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god
disambiguating goat herder
Posts: 5,532
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Post by ~ / % ? * on Sept 10, 2021 12:57:54 GMT
Back with my wife in Tennessee, when one day she called to me
"Virgil, quick, come see, there goes 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
Though Lee became a Lost Cause icon, he lived a good life after the war. The main jist of the song seems to be the living during Reconstruction and the aftermath/destruction of Sherman's/Stoneman's March To the Sea.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2021 13:23:29 GMT
I don't understand if he was a farmhand, why was he working on the railway?
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~ / % ? *
god
disambiguating goat herder
Posts: 5,532
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Post by ~ / % ? * on Sept 10, 2021 13:27:53 GMT
Confederate Railroad, then went back to his farm after the war.
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Post by sloopjohnc on Sept 10, 2021 15:39:31 GMT
Always thought it was the general for the simple reason of the chronology of the lyrics within the song. While the narrator is in the past, Virgil Kane is remembering that night Sherman marched through the area of the South he occupied. It's a song so historical accuracy is always put to the side, but Lee was in Virginia and nowhere near Savannah or Georgia during Sherman's March.
But Lee is always a good name to rhyme too and instantly recognizable. Better than Hood, the actual confederate general whose forces opposed Sherman.
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Post by Charlie O. on Sept 10, 2021 15:42:15 GMT
Always thought it was the general for the simple reason of the chronology of the lyrics within the song. While the narrator is in the past, Virgil Kane is remembering that night Sherman marched through the area of the South he occupied. It's a song so historical accuracy is always put to the side, but Lee was in Virginia and nowhere near Savannah or Georgia during Sherman's March. The song takes place in Virginia and Tennessee. It doesn't mention Sherman.
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Post by sloopjohnc on Sept 10, 2021 16:06:53 GMT
Always thought it was the general for the simple reason of the chronology of the lyrics within the song. While the narrator is in the past, Virgil Kane is remembering that night Sherman marched through the area of the South he occupied. It's a song so historical accuracy is always put to the side, but Lee was in Virginia and nowhere near Savannah or Georgia during Sherman's March. The song takes place in Virginia and Tennessee. It doesn't mention Sherman. That bothers me from a historical viewpoint too. Sherman's March went through Georgia to the sea and they weren't tearing up tracks in Virginia and Tennessee, per se. Simply because the Union didn't have the manpower. Sherman used an engineer named Orlando Poe to head up tearing up rails and bridges. He was the main guy to suprervise those exercises. Grant's controntations against Lee in Virginia were to keep him distracted from sending troops against Sherman. Someone in the Band should have read a fucking history book.
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~ / % ? *
god
disambiguating goat herder
Posts: 5,532
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Post by ~ / % ? * on Sept 10, 2021 16:21:39 GMT
Virgil Caine is the name, and I served on the Danville train
'Til Stoneman's cavalry came and tore up the tracks again
In the winter of '65, we were hungry, just barely alive
By May the tenth, Richmond had fell, it's a time I remember, oh so well
It is historically accurate. Sherman's raid was multi-prong, Stoneman came from the North and drove down through Tennessee and Virginia into North Carolina. He destroyed the Confederate railroad that ran supplies from Richmond to Danville. Meanwhile, Sherman was marching/destroying through Georgia, whilst Gen Thomas followed the Confederate retreat up through South and North Carolina.
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Post by blue on Sept 10, 2021 16:25:01 GMT
I hadn't heard of the boat before I opened this thread. Now I'm confused.
Next you'll tell me they really didn't all sing na na na na na na, na na na na na na na either.
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Post by Charlie O. on Sept 10, 2021 16:26:47 GMT
Nah.
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Post by sloopjohnc on Sept 10, 2021 17:08:58 GMT
I hadn't heard of the boat before I opened this thread. Now I'm confused. Next you'll tell me they really didn't all sing na na na na na na, na na na na na na na either. I don't get that part of the song. While it's very catchy, it's hard for me to picture all these confederate supporters singing along as they watch the Union burn their towns to the ground.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2021 17:27:46 GMT
I hadn't heard of the boat before I opened this thread. Now I'm confused. Next you'll tell me they really didn't all sing na na na na na na, na na na na na na na either. I don't get that part of the song. While it's very catchy, it's hard for me to picture all these confederate supporters singing along as they watch the Union burn their towns to the ground. Yeah I've always been a bit confused by that!
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toomanyhatz
god
I've met him/her. He/she's great!!
Posts: 3,219
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Post by toomanyhatz on Sept 10, 2021 18:19:30 GMT
Unless it was the union soldiers singing. (Nah-nah-nah-nah - we're burning down your town...)
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Post by Half Machine Lipschitz on Sept 10, 2021 18:39:48 GMT
Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye...
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Post by Crunchy Col on Jan 4, 2024 15:57:12 GMT
The tune entered my head earlier today, for some reason.
Isn't it the most gorgeous, yearning melody? The verses, anyway. My God, to have written something like that!
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Post by Stacy Heydon on Jan 4, 2024 16:08:06 GMT
The tune entered my head earlier today, for some reason. Isn't it the most gorgeous, yearning melody? The verses, anyway. My God, to have written something like that! I'm always moved by the performance of the song in The Last Waltz.
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