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Sweet Home Alabama

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This article is about the song. For the movie, see Sweet Home Alabama (film).
"Sweet Home Alabama"
Song

"Sweet Home Alabama" is a song by Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd that first appeared in 1974 on their second album, Second Helping.

Despite political controversy, it reached #8 on the US charts in 1974, and was the band's second hit single.[1]

Creation and recording

At a band practice shortly after bassist Ed King had switched to guitar, King heard fellow guitarist Rossington playing a guitar riff that inspired him (in fact, this riff is still heard in the final version of the song and is played during the verses as a counterpoint to the main D-C+9-G chord progression). In interviews, Ed King has said that, during the night following the practice session, the chords and two main guitar solos came to him in a dream, note for note. King then introduced the song to the band the next day, and a hit was born. Also written at this session was the track that would follow "Alabama" on the Second Helping album, "I Need You."

A live version of the track on the compilation album Collectybles places the writing of the song during the late summer of 1973, as the live set available on the album is dated October 30, 1973.

The track was recorded at Studio One in Doraville, Georgia, using just King, bassist Wilkeson, and drummer Burns to lay down the basic backing track. Ed King used a Marshall amp belonging to Allen Collins. The guitar used on the track was a 1972 Fender Stratocaster. However, King has said that guitar was a pretty poor model and had bad pickups, forcing him to turn the amp up all the way to get decent volume out of it. This guitar is now displayed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.

Interesting to note is that the famous "Turn it up" line uttered by Van Zant in the beginning was not intended to be in the song. Ronnie was just asking producer Al Kooper and engineer Rodney Mills to turn up the volume in his headphones so that he could hear the track better.

Following the two "woo's" (Leon's the first, Ed's the second) at the start of the piano solo, Van Zant can be heard ad-libbing "My, Montgomery's got the answer." The duplicate "my" was produced by Kooper turning off one of the two vocal takes. For Lynyrd Skynyrd's 1976 film Free Bird, this final line was changed to "Mr. (Jimmy) Carter got the answer." in a reference to the 1976 Presidential Election.[citation needed]

There is also a semi-hidden vocal line in the second verse after the "Well, I heard Mr. Young sing about her" line (at approximately 0:50). In the left channel, you can hear the phrase "Southern Man" being sung lightly. This was producer Al Kooper doing a Neil Young impression and was just another incident of the band members messing around in the studio while being recorded.

The count-in heard in the beginning of the track is spoken by Ed King. The count-in to the first song on an album was a signature touch that producer Kooper usually put on albums that he made.

"Sweet Home Alabama" was a major chart hit for a band whose previous singles had "lazily sauntered out into release with no particular intent." The hit led to two TV rock-show offers, which the band turned down.[2]

Ironically, none of the three writers of the song were originally from Alabama. Ronnie Van Zant and Gary Rossington were both born in Jacksonville, Florida. Ed King was from Glendale, California.

Controversy

"Sweet Home Alabama" was written as an answer to two controversial songs, "Southern Man" and "Alabama" by Neil Young, which attacked the South as racist. "We thought Neil was shooting all the ducks in order to kill one or two," said Ronnie Van Zant at the time.[2] Van Zant's musical response, however, was also controversial, with references to Alabama Governor George Wallace (a noted supporter of segregation) and the Watergate scandal:

In Birmingham, they love the governor (boo boo boo)
Now we all did what we could do
Now Watergate does not bother me
Does your conscience bother you?
Tell the truth

In addition, the final chorus rhymes "where the skies are so blue" with "and the governor's true."

In 1975, Van Zant said: "The lyrics about the governor of Alabama were misunderstood. The general public didn't notice the words 'Boo! Boo! Boo!' after that particular line, and the media picked up only on the reference to the people loving the governor."[3] "The line 'We all did what we could do' is sort of ambiguous," Kooper notes "'We tried to get Wallace out of there' is how I always thought of it."[4] Journalist John Swenson argues that the song is more complex than it is sometimes given credit for, suggesting that it only looks like an endorsement of Wallace.[5] "Wallace and I have very little in common," Van Zant himself said, "I don't like what he says about colored people."[6]

In 1976, Van Zant and the band supported Jimmy Carter for his presidential candidacy, including fundraising and an appearance at the Gator Bowl benefit concert.

Muscle Shoals

One verse of the song includes the line "Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers/And they've been known to pick a song or two." This refers to town of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, a legendary location for recording popular music due to the "sound" crafted by local recording studios and back-up musicians. "The Swampers" referred to in the lyrics included (among others) Jimmy Johnson, David Hood, Barry Beckett, Roger Hawkins, Eddie Hinton, Pete Carr and Spooner Oldham who crafted the "Muscle Shoals Sound". Sometimes recording under the identity of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, these musicians included Jimmy Johnson (guitar), Roger Hawkins (drums), David Hood (bass), and Barry Beckett (keyboards), and they were inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1995 for a "Lifework Award for Non-Performing Achievement." The nickname "The Swampers" was given to the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section by singer/songwriter Leon Russell.

Part of the reference comes from the 1971-1972 demo reels that Lynyrd Skynyrd had recorded in Muscle Shoals with Johnson as a producer/recording engineer. Johnson helped refine many of the songs first heard publicly on the "Pronounced" album, and it was Van Zant's "tip of the hat" to Johnson for helping out the band in the early years and essentially giving the band its first break.

Lynyrd Skynyrd remains connected to Muscle Shoals having since recorded a number of works in the city and making it a regular stop on their concert tours.

Covers

Sweet Home Alabama has appeared in many commercials, movies, and subsequent recordings by other bands. It remains a popular request on classic rock radio stations and has been featured in many movies, including To Die For, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), Con Air, 8 Mile, Forrest Gump, Joe Dirt, The Girl Next Door, Sweet Home Alabama and Sahara. The song was alluded to in Warren Zevon's Play It All Night Long (from his 1980 album Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School): "Sweet home Alabama! Play that dead man's song! Turn those speakers up full blast!".

The song has become a favorite among University of Alabama students and alumni. Shaun Alexander, the Seattle Seahawks MVP running back and University of Alabama alumnus, has the song played after each home game touchdown. That inspired "Dustin Blatnik and the 12th Man Band" to record the 2005 parody song "Sweet Shaun Alexander," a tribute to the Seattle Seahawks run to Super Bowl XL and Alexander's record setting season. The song's reach also extends to "virtual" sporting events. It was featured on the PS2 and Xbox versions of NASCAR Thunder 2002 because the game creators, EA Sports, had just announced sponsorship of the fall race at Talladega Superspeedway, located in Alabama.

Further, Sweet Home Alabama has been used in multiple advertising campaigns. An adaptation of the song is used in advertisements for KFC. WWE used the song as the theme song for their Pay-Per-View WWE Armageddon 2000 (which took place in Birmingham). In September 2007, Alabama Governor Bob Riley announced the phrase "Sweet Home Alabama" would be used to promote Alabama state tourism in a multi million dollar ad campaign. No indication has been given if the song itself will be included in the campaign.[7]

Sweet Home Alabama has become well-known in the Dark-Hunters book series created by paranormal romance novelist Sherrilyn Kenyon as the song always played on Sanctuary's jukebox when Acheron enters the bar.

Recognition and Awards

Members

Cover version

In 1994, a cover version was recorded by country music band Alabama, as part of a compilation titled Skynyrd Frynds, which featured several country acts performing covers of Skynyrd songs. This version is notable in that the references to governor George Wallace and Watergate are replaced with an alternate lyric pertaining to American football.[8] Neo-Nazi (British Rock Against Communism) band Skrewdriver covered the song with very similar lyrics, although the song was known as "Sweet White Alabama"

See also

References

  1. ^ Sweet Home Alabama song information, Songfacts.com
  2. ^ a b c d Dupree, T. (1974), Lynyrd Skynyrd in Sweet Home Atlanta [Electronic version]. Rolling Stone. Retrieved October 17, 2007.
  3. ^ Ballinger, L. (2002). Lynyrd Skynyrd - An Oral History. Los Angeles: XT377 Publishing.
  4. ^ Ballinger, L. (2002). Lynyrd Skynyrd - An Oral History. Los Angeles: XT377 Publishing.
  5. ^ Ballinger, L. (2002). Lynyrd Skynyrd - An Oral History. Los Angeles: XT377 Publishing.
  6. ^ Ballinger, L. (2002). Lynyrd Skynyrd - An Oral History. Los Angeles: XT377 Publishing.
  7. ^ Associated Press (2007). Lynyrd Skynyrd Song Turns Alabama Tourist Theme [Electronic version]. USA Today. retrieved October 17, 2007.
  8. ^ Ruhlmann, William. "allmusic ((( Skynyrd Frynds - Overview )))". All Music Guide. Retrieved 2007-12-07.
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