Well, I can certainly understand the desire of the rightwing to funnel more money to the notoriously conservative Joan Baez.
How are sales of Lynyrd Skynyrd albums doing?
Oh Alabama. The devil fools with the best laid plan.
You got the rest of the union to help you along. What’s going wrong?
Okay. 
It’s locked to the top because it’s the target of vandalism attempts. To nobody’s particular surprise. The fight that resulted in the compromise of putting it there instead of flying from the dome was a very, very nasty one.
To me, the definitive version is from the Last Waltz. The Baez version is utterly devoid of passion and soul.
Plus, the gender discontinuity of the first person narrative is disharmonious.
“Virgil Kane is my name.” But it’s a girl singing! Why is a girl named Virgil? What does it MEAN?
I believe Joan Baez was singing for her husband who was in jail.
The Night they Drove Ole Dixie down commemorates the defeat of the Confederacy. Which by extension means the the defeat of slavery. Union General George Stoneman and Stoneman’s 1863 Raid are real historical events.
Why is loving this song considered an issue? It’s the best song ever recorded by The Band. imho
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1106
I want to go back to Dixie,
Take me back to dear ol’ Dixie,
That’s the only li’l ol’ place for li’l ol’ me.
Old times there are not forgotten,
Whuppin’ slaves and sellin’ cotton,
And waitin’ for the Robert E. Lee.
(It was never there on time.)*
I don’t remember all the lyrics anymore and they may be a bit out of order, but some went like so:
It’s the same old South-,
It’s a regular children’s heaven,
where they don’t get to work 'till they’re seven.
It’s the same old South.
It’s the same old South,
with it’s old-fasioned get-togethers.
Colonel, pass me the tar and the feathers.
It’s the same old South.
There’s no gate to stop you,
when you bid the folks ‘hello.’
There’s not gate to stop for it dropeed off,
20 or 30 years ago.
Honey, hush my mouth.
Let the Northerners keep Niagra.
We’ll stick to our 7th pellagra. (?)
It’s the same old South.
It’s the same old South.
The bloodhounds that once chased Liza,
now chase the (union?) organizer.
It’s the same old south!
Was it at half-staff after 9/11?
Sometimes what looks like “a media circus” is actually the entire fucking nation, all its citizens and leaders and everyone, all getting into a heated debate over a contentious topic in the context of current events.
What the heck will it take before you decide to start paying attention to what’s going on under your nose?
I mean, this is like someone living in Britain in 1915 saying, "I know the basic facts about the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, but I ignored the rest of the brouhahahappening since then … "
I really don’t think it actually can be at half staff. It hasn’t got the rope or chain other flagpoles have. It’s, shall we say shackled? to the top of the pole.
It occurs to me that no longer being the flag of a nation, but as an artifact, it should not be treated as one. While it offends some people, it is like a picture on the wall.
It never was the flag of a nation. It was a flag used during battle–the ickier part of the rebellion, the standard flown under which people fought to the death to preserve their legal right to own other humans. The Confederate Battle Flag is to The Confederate States Of America what a Swastika banner would have been to the Third Reich. It’s a symbol to rally support around.
It’s origin has beans to do with pride in…whatever it is Southerners feel sets them apart from the rest of their fellow Americans, and everything to do with the worst of their heritage. As an artifact or a picture on a wall, I suppose it’s no more harmful than a dotingly preserved image of der Fuhrer.
Well, there you go.
