Music enthusiaists, quick question.

[Lazie]

Is the song Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynryd a racist song? I do not know ... just asking your opinion.

[Jangle]

Obviously there is a reason behind your question and it got me thinking. I looked up the lyrics and it does have some racial undertones to it. Knowing the history of the south the idea of the lyrics being racist isn't far-fetched. I knew the song but it was not until Kid Rock sampled it and I saw him at some Sarah Palin Republican rally that I loosely associated it with the racist South. A simple but deep question.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Cyo...=RD9Cyokaj3BJU



When the song was released, the governor of Alabama was George Wallace, best known for his “stand in the schoolhouse door” to oppose integration. The line “In Birmingham they love the governor,” along with negative remarks about Neil Young, led many people to believe band members were racist. However, most people overlook the words that follow: “Boo! Boo! Boo!” and the line, “We all did what we could do.” Some people believe that is a reference to those who tried to vote Wallace out of office. Funnily enough, songfacts.com reports Wallace loved the song and made band members honorary lieutenant colonels in the state militia.

http://www.al.com/entertainment/inde...explain_a.html

[Lazie]

I have always loved the song, especially how it starts with the guitar. I have read comments that it is racist, but each time I listen to it, I just don't get it. Apparently I am slow.

Earlier this week in Chicago it was being played from a police car during the protest for justice and the police man was suspended. I am deciding if I should remove it from my serato crate.

[Mosiah]

From Wiki:

Controversy[edit]
"Sweet Home Alabama" was written as an answer to two songs, "Southern Man" and "Alabama" by Neil Young, which dealt with themes of racism and slavery in the American South. "We thought Neil was shooting all the ducks in order to kill one or two," said Ronnie Van Zant at the time.[2] The following excerpt shows the Neil Young mention in the song:

Well, I heard Mister Young sing about her
Well, I heard ol' Neil put her down
Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
A Southern man don't need him around anyhow
Van Zant's other response 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
...
Sweet home Alabama, oh, sweet home baby
Where the skies are so blue and the governor's true
Music historians point out that the choice of Birmingham in connection with the governor (rather than the capital Montgomery) is significant for the controversy as "In 1963, the city was the site of massive civil rights activism, as thousands of demonstrators led by Martin Luther King, Jr. sought to desegregate downtown businesses...[and] was the scene of some of the most violent moments of the Civil Rights Movement. Segregationist police chief Bull Connor unleashed attack dogs and high-pressure water cannons against peaceful marchers, including women and children; just weeks later, Ku Klux Klansmen bombed a black church, killing four little girls."[3]

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."[4] "The line 'We all did what we could do' is sort of ambiguous," Al Kooper notes. "'We tried to get Wallace out of there' is how I always thought of it."[4] However, neither explanation accounts for the barely audible "and the governor's true" toward the end of the song. Journalist Al 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.[4] "Wallace and I have very little in common," Van Zant himself said, "I don't like what he says about colored people."[4]

Music historians examining the juxtaposition of invoking Nixon and Watergate after Wallace and Birmingham note that one reading of the lyrics is an "attack against the liberals who were so outraged at Nixon's conduct" while others interpret it regionally: "the band was speaking for the entire South, saying to northerners, we're not judging you as ordinary citizens for the failures of your leaders in Watergate; don't judge all of us as individuals for the racial problems of southern society".[3]

In his 2012 autobiography Waging Heavy Peace, Young commented on the controversy regarding "Southern Man" and "Alabama", writing "I don't like my words when I listen to it. They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, and too easy to misconstrue".[5]

[Mosiah]

Also:

While promoting the album on CNN on September 9, 2012, members of the band talked about its discontinued use of Confederate imagery.[22] In September 2012, the band briefly did not display the Confederate Flag, which had for years been a part of their stage show, because they did not want to be associated with racists who had adopted the flag. After protests from fans they reversed this decision, noting it is part of their Southern American heritage and states rights symbolism.[23]