Long Black Veil - Danny Dill LIVE @ the Texas Music Cafe®

Description Written By Jim Beviglia (with my edits)
LONG BLACK VEIL
(Written by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkins)

“The scaffold is high and eternity near.”

Those words, perhaps the most chilling from “Long Black Veil,” one of the most haunting murder ballads you’ll ever hear, have been sung by a whole lot of folks over the years, including iconic voices like Burl Ives, Jerry Garcia, Rick Danko and Levon Helm of The Band, Joan Baez, Mick Jagger, and Dave Matthews on record, not to mention the umpteen others who have taken a crack at it onstage.

“Long Black Veil” was largely the brainchild of Nashville legend Danny Dill, who was attempting to write a folk song that would last for the ages. He was partially inspired by a newspaper story of a priest in New Jersey who was killed under a streetlight with witnesses watching. For the chorus, Dill drew from the song “God Walks These Hills With Me.”

Perhaps most fascinating of all, Dill borrowed elements of the urban legend surrounding the grave of actor Rudolph Valentino. It seems that each year following the death of the legendary Italian screen star, a woman wearing a long black veil would lay a single red rose on the grave, drawing the attention of the press in the process. (The majority of the evidence points to the Valentino phenomenon having originated as a publicity stunt, which was then carried on in subsequent years by copycats.)

Dill took his unfinished song to co-writer Marijohn Wilkin to hammer out the plot. What they came up with was a tale that transcended all of its disparate sources. “Long Black Veil” tells of a man killed in front of witnesses “‘neath the town hall light.” The witnesses identify a man who looks like the narrator fleeing the scene. When the judge asks for an alibi, the narrator offers none because revealing it would bring to light the fact that he had been sleeping with his best friend’s wife.

The story then wheels quickly through the narrator’s hanging, which the woman watches without emotion. Yet the last verse and the refrain make clear that she does pay proper tribute as the lone visitor to his grave, allowing them to share their secret even after his death: “Nobody knows, nobody sees/Nobody knows but me.”

The ironic thing is that Dill had envisioned a folk song, yet “Long Black Veil” was brought to the charts by country star Lefty Frizzell. Cash first recorded the song back in 1965 on the album Orange Blossom Special, which was notable for the inclusion of several Bob Dylan covers. On this initial studio recording, Cash is accompanied by his usual boom-chicka-boom rhythm and some angelic female vocals in the chorus.

There is no doubt that “Long Black Veil” is an amazing song. Yet it’s also one that can easily veer into melodrama in the wrong interpretive hands. Think about the erratic behavior of the main character. He abandons his better judgment to his overpowering desire, yet, when put to the test, he sacrifices himself rather than destroy the lives of his best friend and his true love.

In other words, the singer has to convince the audience that he both can screw up and do the wrong thing and then man up and do the right thing.

[mechcavandy]

Mr. Dill used to come by the rehab I was in near Nashville and perform for us in the chapel there. He told us Detroit City was based on his experience living and working in Detroit. He was a sober Christian then. He shared his testimony on how he got sober with us. He was such a good man. God bless Danny Dill. ♥️♥️🙏🏻🙏🏻

[bowlingandyoga]

My Grandaddy! Thank you for sharing this!

[catdaddy]

I met Mr. Dill in 1989 at the rehab I was in at New Life Lodge near Nashville. He would come to our church service and talk about being saved and his love for Jesus. He was about this age. He talked to us about how he wrote Detroit City, “By day I make the cars, by night I make the bars.” He was a man with a big heart. Thank you Mr. Dill for helping me get sober.

[danielbissell]

Thank you so much for sharing this video of my beloved Grandaddy!

[taddyd]

Baez first released it on the influential album " JB In Concert Part 2" from 1963, which also included her classic version of "We Shall Overcome." She wrote a song about visiting the Composer Marijon Wilkins called "Outside Nashville" on the "Blessed Are" LP which Kristofferson co-produced along with the album's single "The Night The Drove Old Dixie Down".