Joan Baez … and the Confederates
By Chris Walsh
Joan was welcomed into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year; at long last.
Now, for those of you that don’t know Joan, she was and will always be a great folk singer. She is a liberal, and has stood her ground righteously and sometimes courageously since the 1960’s, a long time by any standard.
Although I detest today’s simpleminded liberalism, I have in my heart a real & honest appreciation for people, of any background, who truly empathize; and sympathize with other people’s pain and suffering. It is an admirable thing to believe in helping; or minimally recognizing the other guy’s pain.
Now one of Joan’s best songs was called “The night they drove old Dixie down”. This was a GREAT song, full of emotion, pain, and suffering in a way that makes me still listen hard, when she sings it on the radio today; even after all these years. It’s the story of a poor white southerner, a Confederate soldier; and his pain & hopelessness during and after the end of the American Civil War.
Joan didn’t write the song, she wasn’t even the first band to play it; she just did the song the most damage, she killed it, she made the story, and song; MEMORABLE. Takes skill to be memorable in anything you do.
In order for Joan to make the song what it was, she had to FEEL the pain of that southern man; the Confederate Soldier, who fought FOR his country, and watched many of his fellow men die in agony, battle lost after battle lost; each one there NOT for the furtherance of slavery; but there to support their country.
They; these Confederate Soldiers, were also American HEROES; and not (again) as a result of their political cause, but as a simple result of their pain, death, and misery brought about by (who else but) major political forces. When the war ended, the victors “took the very best” from the south; in so many ways, just like the song Joan sang states.
Today, if Joan introduced that song to the public; know what they’d label Joan Baez?
A racist. A bigot. Klan member. Joan Baez; sheet wearing racist.
Can you imagine?
And why would ANYONE so wrongly label her a bigot?
Because Joan felt SYMPATHY for the “enemy” of today’s liberals, the defeated American Confederacy, it’s Army, it’s heroes. This fact; Joan’s sympathy, alone would have pit Joan in polar opposition to the entire Democratic party in 2017; she would now be considered a traitor to today’s liberal “ideals”.
In the south in 2017, LIBERAL Democrats have successfully sought and gained the removal of a ton of Confederate statues and memorials, flags, and more, based on today’s liberal vision that EVERYTHING and EVERYONE that came from the south during the civil war were wrong, in every way, instead of recognizing, (as Joan so perfectly did); that the pain of war crosses all boundaries, and regardless of outcome, those soldiers, and so many Generals and Colonels, Captains, Majors, and Sergeants and Privates in the Confederate Army were not only Heroes; they were also AMERICAN Heroes; they were and will always be OUR countrymen, and they should all be HONORED for their service, no different than a soldier who fought the Germans in Normandy or a Marine who paid with his life on Okinawa.
You see, it’s never the soldier, or General that caused the war; it IS the politicians. Denigrating the heroism and greatness of the Confederate Army by removing statues and memorials in the south, dedicated to individuals who lived through the pain and suffering and heroism that made up the Confederate Army; is not only foolish, but fans hatred all across America. While liberals dance in the streets over another statue having been removed, the hate that they planted by their own lack of comprehension of war is very precisely what will bring; eventually, bloodshed; again.
Nothing is as bitter or evil as civil war.
So as Joan sang her song, and felt for her fellow man; the sad irony is that the people whose group she has dedicated her life to; the liberal Democrats; are very effectively bringing about the next civil war. All of the innocent & peaceful hippies she rocked in the 60’s have now fully matured; through 2 generations; into a truly and deeply bigoted group of extremely intolerant people who would now stereotype and label an innocent; and honest woman like Joan Baez as a racist, today. If you doubt it, explain to me how a statue of a Confederate Soldier needs be removed; but Joan singing about their suffering would be somehow “acceptable” in a modern American campus….it wouldn’t.
Joan Baez, your party has left you; they are now the people you railed against in the 1960’s, they ARE the intolerant; they are the ones that won’t allow others to speak freely, they are simply, and sadly, the people you sang about overcoming.
The roles have reversed, Joan. The free in America are the conservatives, and Joan, as a reward for your sympathy for that poor & miserable Soldier of the civil war whose pain you captured so well, you might as well be a Trump voter, because frankly, again, if you’d have let THAT song out of the bag in May of 2017; you’d NEVER be allowed to sing it on just about any campus in America, and more than that, if you tried I’m more than certain that you’d need good & solid police protection.
So in closing, does anyone, anywhere, think that Joan Baez sang; through her heart, “The Night they drove old Dixie down” and was thinking that the south, and slavery; should rise again? Does anyone think that she viewed the average Confederate Soldier as a racist; and that’s why she shared their pain with us all?
When she sang that song, she was innocent, and the pain she saw and felt was real.
It’d be a good thing for America if someone could commandeer the out of control runaway train that has become the wrecking ball that is today’s Democratic Party; before Joan is forced, again, to feel the pain that a loser; and many times winners of battles has lived through.
God Bless America
Chris Walsh is Owner and Broker at Revolutionary Realty, LLC.
Joan Baez has displayed a lifelong commitment to political and social activism in the fields of nonviolence, civil rights, human rights and the environment unlike the soulless, bigoted racist, vile evil, conman.
Boy ! Must have struck a nerve with DMontana ! Really Jack, how wrought up should we get about a 1960s pop tune ? How about we Next discuss the political implications of “She wore an itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polkadot bikini” ?….As you know, Lee – a career US Army officer with 30 years service in 1860 – was first choice as commander of US forces at the war’s outbreak..After a day of moral quandary at Arlington, he turned this supreme achievement down, and resigned from the Army. Why ? As Lee said himself, he couldn’t raise his sword against his home – Virginia..Please put yourself in his shoes for a moment: he was giving up his entire career! On principle ! This was the fundamental, gut wrenching decision faced by many in that time, and considerations of Confederate war readiness, the hope of foreign recognition, or indeed any second thoughts about the wisdom of secession were swept aside. A Confederate POW was once asked by a Union officer what he was fighting for : “I’m fightin’ cause y-all are down here !” was the reply. The Army of Northern Virginia – the Incomparable Army of Northern Virginia – was the greatest force ever fielded by America, and Marse Robert was, and still is, our greatest captain.
Read (do you know what that word means?) the lyrics of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” carefully and analytically. I will repeat the stanza for you:
Back with my wife in Tennessee
And one day she said to me
“Virgil, quick! Come see
There goes Robert E. Lee”
Now I don’t mind, I’m chopping wood
And I don’t care if the money’s no good
Just take what you need and leave the rest
But they should never have taken the very best
Douglas Freeman Southal’s “Lee” is considered to be the seminal work on Robert E. Lee by the knuckle dragging, sloped forehead Confederate champions. NOWHERE does he mention Robert E. Lee being in Tennessee. Perhaps in his multivolume work he does, but other sources I have read have said “no”. So what is Virgil’s wife seeing? It would have to be the manly spirit of the South so represented by Lee. (After all it wouldn’t be Jeff Davis dress as a woman would it?). Apparently Virgil has been ordered to “chop wood” (a subtle reference to his brother being cut down, ingloriously) by those paying him with bad money….hmmmm Who might that be? WELL BACK WHEN I WAS A KID EVERY SCHOOL CHILD KNEW THAT CONFEDERATE MONEY WAS NO GOOD. IT WAS OVERINFLATED, PRINTED IN ABUNDANCE BY FINANCIAL IDIOTS. IT WAS NOT UNION MONEY WHICH WAS VERY STABLE AND VIABLE.
The song in short is about Virgil losing what is most dear to him because of the stupidity and WORTHLESSNESS of the Confederate cause.
“The Robert E. Lee mentioned in the second verse of the song is a steamboat named after the general that was launched on the Mississippi river in 1866.”
“There goes THE Robert E. Lee” Steamboat…
“The song is a result of Robbie Robertson’s research of the American Civil War. Levon Helm recalls: “Robbie and I worked on the song up in Woodstock. I remember taking him to the library so he could research the history and geography of the era for the lyrics and make General Robert E. Lee come out with all due respect. It was another of those workshop songs we worked on a long time before we got it down. Robertson’s take on the events that ripped the nation apart are not siding with any of the parties but rather describe the sentiment and human suffering of a confederate soldier at the end of and shortly after the war.”
https://musicaficionado.blog/2016/04/25/the-night-they-drove-old-dixie-down-by-the-band/
Too bad Canadian Robertson never commented on the meaning of his lyrics.
I am sure you are right about the song not taking a side. Just the same it is not glorifying the South. Maybe it is being respectful of Robert E. Lee, but if so, then Robbie should have left the subject alone.
The songs Title is “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”. It is not about 1866.
God bless you Chris, the Southern people, the fallen Confederate and Yankee soldiers, and all people everywhere…a concept the “progressive” Democrats are unable to comprehend. This is a very appropriate and timely article as the no-nothing Xenophobes destroy all the Confederate monuments all over the South. The average Confederate fought to protect our states’ rights and the 10th Amendment, now we have to fight to protect our national rights and our entire constitution. Protecting our freedom is never-ending.
The pain and understanding in Joan Baez is palpable and expresses the true feelings of most Southerners. As a child I had school teachers who lost their fathers, family land, homes, and livelihood in the war. One suffered so greatly, she never married, had a confederate flag flying in her classroom, and wept daily telling us young southern boys and girls the tragedy of that terrible unnecessary war and the evil carpetbaggers who persecuted them after the conflict. Tearing down the monuments and cursing the Confederate flag is cruel.
P.S. My great-grandfather and his brother fought with General Grant; one was killed in Mississippi and the other was sent to Libby prison in Richmond. I still love and respect the South.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFA5JgwdEy4
Trying to keep this on a music topic me and my wife were in a store around Christmas back in 2009. We were looking for a gift for her daughter in the toy section. There was another couple that touched some toy and the song “free ride” by Edgar Winters started to play. Without hesitation I spouted out oh the theme song of the democratic party. If looks could kill I’d be dead? I don’t think they purchased the toy either? Maybe someone can answer my question about the song Hotel California by the Eagles? Just what is a pretty pretty boy?
Very well-written article, and a powerful perception. I, too, love Joan Baez, and I’m a U.S. Marine Vietnam Veteran who was senior editor for Oath Keepers for seven years — I’ve been called a “conservative” because I would like to see our damned federal government get back into its Constitutional box. Yes, I lived through the sixties, went to the international war crime called the Vietnam War and then became an anti-war advocate.
I can vouch for the innocence of the ’60s anti-war movement, which, at that time, was totally persecuted by the Christian Right, who blindly believed the government’s lies about fighting communism “over there” so we would not have to fight communism “over here”. Remember that line of crap? And do we remember how the “conservative” Right sent the cops out in formations, even sent troops to campuses, to squash the anti-war peace movement, calling them “un-American” and shouting “America: Love it or Leave it”? Turns out the Left was right about that, and the Right was wrong in supporting that war. Joan Baez was right to oppose war and support Martin Luther King, as history now shows.
And Chris Walsh is right in this article. Today’s “Left” is trying to re-write our history by removing any sign of the War Between the States, and I deplore that. It’s just as Chris said — if Joan Baez were to sing this song today the Left would throw her under the bus in an instant and call her racist. Isn’t that sad, when we think about it?
But that is how things go. The “Left v Right” paradigm is a false game, as the political wheel in time has now shown conclusively. I’ve recently found a video of then-President Bill Clinton preaching about getting rid of all the “illegal immigrants” which today upsets the “Right”. Yet 22 years ago the Democrat Party was applauding Clinton as he promised to send the illegal aliens back out of this country. Check Clinton’s State of the Union Address of 1995 in this 2-minute video here –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV–ikSCzqE
My how times have changed, eh?
So, considering this article, and considering Clinton’s and the Democrat Party’s total reversal over a twenty-year span on illegal immigration, it occurs to me that all of us could (and maybe should) rise above the false “Left v Right” paradigm and elevate our spiritual oversight by getting away from both major political parties, by learning to love our neighbors once again and treat each other with respect even if our political views are opposed. The political carousel is a fickle beast which pits neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother. And the only winners in that morbid game are the new world order globalists, the “collectivists” as G. Edward Griffin dubs them.
But back to Joan Baez. In recent months I’ve listened to her sing with Bob Dylan another bit of “hippy wisdom”, an anti-war classic which I keep playing over and over again here in my old age — Remember “Blowin’ In The Wind”?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l19MJbo7a3Y
Can’t we all pause and learn from our own history? Is the Christian Right still supporting the WarHawks of the Pax Americana military-industrial complex’s world empire drive to police the world and force all nations to live according to U.S. corporate demands? Is the Right endorsing Trump’s continued bombing in foreign lands? Is the Right still supporting a berserk federal government which thinks it should own my body by supporting the insane so-called “War on Drugs”? And is the Left these days bashing heads if the Right wants to demonstrate and exercise Freedom of Speech and a right to Peaceful Assembly? How crazy can the political idiocy be? I’m done with all of that, and am going to simply be an individual, an independent individual, belonging to no political philosophy. You’re welcome to read my thoughts on philosophical anarchy here —
https://thementalmilitia.net/2017/06/02/red-pill-expo-coming-montana/
Salute!
Elias Alias, The Mental Militia
God bless you Chris, the Southern people, the fallen Confederate and Yankee soldiers, and all people everywhere…a concept the “progressive” Democrats are unable to comprehend. This is a very appropriate and timely article as the no-nothing Xenophobes destroy all the Confederate monuments all over the South. The average Confederate fought to protect our states’ rights and the 10th Amendment, now we have to fight to protect our national rights and our entire constitution. Protecting our freedom is never-ending.
The pain and understanding in Joan Baez is palpable and expresses the true feelings of most Southerners. As a child I had school teachers who lost their fathers, family land, homes, and livelihood in the war. One suffered so greatly, she never married, had a confederate flag flying in her classroom, and wept daily telling us young southern boys and girls the tragedy of that terrible unnecessary war and the evil carpetbaggers who persecuted them after the conflict. Tearing down the monuments and cursing the Confederate flag is cruel.
P.S. My great-grandfather and his brother fought with General Grant; one was killed in Mississippi and the other was sent to Libby prison in Richmond. I still love and respect the South.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFA5JgwdEy4
Yes, Great article about a great singer and a great American with heart and soul and spirit…..
Great article! Having been a teenager during the 60s I remember Joan Baez and this song very well. I never really thought much about the message it conveys, but over the years I came to understand the truth of the Confederate States of America and the hideous and fallacious nature of the war for independence. Having also lived through the ugly Viet Nam era I developed total aversion for war and its horrible consequences. Over the years I came to the understanding that I am innately a libertarian with nothing but contempt for government, the root cause of more suffering and destruction than any other institution ever devised by mankind.
Your comments on how the left has changed radically for the worse are very insightful. It is extremely painful to observe the degradation of American culture. Intolerance, disrespect, and socially destructive attitudes are tearing our country apart.