Why did outspoken liberal Joan Baez cover "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"?

I always thought it was kind of weird that a female singing from a male first person perspective was such a hit.

Bc it's a great song and woke was nowhere in sight.

Well, the song was written by a Canadian who wasn't interested in the politics as much as the lingering sadness and pain people in the south still felt about the civil war. The song is a story about a place and time which is the concept of that entire album, The Band. So I assume Baez was moved by the story and emotion in the song.

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Was she hungry?
Was she barely alive?

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Being a liberal in the late 60s, early 70s was a little different than now. And it's not like the members of The Band were exactly conservative. Additionally, it is a lament about the woes of war, not necessarily a song suggesting the South was in any way morally superior.

This verse seems to be lamenting the excesses the Southern troops took. No winners in that conflict.

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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

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FTR, the first version I remember hearing was the Joan Baez version when I was very young. I prefer The Band's version.

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Unless you're just determined to see the south as American nazis, there's a lot to be fascinated with on the aftermath of the civil war.

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Indeed.

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Poor men fought the south's war for a very few rich men. (Same as most wars)

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Indeed. Oddly, when you look at some of the economics of the South, there were slave owners who had excess manpower that they would rent out to other farmers during harvest or planting effectively taking potential jobs away from white laborers. The same people who were often conscripted into military service.

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But the United States made the south pay and it took probably a century or more to reach anything resembling equilibrium

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I believe it significantly impacted the ongoing prejudice and resentment that probably fueled much of the Jim Crow South. The irony is that the assassination of Lincoln by a Southerner and Confederate sympathizer probably precipitated how reconstruction went. By all accounts, Lincoln's plan was to do all he could to reunite the union as painlessly as possible with draconian retribution. People who wanted to punish the South and use the war to their political advantage fanned the flames after Lincoln's assassination and a weak Andrew Johnson capitulated to all their demands.

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Dobie Gray's version is the best ever. It was just about the song.

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Jerry Garcia played a few good renditions...

That song stinks

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This post made me go listen to the Band's version. Joan Baez has a stunning voice, but my God, you can just hear the pain and sadness in Levon's singing. He literally turns into Virgil Caine in this song....Fantastic.

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Exactly, you can feel it when Levon sings the song.