# Question about Mickey Newbury's masterpiece An American Trilogy **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 21, 2014, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-mickey-newburys-masterpiece-an-american-trilogy/691304 "2014-06-21T17:00:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-mickey-newburys-masterpiece-an-american-trilogy/691304/1 "2014-06-21T17:00:41Z")
I’ve loved this song for 35 years and still break out in chills whenever I hear it. Elvis recorded it for his Aloha From Hawaii TV special and I’ve heard it was a standard entry in his 1970’s concerts. Mickey Newbury wrote it using three traditional songs and it was his best known hit. (Newbury’s biggest success was as a songwriter) Glen Campbell recorded it too. The lyrics say… Old times are not forgotten, Look Away, Look Away, Dixieland By look away how do you interrupt that? Do you think he’s talking about the destruction of the Civil War? The burning of Atlanta and battlefield deaths? I wasn’t sure because Dixie was written quite a few years before the war. But Newbury only used that song as a basis for An American Trilogy. I’m not sure if he wrote those lines thinking about the destruction or not. this gets me every time. powerful lyrics. It really sums up the reality of the war for both sides. So hush little baby Don’t you cry You know your daddy’s bound to die But all my trials, Lord, will soon be over [Elvis singing it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gyvTV5OJ5E&feature=kp) [Glen Campbell](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFPyy7oadLo) [Lyrics.](http://www.cowboylyrics.com/tabs/presley-elvis/american-trilogy-2838.html) > **[An American Trilogy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_American_Trilogy)** > > "An American Trilogy" is a 1972 song medley arranged by country composer Mickey Newbury and popularized by Elvis Presley, who included it as a showstopper in his concert routines. The medley uses three 19th-century songs: > Newbury first recorded "An American Trilogy" for his 1971 album Frisco Mabel Joy, and the medley featured prominently on his first concert album, Live at Montezuma Hall, released in 1973. The studio recording reached No. 26 on the charts in 1972, and No. 9 on Billboard's Easy ... > [@](#): > > Over 465 versions of “An American Trilogy” have been recorded by different artists. > [@](#): > > It is a medley of three 19th century songs—“Dixie”, a blackface minstrel song that became the unofficial anthem of the Confederacy since the Civil War; “All My Trials”, originally a Bahamian lullaby, but closely related to African American spirituals, and well-known through folk music revivalists; and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”, the marching song of the Union Army during the Civil War.[ ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-mickey-newburys-masterpiece-an-american-trilogy/691304/2 "2014-06-22T16:15:34Z")
No one is familiar with any of the 465 covers of this incredible song? ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-mickey-newburys-masterpiece-an-american-trilogy/691304/3 "2014-06-22T17:02:06Z")
After Elvis did it all other versions pale in comparison. His live versions are even better than the studio versions.