This song has an interesting history, in that it was written as an answer to Neil Young's "Southern Man", but basically with Young's own approval. And while I've known that for a while, what just recently struck me was that Lynyrd Skynyrd was from Jacksonville. Not a one of them could actually call Alabama home.
Which makes me wonder, was Ronnie Van Zant messing around on his guitar and singing "Sweet Home Florida"? "No, damn it, that's not quite right. We need another syllable."
2 comments:
You're right that Neil Young and VanZant shared a mutual admiration. According to a RS article:
Just weeks after the accident, Young played a show in Miami to raise money for a children’s hospital. Near the end, he played a medley of “Alabama” and “Sweet Home Alabama” as a tribute to the band.
Young has not played “Alabama” a single time since that night. “‘Alabama’ richly deserved the shot Lynyrd Skynyrd gave me with their great record,” Young wrote in his 2012 book, Waging Heavy Peace. “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.”
We got to see Warren Zevon's final tour where he performed his tribute to Lynryd Skynrd 'Play it all Night Long' on acoustic guitar.
Yeah, Neil seemed to have regrets about some of his lyrics almost immediately, and he acted on it. A class act in general.
While I know it's not the same performance as you saw, that's a great clip of Warren Zevon you linked to. It's also fun seeing him get introduced by Flo and Eddie from the Turtles. They looked and acted like a couple of computer geek dads back in the sixties, so they don't have to be vain about getting older.
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