sweet home alabama by lynrd skynrd???

Question

please will someone tell me what the song is about, my hubby and i are disagreeing about it, i thought it was a bout convicts in prison, my hubby has quoted a line out of the movie "con air" so im confused now and really wanna know what hes on about lol, anybody give me a bit of insight about it

Answer 1

Sweet Home Alabama is probably one of the most misunderstood songs ever. It was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek riposte to Neil Young's "Alabama" and "Southern Man". Skynyrd were all huge Neil Young fans, and if you look at the album cover for "Street Survivors" (the last album before the Skynyrd plane crash) you'll notice that the vocalist, Ronnie Van Zant is wearing a Neil Young T-shirt

Answer 2

Lynyrd Skynyrd is from Jacksonville, Florida. They wrote this as a tribute to the studios at Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where they recorded in 1971. The studios gained fame during the '60s and '70s when it became the vogue thing for bands to record there. Artists like Bo Diddley, Aretha Franklin, and all the big Southern Rock groups recorded there. "The Swampers" were a group of studio musicians who worked there, acting as the backup band for the solo artists. That's where Skynyrd got the line: "Muscle Shoals has got The Swampers." One of the verses is an attack on 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 Southern US were racist and stuck in the past. Skynyrd responded with this, a song about Southern pride and all the good things in Alabama. The feud between Lynyrd Skynyrd and Neil Young was always good-natured fun; they were actually big fans of each other. Ronnie Van Zant often wore Neil Young T-shirts on stage and is wearing one on the cover of Street Survivors, the last Skynyrd album before his death.

Answer 3

The history of Lynyrd Skynyrd's 1974 song "Sweet Home Alabama" has a long and tortured history. The enormously popular song has an extraordinarily complex backstory involving a wide swath of groups which have laid claim to the song's message and symbols. As this article demonstrates, the complicated saga of "Sweet Home Alabama" is anything but sweet.

This article came about because I've long been fascinated with Neil Young's influence on other bands ever since I heard Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" which was written in response to two of Young's anti-southern songs, "Southern Man", from the album After the Gold Rush, and "Alabama", from the album Harvest. From "Sweet Home Alabama" lyrics:


Well, I heard Mister Young sing about her
Well, I heard ole Neil put her down.
Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
a southern man don't need him around anyhow.

more? see the link.

Answer 4

Listen to the middle verse, where the guys diss Neil Young.. it's a response to Neil's 'Southern Man', which is a powerful song about the evils of slavery and the downside of the southern states of America. 'Sweet Home Alabama' is pretty much an attempt to set the record straight, to say 'hey! The Southland's not all bad, you know!' I think it's sort of tongue-in-cheek. Great song, as is 'Southern Man'.

Answer 5

neil young wrote a song called alabama that dissed the state, and sweet home alabama is a response from some good ole boys who loves them some alabammy!

Answer 6

gigglebox and gypsymoon are both right about this skynnrd and neil young were great friends and the song is a tongue in cheek stab at neil young.ignore all idiotic answers.

Answer 7

song defending alabama and its ways/customs from criticisms the state endured in the late civil rights era.

Answer 8

I think it's about him coming home, back to where he grew up at in alabama. but im really not sure either

Answer 9

It's a really great song, one of my favourites.

I wish I could get a copy of the proper lyrics though.

Answer 10

it was a reply to two of neil young's songs "alabama" and southern man"...it was a joke when they wrote it.