Songfacts®:

• This song is about a farmer who joins a union that makes big promises, but offers no help when times get tough. The song was written by guitarist Robbie Robertson, who discussed it in the Anthology Volume 1 liner notes: "It's just a kind of character study in a time period. At the beginning, when the unions came in, they were a saving grace, a way of fighting the big money people, and they affected everybody from the people that worked in the big cities all the way around to the farm people. It's ironic now, because now so much of it is like gangsters, assassinations, power, greed, insanity. I just thought it was incredible how it started and how it ended up."
• This song features Richard Manuel on lead vocals and Garth Hudson on Lowrey organ. Robbie Robertson said: "The chord progression was a little bit complex. There's a sifty feeling we were trying to get, which was subtle and bold at the same time."