Skynyrd

[Jeffrey St. Clair]

I never said that "SWA" was any thing more than a slapback at Neil. "Slightly
melodramatic?" Young's *Alabama* is the grand guignol of 70s protest-rock.
Even so Sweet Home Alabama was written in an afternoon as a kind of party
song. It was never intented to be put on an LP. (And, by the way, most of the
band hails from Florida; none come from Alabama.) If you want to get an idea
of Skynyrd's politics listen to the Ballad of Curtis Loew, Saturday Night
Special or Four Wall of Railford.

Max Sawicky wrote:


>  It only looks like an endorsement of Wallace. "In Birmingham, *they* love
> the governor." What he's saying about Watergate there is that he thinks
> politics is totally corrupt. >>>>
>
> I took a look at the lyrics and I don't think
> there's much to be said for them.  Mostly the
> song is a home-town reaction to Young.  The
> references to 'the governor' are at best
> cynical, but on the whole non-committal.
>
> I don't get any feeling about corruption.
> If anything, there's a sense of resignation
> about the malignancy of the climate, coupled
> with an unwillingness to talk about it.
> "We all did what we could do" is a
> conversation stopper.  Things sucks, leave
> us alone looks like the basic message.
>
> By contrast, Young's song while slightly
> melodramatic is pretty powerful.
>
> mbs