The genre of which Sweet Home Alabama is a sterling example must not be confused with Songs of Pique. Sweet Home Alabama is a song that responds to another song, or, in this case, two other songs, and thus is part and parcel of an ongoing creative and cultural feud.
Songs of Pique, by contrast, are songs written to get even with an ex-lover, a despised rival, or a former colleague, but without the target's concomitant artistic participation in the dust-up. Three writers share the credit for Sweet Home Alabama, none of them natives of the state. Al Kooper, a native of Brooklyn, produced the song. Revenge is Sweet Home Alabama. But is it a white supremacist anthem? Home, sweet home: A year-old civil rights demonstrator is attacked by a police dog in Birmingham, Alabama, on May 3, We love Neil Young, we love his music We sent them an early demo of it because they wanted to do one of my songs.
Interviewer Q. Surprising, that. Young: Oh, they didn't really put me down! But then again, maybe they did! Shit, I think Sweet Home Alabama is a great song.
I've actually performed it live a couple of times myself. Recalling the concert tribute in an interview with the Boston Globe, Young said: "I just sang 'I hope you all will remember. I thought it was a cool thing. He was right. As for the rumor that Ronnie Van Zant was buried wearing a Neil Young t-shirt, again this seems to be another example of a myth to propogate the tragic legend.
Even more bizarre, are the rumors that some Skynyrd fans dug up Ronnie's grave to prove whether Van Zant was buried in a Neil Young T-shirt. Regardless of their motive for desecration of a grave, Van Zant and Gaines remains were relocated to an undisclosed location.
The relocation was prompted by a June 29, break-in at the crypts for Van Zant and Gaines at Jacksonville Memory Gardens in Orange Park, Florida where fans had gathered to pay tribute to the band. But in the tradition of Merle Haggard writin' Okie from Muskogee to tell his dad's point of view about the hippies in Vietnam, Ronnie felt that the other side of the story should be told.
And legend has it that he was an honorary pall bearer at Ronnie's funeral - such is the Duality of the Southern Thing. There are only 2 dates from where Neil was scheduled to play in the state of Alabama.
Neither show has a known setlist and it is unclear whether Neil has actually ever performed in the state of Alabama. And while his tours through the south have been limited, this is most likely an economic decision rather than a deliberate avoidance. The reaction of the audience was always the same: vigorous, fervent, and instantaneous.
Neil Young's song "Southern Man" had offended many Southerners by seeming to accuse all people born in the south of being intolerant racists. Young's observations were obviously generalized and not accurate and Southerners were ecstatic when Skynyrd defended their honor by releasing "Sweet Home Alabama" with its direct references to Young's faux pas. The idea that the Southern man, or woman, didn't need Neil Young around to point out the problems of their society was overwhelmingly supported by Skynyrd fans.
The band felt that Young's lyrical content was representative of the shortsighted "Yankee" belief that all Southern men should be held accountable for the verbalizations and actions of a racist minority. While the rebuttal was heartfelt, Skynyrd held Neil Young in high regard for his musical achievementts and they weren't intending to start a feud of any kind.
But do you know the true meaning behind the Southern anthem's words? That's where, in , five teenagers formed what would eventually become the iconic rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. It wasn't until five years after getting together that they finally settled on the name Lynyrd Skynyrd though, after their former P.
In , the band, then comprised of lead vocalist Ronnie Van Zant, drummer Bob Burns, guitarists Allen Collins and Gary Rossington, bassist Leon Wilkeson, and keyboardist Billy Powell released their first self-titled album , followed by another, Second Helping , in The first track was a huge hit. Called "Sweet Home Alabama," the single reached number eight on U. Well, maybe hidden isn't the right word.
Lynyrd Skynyrd directly name-dropped their supposed adversary, Neil Young, in the song. Young had expressed his disappointment with racism in the South in two songs, "Southern Man" and "Alabama". The portion of the song referring to Governor George Wallace in particular made some believe that Lynyrd Skynyrd disagreed with desegregation, seeing as how the governor stood for " segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever ". But others interpreted the lyrics as a reminder to Young that not all Southerners are the same.
It seems that if there was a rivalry between Young and Skynyrd that it was more professional than personal, and that the hatchet was buried a long time ago. Toggle navigation. More from Groovy History. Stevie Nicks — Inspiration and beauty at its finest! They felt that comparing a contemporary, generic "Southern Man" with a slave owner was unfair.
Liberal minded people who lived in the south and who were working with the desegregationist movement weren't too keen on the song's generalizations either. You got the rest of the Union To help you along What's going wrong?
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