Small Talk-Trivia

Musical History

By Stephen Davis · Originally published February 2019 · pp. 39–46

Musical History 1. Even before my father’s fathers They called us rebels Burned our cornfields And left our cities leveled I can still see the eyes Of those blue bellied devils When I’m walking around tonight Through the concrete and metal These lyrics, from “Rebels,” a track on his Southern Accents album (1985), were sung by this famed American rock ‘n’ roller and leader of the band The Heartbreakers. Who? 2. As sung by “The King,” lyrics for “An American Trilogy” included lines from “Dixie” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Who is The King? 3. The majestic opening score of this famous 1939 film was written by Austrian-born Maximilian (“Max”) Steiner (1888–1971). What movie? 4. “Till Stoneman’s cavalry came and tore up the tracks again” are lines from this song, recorded by The Band and released on their second album in September 1969. Which tune? 5. In the movie Masked and Anonymous (2003), Bob Dylan and his band perform this famous tune composed by Daniel Emmett two years before the war. Which one? 6. Composed in April 1861, “Maryland, My Maryland” became the state song in 1939. Do you know the name of the Baltimorean who wrote the poem that became its lyrics? 7. “If the South Woulda Won,” this country singer declared, the days Elvis and Patsy Cline died would be national holidays. “I’d probably run for President of the Southern States,” he muses, and if he won, “I’d put that capital back in Alabama.” He’d ban all Chinese cars, move the Supreme Court to Texas and the national treasury to Tupelo. Who is this performer? Hint: he’s the son of a famous singer-songwriter who died in 1953 at the age of 29, primarily from alcoholism and prescription drug abuse. 8. “When you’re fighting Yankees, a redneck’s a man’s best friend” is a line from the tune “White Trash” on White Mansions, the famously little-known album released in 1978. This concept album—with songs written by an Englishman—tells the story of the Civil War through fictional Southerners. On “White Trash,” electric slide guitar is played by this world-famous guitarist who was given the nickname “Slowhand.” Who? 9. In the movie The Young Riders (1980), Clell Miller (played by Randy Quaid) objects to the saloon musicians playing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” and at gunpoint “requests” a Southern tune. The musicians promptly launch into a tune based on the poem written shortly after the war by Innes Randolph (1837–87), who had served as a Confederate major. Know the song? 10. “He freed a lot of people, but it seems the good die young/you know I just looked around and he’s gone.” Thus Dion sang about the 16th president of the United States on this record, released in August 1968 after the deaths of Dr. King and Sen. Kennedy earlier that spring. Remember the name of the song? Answers found on page 46. Steve Davis is the Civil War News Book Review Editor. He can be contacted by email at: [email protected].

Small Talk Trivia Answers 1. Tom Petty (1950–2017). Here’s the refrain: I was born a rebel Down in Dixie on a Sunday morning Yeah with one foot in the grave And one foot on the petal I was born a rebel 2. Elvis Presley (1935–1977). The song was adapted by Mickey Newberry and released on the Elvis: As Recorded at Madison Square Garden album (1972). 3. Gone With the Wind. When David O. Selznick, the film’s producer, hired Steiner, he knew the composer would work slowly, so he had several other composers working on alternative scores for the movie. In mid-November 1939, Steiner was still not finished, so Selznick started talking with still another Hollywood composer. The pressure worked; Steiner delivered his score in time for GWTW’s premiere in Atlanta on December 15, 1939. 4. “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” written by Canadian Jaime Royal “Robbie” Robertson (b. July 5, 1943). Levon Helm, the group’s drummer, sings as Virgil Cain, a poor white Southerner who “served on the Danville train” in the last days of the war. Helm took Robertson to the library near Woodstock, New York, so he could research the background story, which alludes to Maj. Gen. George Stoneman’s raid against the Piedmont Railroad between Danville, Virginia, and Goldsborough, North Carolina. “I took the train Richmond had fell” in some versions online appears as “By May the 10th, Richmond had fell.” Joan Baez recorded the song in 1971. She didn’t have the printed lyrics, and only got them by listening to The Band’s record. As a result, “Stoneman’s cavalry” becomes “so much cavalry” in her cover. (Good grief! A Canadian gets what a New Yorker doesn’t!) 5. “Dixie,” of course. (Or maybe, not “of course”; I’ve always wondered why Bob wanted to play “Dixie” for the movie.) Joining him (with Bob playing acoustic) in a crude warehouse performance (an Abraham Lincoln impersonator listens in) are Charlie Sexton and Larry Campbell on guitars, his longtime accoustic bassist Tony Garnier, and George Recile on drums (check that: he’s really playing inside a cardboard box). In the movie, director Larry Charles later said that everything was shot in one take. Proof: at the start of the second verse of “Dixie,” Dylan stumbles over the words, and looks to his acoustic guitarist Campbell, hoping for a cue. 6. James Ryder Randall (1839-1908). Randall was teaching English literature in Louisiana at the start of the war. After learning of Baltimoreans’ riot against the 6th Massachusetts on April 19, 1861, Randall wrote the poem in one night. It was soon published in the New Orleans Delta and elsewhere under the tiles of “Maryland” and “My Maryland.” In June 1861, Hetty and Jennie Carey, Southern sympathizers in Baltimore, entertained the city’s glee club in their home. When someone suggested setting Randall’s poem to music, Hetty suggested “Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum” (“Christmas tree, O Christmas tree”). The second and fourth lines of each stanza in Randall’s poem read simply “Maryland!,” which did not fit the meter of the tune as well as the stanzas’ last line, “Maryland! My Maryland!” So the Baltimore singers used the latter line throughout the song as they performed it. A month or so later, General Beauregard invited the sisters to his headquarters at Fairfax, Virginia. With the Washington Artillery band behind her, Jennie sang “Maryland, My Maryland” for the general. Soldiers joined in so fervently that Beauregard had the lyrics printed and distributed all around. Before long, the song had joined “Dixie” and “The Bonnie Blue Flag” as the most popular airs in the Confederacy. 7. Hank Williams Jr. (b. May 26, 1949 in Shreveport, La.). The last stanza goes: If the South woulda won we’d a had it made Olay, he hee hee, I said, if the South woulda won We would a had it made might even be better off 8. Eric Clapton. White Mansions was conceived by Paul Kennerley, who wrote the songs and performed them on a demo tape that won over Glyn Johns as producer (the same Glyn Johns who produced the Rolling Stones, the Beatles’ Get Back sessions, Led Zeppelin and, incidentally, Clapton’s Slowhand album). Kennerley ended up moving to Nashville and marrying Emmylou Harris. 9. “Oh, I’m a Good Old Rebel,” an early version of which was sung during the war by Randolph himself at the Mosaic Club in Richmond. Randolph clearly added some verses after Appomattox, as reflected in this stanza: Three hundred thousand Yankees Is stiff in Southern dust, We got three hundred thousand Before they conquered us. They died of Southern fever, And Southern steel and shot, I wish they was three million Instead of what we got. 10. “Abraham, Martin and John,” performed by Dion DiMucci (b. July 18, 1939) and written by Dick Holler. The last stanza goes: Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby? Can you tell me where he’s gone? I thought I saw him walkin’ up over the hill With Abraham, Martin and John.