Like all red blooded Americans of an age I reach for my lighter whenever Freebird comes on. And there is no doubt that Southern Rock kicks butt.
But for the life of me, I can’t help but cringe a bit whenever I hear the lyrics to Sweet Home Alabama. The Grammy performance last night got me thinking about this.
I know this is a highly charged post but I’m curious if anyone else has a similar reaction. Unlike me, for example, my wife is happy to overlook the words and just enjoy the song. (I can hear you now - sounds like a smart woman. She is.)
Are you talking about the so called racist aspect? I don’t really think that’s a reasonable connection to draw. A lot of people make that connection, but I don’t. How come nobody cries when someone says, “cap whitey?”
as a former alabamian, the song is fine. it is you who sucks. he’s just talking about how he gets all sad on the road and longs to come kick it back in alabama. what lyrics bother you?
and the neil young feud is long storied and has been blown out of proportion.
I was never a big Lynyrd Skynyrd fan–actually, I hated all Southern Rock back in high school when it first started to get popular, but I think I hated it only because I thought all the kids in my school who liked it were just a bunch of bone-headed dirtballs unlike myself who had just discovered the elegant delights of punk rock …later, of course I realized that there were some really cool songs, and I think the Allman Brothers are really really great.
Oddly enough, for some reason, I always thought that the singer in Lynyrd Skynyrd was being ironic in the song Sweet Home Alabama–when he sings “Watergate does not bother me, does your conscience bother you” I never thought he was saying that watergate was good, and whose “conscience” is he speaking of any way? I think the song is open to a lot of interpretations, including, an interpretation that is actually critical of Wallace–does your conscience bother you, could easily be asked of Wallace supporters.
Sweet Home Alabama does not make me cringe, unlike EVERYTHING done by Charlie Daniels. UGH, that guy (in my Yankee opinion – please don’t yell at me, fellow unicyclists of the south) is the worst embarrassment to ever come out of a radio speaker on either side of the mason-dixon line.
South is gonna do it again? Come on. I know he’s singing about all these other southern rock musicians in the verses, but that chorus comes across as just a lot of neo-confederate manipulative garbage. It tugs at and takes advantage of people in the south who are proud to be southerners, and it disses us in the north. I hate Charlie Daniels.
…later, of course I realized that there were some really cool songs, and I think the Allman Brothers are really really great.
– please don’t yell at me, fellow unicyclists of the south) is the worst embarrassment to ever come out of a radio speaker on either side of the mason-dixon line.