Are you sure you’re not a historian?
Did you mean Joan Baez?
People, people… it’s creative writing, not journalism.
If we can’t trust the skalds, who can we trust?
in theory…
but “early morning April 4” is just wrong. There’s no artistic reason for changing that. You can’t even say, “well, Bono was in a different timezone when he heard”, because them it would be “early morning April 5”.
And “early evening April 4” fits the meter.
…I feel like the whole “The Eastside of Chicago is Lake Michigan” comes up regularly on here…and it’s just…weird. I get it as a joke… but come on. Is the lower eastside of New York City “the East river?” No. We don’t count water.
.
When Christopher Columbus said the world was round, they did not all laugh.
Let’s remember that The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down was written by that eminent Civil War historian, Robbie Robertson, who was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. I give him credit for knowing about Danville.
Yes, sorry.
Was he born and raised in South Toronto? 
Because the song is full of “lost cause” mythos. It an apologist’s song singing the praises of the brave rebels.
Exactly. Prepositions and nouns matter
“Eastside of Chicago” — “Eastside” is a noun, meaning it is part of Chicago. “Of” in this case indicates that noun is referring to a part of Chicago.
“East of Chicago” — “East” is a noun, indicating a direction, not a part. “Of” indicates the relationship between that direction and Chicago.
“In a time when dinosaurs walked the earth
When the land was swamp and caves were home
In an age when prize possession was fire
To search for landscapes men would roam.”
This has to be Iron Maiden’s worst groaner. Steve Harris should know better, and someone else in the band should have checked him.
In my spare time.
Wish I could address the Supreme Court in my spare time!
Yeah, well, I’ve never been a Morrissey fan, and not heard that song, but it’s from well past the time when he started becoming extremely right wing, dabbling with the National Front (pre runner to the BNP, then UKIP, then Reform, also Britain First), So I’d not pull apart his lyrics too much unless you’re looking to be offended, which he seemed keen on doing. It all seemed to be claimed to be done “ironically” at the time, but then he’s backed some pretty racist f**kers in recent times and repeats the cliches of the extremists in the UK. So I’m guessing he wasn’t really being ironic after all.
Couldn’t have been. By convention, Toronto has a downtown, an east end, a west end, and a north end. No south anything, nor any sides.
At least, it didn’t in the 40 years that I lived there.
I grew up hearing Joan Baez’s cover of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down. She sang the line as “Back with my wife in Tennessee/and one day she said to me/'Virgil, quick come see/there goes the Robert E. Lee!'” - the Robert E. Lee was a famous Mississippi riverboat.
For that matter, the earlier verse just said “I took a train to Richmond that fell” - no mention of a specific date.
I always interpreted the song as being set in late 1865 or 1866 - it’s about the hardships of Reconstruction, and in my head canon, “the night they drove Old Dixie down” was the night Virgil Caine found his brother’s body.
ETA - I just listened to her cover on YouTube, and she definitely says “the Robert E. Lee.” That boat had a famous race with another called the Natchez, in 1870, so if the song is set then, that could explain the lyric. But that’s a pretty obscure bit of trivia for a Toronto songwriter to know.
Kanye West - BLKKK SKKKN HEAD The 300 he is talking about were neither Romans or Trojans.
The song is as insane as the singer, so I almost like the crazy poor history lesson because it’s fitting.
It is not just you.
The Trojans waited at the gates for weeks (54321)
in a wooden horse into the city they sneaked (54321)
who let them in, was it the Greeks?
Manfred mann 5-4-3-2-1
Oddly, when I googled the lyrics the first entry changes the words to make them more sensible.