re: Cavalry or Calvary

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Baez fricked it up in 1971 in her cover of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

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I don't recall that

IIRC she does say "There goes the Robert E. Lee", as if referring to a riverboat, rather than the CSA general.

I've sometimes wondered if that was intentional.

"If you ain't Cav..."

Go on.

I don't believe you

>

She says it around this part. She says "so much Calvary"

I know The Band version well enough plus they wrote it

Joan Baez learned the song by listening to the Band.

She didn’t know what Stoneman’s cavalry was, and not being well versed in military history, heard it as “so much cavalry.”

And she didn’t realize that “the Robert E Lee” was a vessel, and therefore thought they were talking about the general himself.

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No, you do.

Joan Baez

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Back with my wife in Tennessee
And one day she said to me
"Virgil, quick! Come see
There goes Robert E. Lee"

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1:25

Joan Baez

She clearly says "the"

The more you know. Horse and Jesus.

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She clearly says "the"

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I don’t know if I’d call it “clearly”.

There’s a slight extra sound after the sibilant on the end of “goes”. It’s not as pronounced like in the band’s version. Which admittedly isn’t very vocalized either

The Band Does voice it though, barely. I’ve heard live versions by Baez where the “the” is definitely absent.

I’m telling you, when she originally did it she didn’t know “the Robert E Lee” was a vessel, which would make sense. Same with “so much cavalry.”

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You motherfrickers will argue about anything.

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Not anything.