• Song:

    The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

  • Artist:

    William Ruhlmann

Intro

      [ C5 {sustain for 2 beats}, D5 , E5 , F5 , G5 ] 

  

  Verse 1 

      A5       C5                      F5           F5      D5
        Virgil Caine is the name and I served on the Danville train 

      A5                C5             F5           F5      D5
       'Til Stoneman's Cavalry came and tore up the tracks a-gain 

      A5               F5           C5       D5
       In the Winter of '65, we were hungry, just barely alive 

      A5              F5                         C5         D5             D5
       By May the tenth Richmond had fell, it's a time I re-member, oh, so well  

  

  Chorus 

          C5       F5           C5          F5
      The night they drove Old Dixie down and the bells were ringing 

          C5       F5         C5          F5
      The night they drove Old Dixie down and all the people were singing 

                 C5          A5              G5               F5
      They went, "La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la" 

  

  

  Lead-in to verse 2
      
      [ C5 , E5 , G5 , C5 {sustain for six beats}, D5 , E5 , F5 , G5 ] 

 


  Verse 2 

      A5                     C5             F5          F5        D5
        Back with my wife in Tennessee when one day she called to me 

      A5                  C5    F5              F5       D5
        "Virgil quick come see, there goes the Robert E. Lee" 

      A5               F5                    C5                 D5
        Now, I don't mind choppin' wood and I don't care if the money's no good 

      A5                            F5
       Ya' take what ya' need and ya' leave the rest 

                         C5          D5             D5
       But they should never have taken the very best 

  

  Repeat chorus 

  

  

  Lead-in to verse 3 

      [ C5 , E5 , G5 , C5 ] F5 , C5 , [ C5 , E5 , G5 , C5 {sustain for 6 beats} C5 , E5 , F5 , G5 ] 

  

  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
      
      [ C5 , E5 , G5 , C5 ] B5 , Bb5 , A5 , Ab(b5), C5 , D5 

  

  (Repeat chorus)
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