Sweet Home Alabama (song)

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"Sweet Home Alabama"
"Sweet Home Alabama" cover
Single by Lynyrd Skynyrd
from the album Second Helping
Released 1974
Genre Southern Rock
Length 04:45
Writer(s) Ed King, Gary Rossington, Ronnie Van Zant
Producer(s) Al Kooper
Chart positions
  • #8 (US) (1974)
Lynyrd Skynyrd singles chronology
"Don't Ask Me No Questions" "Sweet Home Alabama"
(1974)		 "Free Bird" (reissue)
(1975)

"Sweet Home Alabama" is a song by Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd that first appeared in 1974 on their second album, Second Helping.

"Sweet Home Alabama" was written partly as an answer to the songs "Southern Man" and "Alabama" by Neil Young, which were critical of the South. "We thought Neil was shooting all the ducks in order to kill one or two," said Ronnie Van Zant at the time. (Dupree 1974) Van Zant's musical response, however, was equally thought-provoking, as it includes ambiguous references to governor George Wallace and the Watergate scandal, which have generated discussion over the years. Despite (or perhaps aided by) the debate over the song, it has become one of the most popular Southern rock songs in rock music history. It reached the top ten of the US charts in 1974 and was the band's first hit single. [1]

None of the three writers of the song were originally from Alabama. Ronnie Van Zant and Gary Rossington were both born in Jacksonville, Florida. King, a former member of the Strawberry Alarm Clock, was from Glendale, California.

Contents

[edit] The song and Skynyrd's career

"Sweet Home Alabama" was a major chart hit for a band whose previous singles had "lazily sauntered out into release with no particular intent". The hit led to two TV rock-show offers, which the band turned down. (Dupree 1974)

[edit] Neil Young

The song lyrics make pointed reference to Neil Young's songs "Southern Man" (1970) and "Alabama" (1972), which pointed out the racism and hypocrisy in the South's (and specifically Alabama's) historical treatment of black people.

Well I heard Mr. Young sing about her
Well I heard ol' Neil put her down
I hope Neil Young will remember
A Southern Man don't need him around anyhow

Despite the popular belief that there was a feud between Young and Lynyrd Skynyrd, there is evidence that the relationship was one of mutual appreciation. Prior to the recording of Street Survivors, Young offered Ronnie Van Zant a tape containing demo versions of his not-yet-released songs "Powderfinger," "Sedan Delivery," and "Captain Kennedy" for the band to record, though ultimately it was decided that none of the songs fit on the album. On the album cover, however, Van Zant is seen wearing a Tonight's the Night T-shirt, which he frequently also wore in concert. Likewise, Crazy Horse bassist Billy Talbot is seen wearing a Skynyrd shirt in the Neil Young & Crazy Horse concert film Rust Never Sleeps.

In a 1992 interview with Nick Kent in Mojo magazine, Young was asked about the song:

Nick Kent: ...after all, Lynyrd Skynyrd put you down by name on "Sweet Home Alabama".
Neil Young: Oh, they didn't really put me down. But then again, maybe they did! (laughs) But not in a way that matters. Shit, I think "Sweet Home Alabama" is a great song. I've actually performed it live a couple of times myself.

In turn, Ronnie Van Zant said:

"We wrote Alabama as a joke. We didn't even think about it—the words just came out that way. We just laughed like hell, and said 'Ain't that funny'... We love Neil Young, we love his music..."

The issue received further airing by the Drive-By Truckers on their 2001 Southern Rock Opera album in the song "Ronnie and Neil".

[edit] Political references

In conjunction with the defense of the South, the song contains political references which have caused controversy, particularly this verse:

In Birmingham they love the governor
Now we all did what we could do
Now Watergate does not bother me
Does your conscience bother you?
Tell the truth

Later on, the song says "the governor's true". The state governor at the time of writing (1974) was leading segregationist George Wallace.

Fans deny the song expresses support for Wallace's politics, interpreting the lyrics as saying that the band did all they could do to keep Wallace out of office. They argue that a jeer "Boo, boo, boo!" can be heard after the line "In Birmingham, they love the governor" and they interpret this as an attack on Wallace. In 1975, Van Zant said: "The lyrics about the governor of Alabama were misunderstood. The general public didn't notice the words 'Boo! Boo! Boo!' after that particular line, and the media picked up only on the reference to the people loving the governor" (Ballinger 2002:78). Footage of concerts where they performed the song also confirms the presence of this line.[citation needed]

Various band members have denied that the song endorses segregation, and in a recent radio interview surviving members stated the last line "Montgomery got the answer" was a reference to the Selma to Montgomery civil rights march led by Martin Luther King.

Fans argue that the band was sympathetic to African-Americans, with their 1973 song "Things Goin' On" expressing concern about life in "the ghetto". Van Zant later wrote the song "Journey Through the Past" in tribute to an African-American musician he had met while growing up.

"The Ballad of Curtis Loew" is perhaps the most demonstrative example of both the band's sympathy to the African American cause and the band's appreciation of the influence of "black man's blues" on their own music. The song expresses music's ability to transcend racial and social barriers as seen through the eyes of a young child who saw a great musician, a treasure, where others saw a lazy, drunk black man.

"People said he was useless but those people all were fools 'cause Curtis Loew was the finest picker to ever play the blues."

Another claim often made is that the third line of the above verse is in defense of the Watergate scandal. Again, many fans disagree, interpreting the line as either a reminder to critics that the South is not alone in having scandals or as a statement that corruption in politics is nothing exceptional and that it was Americans' own guilty consciences that were truly bothering them during the crisis.

[edit] Muscle Shoals

One verse of the song includes the line "Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers/And they've been known to pick a song or two." This refers to the Alabama town Muscle Shoals, a fashionable location in the time period for recording popular music due to the "sound" crafted by local recording studios and back-up musicians. "The Swampers" referred to in the lyrics were some of those very reliable and often nameless musicians. Sometimes recording under the identity of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, these musicians included Jimmy Johnson (guitar), Roger Hawkins (drums), David Hood (bass), and Barry Beckett (keyboards), and they were inducted into the Alabama Hall of Fame in 1995 for a "Lifework Award for Non-Performing Achievement."

[edit] Versions

  • In addition to the original appearance on Second Helping, the song has appeared on numerous Lynyrd Skynyrd collections and live albums. The song also appeared on the famous late night talk show The Tonight Show. A few covers have appeared, notably a slowed-down rock version by Big Head Todd and the Monsters as well as more faithful versions by the Charlie Daniels Band and the country group Alabama. The song even spawned a 2004 hip hop version by Alabama-based rap group B.A.M.A.
  • The Argentinian musicians Charly García and Javier Calamaro made a version of this song with modified lyrics, called "Sweet Home Buenos Aires", that became a local classic.
  • In Spain, the Galician rock group Siniestro Total (originally from Vigo) rewrote the lyrics, called the song "Miña Terra Galega" ("My Galician Homeland"), and added Galician bagpipes to the original Skynyrd arrangement. The group first recorded the song live in 1992, and have used it as a show closer since then. The song has since become a minor nationalist anthem among Galician youth.
  • The neo-nazi rock band Skrewdriver has recorded a version in which the ambiguous lyrics are made overtly racist.
  • The ska band The Toasters have recorded an altered version, "Sweet Home Town Jamaica", which features on their album Enemy of the System.
  • The "viking rap" band Norselaw used the song as a basis for their song "Sweet Home Scandanavia", replacing lyrics to reference the Netherlands and Norse mythology.
  • The rock band Zen Mafia has recorded a song "California" on their album of the same name whose chorus is identical to "Sweet Home Alabama" with the exception of the substitution of the name of their home state.
  • The Valencian rock band Bajoqueta rock sang a version called "Rosa Rosa", changing the lyrics to "Sweet Home a València" (Sweet Home at Valencia).
  • Perhaps the most unusual rendition of the song is by the surrealist Finnish rock group Leningrad Cowboys, featuring the Alexandrov Red Army Choir on the choruses. The sight and sound of burly Russians in full Soviet military uniforms playing balalaikas and enthusiastically belting out the lyrics with their thick accents is even more outrageous than the over-the-top Cowboys themselves. The anti-George-Wallace lyrics "Boo, boo, boo" discussed above can be clearly heard. The two ensembles performed the song together at the 11th annual MTV Video Music Awards in 1994, and it is also available on a 1993 DVD of a live outdoor concert on Helsinki's Senate Square entitled "Total Balalaika Show".

[edit] In the media and popular culture

  • "Sweet Home Alabama" has become the unofficial state song of Alabama and a favorite among University of Alabama students and alumni. Andy Phillips, the New York Yankees first baseman and a University of Alabama alumnus, has the song played prior to each at-bat.
  • It remains a popular request on classic rock radio stations, and has been featured in many movies, including To Die For, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), Con Air, 8 Mile, Forrest Gump, Joe Dirt, The Girl Next Door and Sahara.
  • In 2002, the title of the song was borrowed for the film Sweet Home Alabama; the soundtrack to the film included the original song and a cover version by Jewel.
  • In Con Air, the song plays over a scene in which Steve Buscemi's character defines irony as "a bunch of idiots dancing around on a plane to a song made famous by a band that died in a plane crash."
  • A cover of this song was featured in the HBO movie Boycott. It was also featured in a Knight Rider episode.
  • It has also served as the opening theme music to EA Sports NASCAR Thunder 2002 and also for the TOCA Race Driver. The song is usually played at least once during each of NASCAR's broadcasts of the season's two Nextel Cup races in Talladega, Alabama.
  • In Spain the song was used for an ad campaign for Tecnocasa, a real estate company. The song replaced the name "Alabama" with the name of the company, resulting in "Sweet Home Tecnocasa."
  • A cover of the song was used as the theme for the WWF's "Armageddon" wrestling pay-per view in December of 2000, held at the BJCC in Birmingham, AL.
  • In Nirvana's famous MTV unplugged in New York, the band made a short unaired mocking jam of Sweet Home Alabama after somebody in the audience yelled for 'Freebird'.
  • American singer-songwriter Warren Zevon's song "Play It All Night Long" lampoons many aspects of stereotypical southern culture, including mocking reverence towards "Sweet Home Alabama". Zevon's song explicitly names "Sweet Home Alabama" and references the 1977 plane crash:
"Sweet home Alabama"
Play that dead band's song
Turn those speakers up full blast
Play it all night long
  • The fast-food restaurant known as Kentucky Fried Chicken or KFC has used a portion of the song in television commercials, perhaps depending on the song's large popularity to attract customers while ignoring the implicit factual clash between Kentucky and Alabama.
  • In May 2006, National Review ranked the song #4 on its list of "50 greatest conservative rock songs."
  • In July 2006, CMT ranked it #1 of the "20 Greatest Southern Rock songs."

[edit] Personnel

Besides Skynyrd themselves, performers on the track included:

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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