"Wallace and I have very little in common," Van Zant himself said, "I don't like what he says about colored people." įurther complicating the racial politics of the song is the fact that Merry Clayton and Clydie King, two well-known African-American studio singers, served as backing vocalists on the track.
Journalist Al Swenson argues that the song is more complex than it is sometimes given credit for, suggesting that it only looks like an endorsement of Wallace. "'We tried to get Wallace out of there' is how I always thought of it." Towards the end of the song, Van Zant adds "where the governor's true" to the chorus's "where the skies are so blue," a line rendered ironic by the previous booing of the governor. 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." "The line 'We all did what we could do' is sort of ambiguous," Al Kooper notes. Segregationist police chief Bull Connor unleashed attack dogs and high-pressure water cannons against peaceful marchers, including women and children just weeks later, Ku Klux Klansmen bombed a black church, killing four little girls." In 1975, Van Zant said: "The lyrics about the governor of Alabama were misunderstood. was the scene of some of the most violent reactions to the Civil Rights Movement.
sought to desegregate downtown businesses. "In 1963, the city was the site of massive civil rights activism, as thousands of demonstrators led by Martin Luther King, Jr.
The choice of Birmingham in connection with the governor (rather than the capital Montgomery) is significant. Where the skies are so blue and the governor's true In Birmingham, they love the governor (boo boo boo) Īnother part of "Sweet Home Alabama" was also controversial in its reference to George Wallace, the then Governor of Alabama and noted supporter of racial segregation: They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, and too easy to misconstrue". I don't like my words when I listen to it. In Young's 2012 autobiography Waging Heavy Peace, he commented on his song, "My own song 'Alabama' richly deserved the shot Lynyrd Skynyrd gave me with their great record. Well, I heard Mister Young sing about herĪ Southern man don't need him around anyhow The following excerpt is the Neil Young name-check in the song "Sweet Home Alabama": "We thought Neil was shooting all the ducks in order to kill one or two," said Ronnie Van Zant at the time. "Sweet Home Alabama" was written in answer to two songs by Neil Young, " Southern Man" and " Alabama", because the songs "took the entire South to task for the bloody history of slavery and its aftermath". In addition to the original appearance on Second Helping, the song has appeared on numerous Lynyrd Skynyrd collections and live albums.
#Youtube sweet home alabama movie tv#
The hit led to two TV rock show offers, which the band turned down. "Sweet Home Alabama" was a major chart hit for a band whose previous singles had "lazily sauntered out into release with no particular intent". Then Ronnie wrote the lyrics and Ed and I wrote the music." Ronnie and I were sitting there, and he kept saying, 'play that again'. "It’s the little picking part and I kept playing it over and over when we were waiting on everyone to arrive for rehearsal. In an interview with Garden & Gun, Rossington explained the writing process. None of the three writers of the song were from Alabama Ronnie Van Zant and Gary Rossington were both born in Jacksonville, Florida, while Ed King was from Glendale, California.
0 kommentar(er)
