Great song, “he was just 18, proud and brave, when a yankee, laid him in his grave ...” always gives me chills ...
“I swear by the mud beneath my feet
You can’t raise a Cain back up when he’s in defeat”. Raising cane...great play on words.
The best song written about the suffering of the South during reconstruction. And written by a Canadian. The band (I think they were The Hawks playing for Ronnie Hawkins at the time) was in Helena, Arkansas, Levin’s hometown, in 1965 and they went into a black cafe to meet and jam with Sonny Boy Williamson. Two cops came in and made them leave. Robbie experienced racism first hand. He said the people still seemed to be defeated....a defeatist look on life. That’s where he got the idea for the song.
I don’t believe anyone on this Earth was meant to sing it but Levon Helm from Turkey Scratch, Arkansas.
On a related note, “Sunshine” Sonny Payne, long time host of The King Buscuit Show on KFFA in Helena, died last month. He was 92 and hosted the show since Sonny Boy started it back in the 1940s. It’s the longest running radio program in history.
When Levon was a kid he’d leave the fields and go into town at lunch and get 3 donuts and an R.C. Cola and go to the radio station to eat while watching the live broadcast. The drummer was Peck Curtis. Levin said watching Peck made him want to learn to play the drums.
In 1973 I guest hosted the show several times. Very honored to have been a very small part of the legendary program. I didn’t know who Levon was at the time or I would have done everything I could to have met him.