LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-JUNE 24, 2019…
IT WAS JUNE 24th 1974 LYNYRD SKYNYRD RELEASED THE SINGLE ‘SWEET HOME ALABAMA.’
SKYNYRD ACTUALLY WROTE THIS SONG AS A TRIBUTE TO THE STUDIO MUSICIANS AT MUSCLE SHOALS SOUND STUDIOS, WHERE THEY RECORDED FROM 1970-1972. AND, SOME OF THE LYRICS ARE A JAB AT NEIL YOUNG:
“ I hope Neil Young will remember, A southern man don’t need him around anyhow”
YOUNG HAD WRITTEN SONGS LIKE ‘SOUTHERN MAN’ AND ‘ALABAMA’ WHICH IMPLIED THAT PEOPLE IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH WERE RACIST AND STUCK IN THE PAST. SKYNYRD RESPONDED WITH ‘SWEET HOME ALABAMA’ A SONG ABOUT SOUTHERN PRIDE AND ALL THE GOOD THINGS IN ALABAMA.
THE FUED BETWEEN YOUNG AND SKYNYRD WAS ALWAYS GOOD NATURED FUN. THEY WERE ACTUALLY MUTUAL FRIENDS. RONNIE VAN ZANT OFTEN WORE NEIL YOUNG TEE SHIRTS ONSTAGE AND IS ACTUALLY WEARING ONE ON THE COVER OF ‘STREET SURVIVORS’, THE LAST LYNYRD SKYNYRD ALBUM BEFORE HIS DEATH.
FOR HIS PART, NEIL YOUNG PERFORMED THE SONG ONCE, AT THE MEMORIAL TO THE THREE MEMBERS OF SKYNYRD WHO DIED IN A PLANE CRASH IN 1977.
HERE’S SKYNYRD PERFORMING THE SONG AT A “DAY ON THE GREEN” IN OAKLAND IN 1977
