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In September 2007, Alabama governor Bob Riley announced that the phrase "Sweet Home Alabama" would be used to promote Alabama state tourism in a multimillion-dollar ad campaign. In 2009, the state of Alabama began using the phrase as an official slogan on motor-vehicle license plates, and Riley noted that the song is the third most-played that refers to a specific destination. The song remains a staple in southern and classic rock, and is arguably the band's signature song. By all accounts, there was no real "feud" between the artists.
The light, that wonderful golden light, played across the forests and the rocks. The day was so sunny, so clear that I can remember every vista, every glorious blue-sky moment. We gazed into a rich valley of trees from the rock wall of the overlook in the picnic grounds and walked across a dry creek bed, stubbing our toes on sharp-pointed Alabama shale.
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According to Rolling Stone, he was even rumored to have been buried in it. Neil Young, too, owned a Lynyrd Skynyrd Florida Whiskey shirt, and once said, "I'd rather play 'Sweet Home Alabama' than 'Southern Man' anytime." The story of "Sweet Home Alabama" begins not in Alabama but in Jacksonville, Florida. That's where, in 1964, 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.E. Teacher Leonard Skinner who penalized guitarist Gary Rossington for his long hair because it was against the high school's policy.
Monte Sano is part of the foothills of the Sand Mountains, and according to a local legend an Indian maiden jumped to her death from its peak, but I can't remember why. Looking back, we were as amazed that we'd mastered these intricate pieces as we were surprised to have survived as a family through geographical separations, marriages and the deaths of our elders. Everyone else drifted in a few minutes later, and all of us — sisters and cousins, nephews, nieces and grandchildren, hugging and kissing — moved on up the hill to my sister's house for dinner.
The Real Story Behind the Song "Sweet Home Alabama"
It’s a great thing to have to play a song that people like so much. We just had a dream that we could make it in a band and it came true. Everyone thought it was about Neil Young, but it was more about Alabama.
Everybody pitched in with the work; when we were done, we moved through the house like nomads, lighting in different places for a time, talking to first one, then another. When we got to Alabama, Mother was in her kitchen just like I'd imagined her, smelling like Ivory soap and Jergens lotion. Her great-grandson was in the backyard looking for the rabbit who lives there. "Some people might call 'em spoiled, but I think that these almost ruined ones sometimes make the sweetest jam."
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"Indian Love Call" was one of our favorites, but we liked other, more "modern" songs, too. They were complex, and we spent a lot of time practicing to get the parts exactly right. My cousin Linda and her husband drove through Cincinnati from Detroit and picked me up on Friday morning, and we set off with high energy. We were glad to see each other and instantly at ease, like slipping into warm bath water. This story is part of American Anthem, a yearlong series on songs that rouse, unite, celebrate and call to action. In May 2006, National Review ranked the song #4 on its list of the 50 greatest conservative rock songs.
When we were children, the public schools still offered an excellent music program, and my cousin Sandra and I studied under a Russian violin teacher named Ara Zerounian. We had piano lessons, of course, and since everyone in my family sang, the girls and I started singing together. Van Zant grew up listening to Young and regularly rocked a "Tonight's the Night" t-shirt—most notably, on the cover of the band's album Street Survivors.
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We watched and rewatched (it's research!) Sweet Home Alabama to gather the absolute best quotes from the funny, romantic, and sometimes even poignant film.Here are our favorite quotes from the movie Sweet Home Alabama. And for what it's worth, Young came to regret the song that started it all. "'Alabama' richly deserved the shot Lynyrd Skynyrd gave me with their great record," he wrote in his memoir, Waging Heavy Peace, in 2012. "I don't like my words when I listen to it today. They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, too easy to misconstrue." It’s the little picking part and I kept playing it over and over when we were waiting on everyone to arrive for rehearsal.
Not long after three of the members of Lynyrd Skynyrd tragically died in a plane crash in 1977, Young performed a medley of "Alabama" and "Sweet Home Alabama" as a tribute. According to Rolling Stone, he's never played "Alabama" again since. But others interpreted the lyrics as a reminder to Young that not all Southerners are the same. "We thought Neil was shooting all the ducks in order to kill one or two," Van Zant later said. 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".
“Sweet Home Alabama,” off their 1974 Second Helping album, reached number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart—and earned an eternal place in the hearts of many Southerners, even beyond the borders of the Yellowhammer State. My nephew played tunes on the guitar, and we sang, it seemed to me, as sweetly as we did when we were children. My cousins remembered the names of old songs we used to know, and we sang them as if we were riding the proverbial bicycle. The family reunion started off as a giant 80th birthday party for my mother, but we weren't all able to convene until the long Labor Day weekend. The weather was perfect, cool and crisp and clear with just a hint of an early autumn ahead.
"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 television rock show offers that the band declined. In addition to the original appearance on Second Helping, the song has appeared on numerous Lynyrd Skynyrd compilations and live albums. Live video"Sweet Home Alabama" on YouTube"Sweet Home Alabama" is a song by American southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, released on the band's second album Second Helping . It was written in response to Neil Young's 1970 song "Southern Man", which the band felt blamed the entire South for American slavery; Young is name-checked and dismissed in the lyrics. It reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1974, becoming the band's highest-charting single.
Kid Rock's 2008 song "All Summer Long" interpolates "Sweet Home Alabama" on the chorus and uses the guitar solo and piano outro, as well as the "turn it up" shout before the guitar solo; Billy Powell is featured on the track. "All Summer Long" also samples Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London", which has similar chord progression to "Sweet Home Alabama". Consuming that many calories required activity, so that morning we did what we always do — we took a long walk, this time up on the "mountain" as we call the steep, rising slope of Monte Sano, which you can see from Mother's backyard.
We loved Neil Young and all the music he’s given the world. It wasn’t cutting him down, it was cutting the song he wrote about the South down. Because no matter where you’re from, sweet home Alabama or sweet home Florida or sweet home Arkansas, you can relate. We spoke with Rossington—at age 63, the sole living original member who still plays with the band—about Lynyrd Skynyrd’s place in Southern music history. More than forty years ago, on August 13, 1973, Lynyrd Skynyrd released its debut self-titled album (helpfully subtitled “Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd.”). They were an instant hit, opening for The Who on their Quadrophenia tour, and charting “Free Bird,” which would go on to become one of the most iconic power ballads of the era, if not all time.
