Back

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down Tab

by William Ruhlmann


The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

  

  Intro

	[ {sustain for 2 beats}, , , , ] 

  

  Verse 1 

	                                              
	  Virgil Caine is the name and I served on the Danville train 

	                                              
	 'Til Stoneman's Cavalry came and tore up the tracks a-gain 

	                                 
	 In the Winter of '65, we were hungry, just barely alive 

	                                                             
	 By May the tenth Richmond had fell, it's a time I re-member, oh, so well  

  

  Chorus 

	                                
	The night they drove Old Dixie down and the bells were ringing 

	                              
	The night they drove Old Dixie down and all the people were singing 

	                                                  
	They went, "La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la" 

  

  

  Lead-in to verse 2
	
	[, , ,  {sustain for six beats}, , , , ] 

 


  Verse 2 

	                                                    
 	 Back with my wife in Tennessee when one day she called to me 

	                                           
 	 "Virgil quick come see, there goes the Robert E. Lee" 

	                                                    
 	 Now, I don't mind choppin' wood and I don't care if the money's no good 

	                            
	 Ya' take what ya' need and ya' leave the rest 

                                                
	 But they should never have taken the very best 

  

  Repeat chorus 

  

  

  Lead-in to verse 3 

	[, , , ] , , [, , ,  {sustain for 6 beats} , , , ] 

  

  Verse 3; repeat verse 2 chord progression 

	Like my father before me, I will work the land 

	Like my brother above me, who took a rebel stand 

	He was just eighteen, proud and brave, but a Yankee laid him in his grave 

	I swear by the mud below my feet 

	You can't raise a Caine back up when he's in defeat 

  

  (Repeat chorus) 

  

  Lead-in to repeat chorus
	
	[, , , ] , , , (b5), /G,  

  

  (Repeat chorus)