup dancers...oh wait, she has musical talent and can sing!  

She was a year ahead of me at Boston University. she got kicked out for wearing pants.

Congrats to Joan Baez on getting elected to the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame!!!

I was lucky enough to see this lady live in 2013. It remains one of the best gigs I've ever been to. She didn't sing this, but she sang alot of other stuff that I now love. And, Joan, I've loved you since I was 13, I love you now when I'm 26.

Music back then was not just a good beat and a cool rhythm. Songs told a story and really, we learned more from music than most kids do today in schools.  Maybe sad, but years ago, we cared.

They took my friend and he is never coming back I was wrong forgivness can't work this time I can't find the words for him lost without him.

It breaks my heart to see all these nasty comments about one of the best singers and musicians of the 20th century. If Bob Dylan figured out where any of you live, he would beat you to within an inch of death... and Kris Kristofferson would finish you off with a baseball bat. Then Willie Nelson would roll you up and smoke you. The fact is this, Joan Baez is one of the most respected musicians in the world, and is THE most respected female singer. She is admired by nearly every other musician in her generation, and she will outlast any other modern singer you could think of. The best part is, even the modern singers I'm bashing will admit it, it's only a few ignorant people like those you find on the Internet who think otherwise.

Love Baez's version the best. I've listened to all of them and always come back to her. Something about her voice gives this song a poignancy that is not matched in the other versions. Her voice is so pure.