The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

A great song by The Band, containing a moaning harmonica and moving lyrics atop piano and guitar harmonies. It is sung from the perspective of Virgil Caine, a fictional veteran of the Confederate side in the American Civil War, and is personal enough that it could have been written by Virgil himself while sitting around a campfire in a Union POW camp. However, it was actually written in 1968 by a half Jewish Mohawk Indian from Canada, Robbie Robertson.

In the course of the song, Virgil tells us where he was when the Confederacy was defeated, and shares his admiration for Robert E. Lee and hard working people. In addition to being performed by The Band, it has been done by Joan Baez and Johnny Cash, who butchered it into a particularly lounge-y form.