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The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
The Robert E. Lee steamboat is not referenced in The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." This is a common misconception based on the fact that Levon Helm pauses between singing "there goes" and "Robert E. Lee." This pause has been interpreted by many, including Joan Baez who famously covered the song, as a "the." Robbie Robertson, the song's writer, was directly asked by the music critic Greil Marcus whether the Robert E. Lee line was a reference to the steamboat and he replied: "There's no boat in the song." Link: https://greilmarcus.net/ask-greil-2017/

Robertson's handwritten lyrics for "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" have been displayed in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and they say: "There goes Robert E. Lee." Not "the" Robert E. Lee. Levon Helm, in his memoir, wrote: "Robbie and I worked on the song ['The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down'] up in Woodstock. I remember taking him to the library so he could research the history and geography of the era for the lyrics and make General Robert E. Lee come out with all due respect."

The line is about Robert E. Lee the man, not the steamboat. Jhh310 (talk) 05:46, 12 August 2023 (UTC)