@Ron Davies

Okay Ron. This MAY clear up some ambiguity about where I'm coming from.
When I've been talking about mourning the loss of the Old South, I'm not explicitly talking about the loss of the Civil War. I'm referring to the sentiment that the pre-industrial agrarian culture of the South, "way down yonder in the land of cotton," where " OLD TIMES there ain't near as rotten..." is a much used idea about the Old South. The word Dixie refers to the Old South. Can we agree on that? That the word refers to a place and a 'time'? Dixie doesn't refer to Atlanta in 2011, it refers to the idea of the South as opposed to the North in 'The War of Northern Agression' as the devotees of the Lost Cause movement would have it. I have listened to the song. I think its a great song. And I think the character of the old man is EXPLICITLY longing for a place and time away from the impersonal urban chaos that has, presumably, led to his demise.


Can we start there and try to talk about THIS SONG?