Lyr Req: Let the Band Play Dixie (Bob Gibson)

Subject: Lincoln and Dixie
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Jan 00 - 10:55 PM

I'm looking for lyrics to a song, possibly by Bob Gibson, called "And the Band Played Dixie", referring to the date in April 1865 when the surrender of the Confederacy was announced in DC. The song is about a report of Lincoln calling for the army band to play Dixie in honor of the Southern soldiers. I am also looking for evidence of the actual event, or clearly debunking it as apocryphal. If you know of either, please post here, or email me directly at [e-mail]. Thanks in advance!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lincoln and Dixie
From: Peter T.
Date: 21 Jan 00 - 01:03 AM

Though I don't have the reference with me, the story is a little different (it may be apocryphal anyway). The story goes that Lincoln asked the band to play "Dixie" because it was a favourite song of his, and he hadn't been able to hear it for so long. He is reported to have said that it could be considered one of the captured "spoils of war". It was certainly not to honour the Southern soldiers.
yours, Peter T. (I don't know the other song)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lincoln and Dixie
From: GUEST,SEAROSS
Date: 21 Jan 00 - 08:42 AM

I have the CD (Places along the way) of Bob Gibson playing the song with an introduction. Dixie was a huge hit just before the outbreak of the war. Carl Sandburg states in v.6 of his biography of AL that while on a cruise on the Ben Hur on April 8, 1865 that Lincoln claimed the song as Federal property and that "Lincoln wanted it to be a goodwill song of the reunited States." This was also Gibson's point in his intro. and song, it was not to recognize the confederate soldiers.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lincoln and Dixie
From: Sooz
Date: 23 Aug 04 - 12:40 PM

The song is on "Best of Friends" 2004. (Tom Paxton, Anne Hills and Bob Gibson recorded live in Chicago in about 1984 and only recently released) Its a great song with an anthemic quality about it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lincoln and Dixie
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 25 Aug 04 - 09:35 PM

The song is called LET THE BAND PLAY DIXIE. It was written by Bob Gibson and Dave North. It appears on the album Sooz described. I transcribed this from a sound sample found at allmusic:

...the rebels who have lost the war,
So out of ... Abe Lincoln came.
He said, "We are gathered not in anger, but in celebration.
Let's be grateful we are once again a single nation.
Let's stand together reassured,
Now that peace has been secured..."

Subject: Lyr Add: LET THE BAND PLAY DIXIE (Gibson/North)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Aug 04 - 01:20 AM

I didn't pay close attention to this song until just now. What a great song!
-Joe Offer-

Let the Band Play Dixie
(Bob Gibson and Dave North)

The news was run from Richmond in that fading April sun,
That Lee had handed Grant his sword, the war was finally won;
Into the streets the people spilled,
Feeling the excitement build;
And the crowd around the White House milled,
Asking, "Is it true, it's finally done?"

Inside the White House, Lincoln heard them calling out his name;
He sat there, wondering what to say to ease their years of pain.
Someone yelled, "Come out the door
And tell us what you've got in store
For the rebels who have lost the war!"
So, out upon the porch, Abe Lincoln came.

He said, "We are gathered not in anger, but in celebration.
Let's be grateful we are once again a single nation.
Let's stand together reassured,
Now that peace has been secured
Our nation's illness can be cured
And I suggest the overture for this occasion."

He said, "Let the band play 'Dixie,'
Play that tune that holds its head up high and proud,
And let our nation, once divided, bloody but unbowed,
Take the swords of war and beat them back into a plow."
On the day that Lee surrendered, Mr. Lincoln told the crowd,
"Let the band play 'Dixie.'"


The tired Union soldier hobbled on his only limb,
Filled with bitter memories the war had left with him;
He dragged his wooden leg and came,
His face was set and creased with pain,
He stumbled, fell, and rose again,
And wondered what the future held for him.

He spied a black child kneeling there in humble gratitude;
He knelt down right beside her, to share her thankful mood;
Grateful words were raised in prayer,
"God, in your sweet loving care,
Our broken lives now please repair,
Let our wounded nation be renewed."

"And let the band play 'Dixie,'
Play that tune that holds its head up high and proud,
And let our nation, once divided, bloody but unbowed,
Take the swords of war and beat them back into a plow."
On the day that Lee surrendered, Mr. Lincoln told the crowd,
"Let the band play 'Dixie.'"
"Let the band play 'Dixie.'"

transcribed by ear from the CD of the 1985 recording, Best of Friends, by Tom Paxton, Anne Hills, and Bob Gibson

Lee surrendered to Grant on April 9, 1865. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated April 14.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lincoln & Dixie - Let the Band Play Dixie
From: Sooz
Date: 26 Aug 04 - 08:04 AM

Thanks for the lyrics, Joe. One of my tasks this afternoon was to transcribe them from the CD! I'll just listen to it now (while I do my ironing)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lincoln & Dixie - Let the Band Play Dixie
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Aug 04 - 01:44 PM

The second part of the request was:

I am also looking for evidence of the actual event, or clearly debunking it as apocryphal.

Any answers??
-Joe Offer-

---

I e-mailed the lyrics to the requestor, and got a nice note back:

Thanks a lot! Nice to know you keep track --

Bill

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lincoln & Dixie - Let the Band Play Dixie
From: GUEST,Pete Peterson
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 09:13 AM

Shelby Foote's 3-volume history --The Civil War: A Narrative, volume 3 (obviously!) page 958.
" . . .(Lincoln) proposed closing the interview by having 'the musicians play a particular tune which I shall name. I have always thought Dixie one of the best tunes I ever heard. Our adversaries over the way attempted to appropriate it, but I insisted yesterday that we fairly captured it. I presented the question to the Attorney General and he gave it to me as his legal opinion that it is now our lawful prize. I now request the band to favor me with its performance.'"
on the previous page the date is given as April 10 (1865), the day after Lee's surrender.
Nothing in there about honoring the Southern soldiers, the words "capture" and "lawful prize" stick out. My copy of Sandburg is an abridged version and doesn't have that story in it; hard to imagine it being dated the day BEFORE Appomattox.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let the Band Play Dixie (Bob Gibson)
From: saulgoldie
Date: 17 Feb 09 - 03:51 PM

I have transcribed the song with my take on the chords, if anyone is interested.

Saul

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let the Band Play Dixie (Bob Gibson)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 18 Feb 09 - 05:09 PM

I enjoy that story about Lincoln, and the version posted by Pete Peterson rings true, according to what I know about Lincoln's wry sense of humor. By saying "we fairly captured it" he was, of course, speaking tongue-in-cheek, and I'd bet the part about consulting the Attorney General was Lincoln's joking lie.

Lincoln liked to make fun of legalistic rigmarole. According to this story in the Washington Post, Lincoln may have been the first President to "pardon" a turkey—but it happened on Christmas, not Thanksgiving. Lincoln also "pardoned" his son's toy soldier, who had been "court-martialed" for falling asleep on his post.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let the Band Play Dixie (Bob Gibson)
From: vlmagee
Date: 18 Feb 09 - 07:25 PM

There's another recording of the song on the Gibson album, Uptown Saturday Night, originally released in 1984 and produced by Anne Hills. Uptown Saturday Night is one of five CDs released in 2008 by Bob Gibson Legacy, under the loving care of Bob's daughter Meridian Green. Meridian has formed a group, The Fare-Thee-Wells, to perform Bob's music at various venues around the country. All members of the group have been playing Bob's music for decades.

Next month, they will be doing 3 shows in Evanston, IL, followed by two big weekends on the east coast, in Saratoga Springs, NY, Cambridge, MA and Baltimore and Frederick, MD. Info here: Bob Gibson Legacy web site. (See the Concerts page for details on the shows).

They are working on another tour in June.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let the Band Play Dixie (Bob Gibson)
From: Howard Kaplan
Date: 23 Jan 10 - 08:31 PM

The complete song by Bob Gibson is now available as part of an hour-long program, "Lincoln and Music", broadcast last year on radio station WFMT in Chicago and available as a podcast here (program #4, about halfway down the page).

The program includes some other interesting musical bits, including a late-life recording by Adelina Patti, who sang for Lincoln early in her life, and a recording of John Phillips Sousa's band playing La Marseillaise.

A spoken segment about Lincoln's requesting the playing of Dixie, followed by the song about the event, is near the end of the program.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let the Band Play Dixie (Bob Gibson)
From: cetmst
Date: 24 Jan 10 - 07:43 AM

"The tired Union soldier hobbbled on his only limb". My great grandfather Thomas Taylor served in the Union army from Gettysburg through the Wilderness and outside Richmond. He lost a leg at Peebles Farm Virginia in September 1864 and spent several months at Judiciary Square Hospital in Washington DC. He was probably discharged before the end of the war but I like to think of him as that soldier. "And wondered what the future held for him" - he got a job as tollkeeper of a bridge across the Allegheny River at Emlenton PA, apparently as some primitive Veterans' benefit. He was able to save enough to buy and operate a jewelry store until 1918.
I knew him as a kindly old man when it was my job to bring ice to him from the nearby creamery. He would reward me with horehound candies which I hated but never told him so. One of my fondest possessions is a four generation picture taken shortly before he died in 1934. Sorry to bring personal things into the thread. It's a great song apocryphal or true.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let the Band Play Dixie (Bob Gibson)
From: GUEST,Colorado Bob
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 01:22 AM

I have never heard this particular song by Bob Gibson. I stumbled across this looking for lyrics to his Ski Songs album. However there is another song that mentions Lincoln asking the band to play "Dixie". It is the Johnny Horton song "Johnny Reb".

When, "Honest Abe", heard the news about your fall
The folks thought he'd call a great victory ball
But he asked the band to play the song, Dixie
For you Johnny Reb and all that you believed

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let the Band Play Dixie (Bob Gibson)
From: balladeer
Date: 04 May 12 - 08:31 AM

Could some kind soul please post the chords for Let the Band Play Dixie? I'm not looking for Bob Gibson's 12-string arrangement, which features a series of classic 1960's runs (possibly popularized by him). I just need the simplest backing chords that will get the job done.

Thanks for your help,

Joanne Crabtree

Subject: Chords: Let the Band Play Dixie (Bob Gibson)
From: Jason Xion Wang
Date: 26 Nov 16 - 11:29 AM

The chords to this song can be found at http://ddpro.ucoz.com/bgchords/ltbpd.htm.

A website with the chords and lyrics to a lot of Bob Gibson songs.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let the Band Play Dixie (Bob Gibson)
From: Elmore
Date: 23 Aug 17 - 02:00 PM

Somehow, this song feels appropriate to me at a time when our nation's wide divisions are so obvious. I like the versions mentioned above, but particularly enjoy Joe Jencks' rendition on his album, "Links on the Chain". I've been playing it repeatedly in recent days.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let the Band Play Dixie (Bob Gibson)
From: Greg F.
Date: 25 Aug 17 - 09:15 AM

But he asked the band to play the song, Dixie
For you Johnny Reb and all that you believed

[emphasis mine]

Absolute bullshit. More "lost cause" nonsense and fake history.

The historical incident is well documented & easily researched.
The above is just more pernicious neo-Confederate nonsense.