Neil Young's "Alabama"
Denise
I'm Italian and though I can speak English quite well, I ask your help
with the lyrics for "ALABAMA" by Neil Young.
I know the lyrics and I can understand the words, but I don't know the
American
situation (especially in Alabama, at the time when the song was written)
enough to
grasp the meaning.
By the way, in Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" - Neil Young is
quite criticized for what he sang in "Alabama" and in "Southern Man".
Can someone please help me understand the reasons for the dispute?
Thank you.
Denise
Weird Scenes
Denise,
First of all, I tread lightly here because this topic can start a
major flame war that I don't want to get in really. This group means
alot to me and I take time here to see what goes on everyday. It's
hard to get into this without making some people hostile or give the
wrong impression, but Skynyrd is probably one of the most loved and at
the same time disrespected bands in the USA. It has alot to do with
the "image" of the band and it's fanbase. I don't know what it's like
over there, but a band like this is Zeppelin, where you see people who
claim to love Zeppelin but don't really know the band that well and
only say it because they think they look cool to like Zep. Well, here
in the US it's similiar with Skynyrd, but the type of people that are
like that are the "redneck" type. If you can picture a bar out in the
country with Harleys and hell raising going on, fights, beer drinking,
and so on, it may "fit" into the picture to have a Skynyrd song
playing on the jukebox. This puts alot of people in a strange position
when they aren't that type of person and they think Skynyrd to be an
awesome band that they were (are). If you say you love them, there's
always that fear of what others will think of you. It's not really
talked about, it's just a feeling, only way I can describe it. I am
not saying that is the way it is for everyone, on the contrary, for
most it isn't that way, but there are enough that it is that way with
that it's felt. This has nothing to do with your original question in
this post, I am mainly commenting this for you because I read your
post about you seeing them in Italy and seemed a little surprised at
the group's reaction about the band. The thing that was going on with
Neil Young was, in Alabama there was extreme racial tension in the 60s
and early 70s as blacks began getting equal rights and Alabama was a
very stubborn to let this happen, all the way up to the Governor's
administration, the state's leaders were very outspokenly against it
and seemed to have alot of support from people. Young was basically
saying in a round about way "you are 100 years behind and need to wake
up into this century with the rest of the country and stop looking at
blacks as lesser than." Thing is, it wasn't just Alabama that was this
way, but here in the US, Alabama conjures up pictures of southern
hospitality and tradition. It's a very beautiful state and many have a
fondness for it as Neil Young hinted at, and it hurt him to see such a
state not "get with it." Then, here comes along Skynyrd and since
Ronnie also was so fond of the state, he sort of made a statement as
saying "Look Neil Young, I'm a proper guy and I'm good folk and I love
the state and if you are going to put it all in a box labeled Alabama,
which includes me, you can kiss my ass, because what the Governor's
office does has no reflection on everyone else in the state." Ronnie
had adopted Alabama as his home. Since then, I have heard Neil Young
asked that in interviews many times and he has always said he
considers it a great honor to be mentioned in a song by Skynyrd. I
hope this helps in your wonderment at the lyrical debate that went on
between these two. Hehehe, for all I know, you may not even see this
post as my posts have a way of not showing up on some servers for some
odd reason, if only my ISP would wake up!
Jeff
Denise wrote:
> I'm Italian and though I can speak English quite well, I ask your help
> with the lyrics for "ALABAMA" by Neil Young.
>
> I know the lyrics and I can understand the words, but I don't know the
> American
> situation (especially in Alabama, at the time when the song was written)
> enough to
> grasp the meaning.
> By the way, in Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" - Neil Young is
> quite criticized for what he sang in "Alabama" and in "Southern Man".
> Can someone please help me understand the reasons for the dispute?
>
> Thank you.
>
> Denise
As far as I can tell, Lynyrd Skynyrd hail from Alabama, and took exception
to Young's lyrics, which again attacked the sometimes rascist nature of
people of the Southern US states. By the way, Alabama and Southern Man are
great songs, especially the latter.
Jeff Brake
Weird Scenes
On Tue, 20 Jan 1998 17:54:54 +0000, Jeff <jb...@cus.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
> As far as I can tell, Lynyrd Skynyrd hail from Alabama,
>Jeff Brake
Actually, they're from Jacksonville, Florida. Steve Gaines was from
Oaklahoma.
RoodMude
The lyrics in sweet home alabama mentioning Neil Young were done with humor.
The band (Skynard) were big fans of his. There are tons of pictures of the
lead singer for Skynard wearing a Neil Young t-shirt in concert. Never be
ashamed of what music groups you listen too. If you like it, then it must be
good.
Giovanni
On Tue, 20 Jan 1998 13:01:37 GMT, nu...@null.net (Weird Scenes) wrote:
>On Tue, 20 Jan 1998 12:00:54 +0100, Denise <fon...@numerica.it> wrote:
>
>>I'm Italian and though I can speak English quite well, I ask your help
>>with the lyrics for "ALABAMA" by Neil Young.
>>
>>Thank you.
>>Denise
>
>Denise,
>First of all, I tread lightly here because this topic can start a
>major flame war that I don't want to get in really. This group means
>alot to me and I take time here to see what goes on everyday. It's
>hard to get into this without making some people hostile or give the
>wrong impression, but Skynyrd is probably one of the most loved and at
>the same time disrespected bands in the USA.
I don't think anyone has the right to be upset about a responsible
expression of opinion. This subject has been addressed before, and
while I'm sure not everyone will share your views, you shouldn't come
under personal attack for expressing them. If people want to get
hostile, let them. Their hostility only serves to undermine their
message, and strengthen yours.
You've got my support, and I'm sure you'll have the support of other
responsible readers of this newsgroup.
Giovanni
Kevin Allen
Weird Scenes wrote a good reply to
Denise who wrote:
>
>>I'm Italian and though I can speak English quite well, I ask your help
>>with the lyrics for "ALABAMA" by Neil Young.
>>
>>I know the lyrics and I can understand the words, but I don't know the
>>American
>>situation (especially in Alabama, at the time when the song was written)
>>enough to
>>grasp the meaning.
>>By the way, in Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" - Neil Young is
>>quite criticized for what he sang in "Alabama" and in "Southern Man".
>>Can someone please help me understand the reasons for the dispute?
>>
>>Thank you.
>>
>>Denise
I thought I'd just add that Neil Young actually did a reply to Sweet Home
Alabama on his On the Beach album
The song is called Walk On