endofanera wrote:

Lonesome Bulldog wrote:Yeah but "Alabama" sucks.

Wrong for the "your Cadillac has got a wheel in the ditch and a wheel on the track" line alone.

I should clarify; I think the music sucks. The lyrics are good.

endofanera wrote:I always thought that "Sweet Home Alabama" was more in response to "Alabama" than "Southern Man."

I think the important lyric is "I hope Neil Young can remember / Southern Man don't need him around anyhow."

"Southern Man" is the better song, but the sentiments it expresses are simplistic. Young is grandstanding.

Can I say neither?

"Southern Man" is a good song, but it has problems: it is too much on the mass hysteria side to be effective from a lyrical standpoint (which is what Skynyrd's point was in the first place), and it's not really a reasoned argument about anything at all - Christ, Neil said he wrote it after watching "Gone With The Wind"!

"Sweet Home Alabama" is a statement of regional pride. People don't really understand what they're saying (which is why both of my parents sneered at it recently; in context, though, I understand their reaction - long story). I think it's saying, "hey, this is where I'm from, and yeah it's got a lot of problems, but...it's where I'm from, and I love it. I can come back home when all this other political shit gets too overpowering for me and feel good again."

Hmm, I think I'm going with Skynyrd on this one. And obviously from a musical standpoint, "Sweet Home Alabama" is just a better song. I love Neil Young's music very very much, but I think Skynyrd takes it.

dude lemme tell ya, that dang ole bad ass jam sweet home alabamee kicks the poop crap outta anythin neil young wants to spit out out of his musical rectum.

and im big rectal music fan! i mean a BIG one! but neil is the fail due to pearl jam association.

fartquark wrote:but neil is the fail due to pearl jam association.

if Skynrd were still around, they would have done duets with Toby Keith and Keith Urban.


Southern Man is the better song and message.

Who cares if it is simplistic?

It's not some song that encourages stupid toothless southerners to not give a shit about things like "watergate" and the album it is on doesn't have a confederate flag on it.

Clearly, more awful shit has been the result of Sweet Home Alabama than Southern Man.

Even if you somehow believe Skynyrd was being ironic or something- all the Skynyrd fans I knew growing up in southeast Virginia were several teeth and one clipper haircut shy of being Skrewdriver fans.

You could fill a tour bus up with Skynyrd and its fans, and collectively they wouldn't even touch the caliber of artist that Neil Young is/was.

SecondEdition wrote:"Sweet Home Alabama" is a statement of regional pride.

If you are white- perhaps.

mr.arrison wrote:
Clearly, more awful shit has been the result of Sweet Home Alabama than Southern Man.

This is true. I didn't think about it like that, though it does count that Ronnie Van Zant - the band's leader and the greatest source of their artistic merit - was a liberal and, if you listen to Skynyrd's lyrics, was plainly uncomfortable with the status bestowed on Skynyrd from so many Southern rock fans. I think there's more ambiguity in "Sweet Home Alabama" than meets the ear at first listen.

I also am pretty damn positive Ronnie Van Zant would never - in a million years - have duetted with that no-talent cowboy assclown Toby Keith. Don't mix up Ronnie with his younger brother Johnny, who almost singlehandedly dragged Skynyrd through the mud.

Ronnie was awesome.

(I'm a much, much bigger fan of Neil Young than Skynyrd, but I really don't think that "Southern Man" is a better song.)

Sweet home is middle of the road crap.

Southern man is not.

"sweet home alabama," my butt.

they were from florida.

i wish all of skynyrd died and sooner.

that damned fly wrote:i wish all of skynyrd died and sooner.

Dude, that's surly even for you.

Did you quit smoking again?