Revisit Ole Dixie

Words and Music: Tom Lehrer Artist: Tom Lehrer Song: I Wanna Go Back to Dixie Albums: Songs by Tom Lehrer, Revisited

Dixie is where we like to go ever again, be it in a good or be it in a bad mood. New Yorkers like to write songs about the southland. We have more examples at hand. This one is a wonderful illustration, a poetic tool that this staff here thoroughly approves of.

In his own words (you'll hear them in the video so you can skip this if you'll watch): Well, what I like to do on formal occasions like this is to take some of the various types of songs that we all know and presumably love, and, as it were, to kick them when they're down.

Take me back to dear ol' Dixie That's the only li'l ol' place for li'l ol' me Ol' times there are not forgotten Whoppin' slaves and sellin' cotton And waitin' for the Robert E. Lee (It was never there on time)

I'll go back to the Swanee Where pellagra makes you scrawny And the Honeysuckle clutters up the vine I really am a-fixin' To go home and start a-mixin' Down below that Mason-Dixon line Oh, poll tax, how I love ya, how I love ya My dear old poll tax

Won'tcha come with me to Alabammy Back to the arms of my dear ol' Mammy Her cookin's lousy and her hands are clammy But what the hell, it's home

Yes, for paradise the Southland is my nominee Jes' give me a ham hock and a grit of hominy I wanna go back to Dixie I wanna be a dixie pixie And eat cornpone 'til it's comin' outta my ears

I wanna talk with Southern gentlemen And put my white sheet on again, I ain't seen one good lynchin' in years

The land of the bols evil Where the laws are medieval Is callin' me to come and nevermore roam

I wanna go back to the Southland That „ye'all" and „shut-my-mouth" land Be it ever so decadent There's no place like home