Grammies Ode to Southern Red-State Rock Made Me Sick

You might have thought the little homage to Southern Rock was nice. I like Southern Rock myself. I like the Allman Brothers and the Outlaws and Molly Hatchet. I also like ZZ Top and the Eagles and especially Stevie Ray Vaughn.

On the whole I think that Lynyrd Skynyrd was a great band too. They have some great songs. Simple Man, Saturday Night Special, and Needle and Spoon are wonderful examples.

Sweet Home Alabama is not one of them, however. We all know the lyrics word for word, of course. But tonight they really took on the significance of their original intent, and it was offensive:

Sweet Home Alabama

Big wheels keep on turning
Carry me home to see my kin
Singing songs about the southland
I miss alabamy once again
And I think it's a sin, yes

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

Sweet home alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet home alabama
Lord, I'm coming home to you

In birmingham they love the governor
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
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet home alabama
Lord, I'm coming home to you
Here I come alabama

Now muscle shoals has got the swampers
And they've been known to pick a song or two
Lord they get me off so much
They pick me up when I'm feeling blue
Now how about you?

Sweet home alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet home alabama
Lord, I'm coming home to you

Sweet home alabama
Oh sweet home baby
Where the skies are so blue
And the governor's true
Sweet home alabama
Lordy
Lord, I'm coming home to you
Yea, yea montgomery's got the answer

The Neil Young reference is due to his song Southern Man, which is a historical statement about the hypocrisy of slavery in the land of Jesus. The lyrics of Sweet Home Alabama do not only contain an attack on Young personally (and the counterculture he represents), but a direct rejection of Southern Man's basic premise, that slavery was shameful and immoral.

Southern Man

Southern man better keep your head
Don't forget what your good book said
Southern change gonna come at last
Now your crosses are burning fast
Southern man

I saw cotton and I saw black
Tall white mansions and little shacks.
Southern man when will you pay them back?
I heard screamin' and bullwhips cracking
How long? how long?

Southern man better keep your head
Don't forget what your good book said
Southern change gonna come at last
Now your crosses are burning fast
Southern man

Lily belle, your hair is golden brown
I've seen your black man comin' round
Swear by God I'm gonna cut him down!
I heard screamin' and bullwhips cracking
How long? how long?

Sweet Home Alabama's rejection of Southern Man's premise isn't in the lines about Young, but in the reference to the segregationist George Wallace and the Watergate scandal:

Watergate does not bother me/Does your conscience bother you/Tell the Truth

Watergate can easily be equated to the beliefs of George Wallace to the perceived malicious prosecution of slave masters.

The translation to the 2005 Grammy Awards should be clear to all. The problems of the late sixties are no longer relevant so shut up about them already. The idea is that we can enjoy a rendition of Georgia on My Mind and a rendition of Sweet Home Alabama without making political distinction. As we can see by all the black multimillionaires that racism must be long dead in this country; in essence, the sentiments contained in Sweet Home Alabama are as far removed from the Southern attitude as Ray Charles is from the state of Georgia.

But no matter how the director tried to spin it on camera, there was a distinct pleasure taken in the dissing of Neil Young on the stage tonight. A red-state man don't need liberals around any how. He needs tax cuts and a Republican in the White House.

If Rush Limbaugh and Michael Medved insist on straining the political meaning out of every piece of popular art that emerges from the entertainment industry, then they will certainly have a lot to talk about tomorrow. I have a funny feeling, however that their focus will be not on the lyrics for Sweet Home Alabama, but rather about the song American Idiot by the San Francisco band Green Day:

American Idiot

Don't wanna be an American idiot.
Don't want a nation that under the new media.
And can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mindfuck America.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
Convincing them to walk you.

Well maybe I'm the faggot America.
I'm not a part of a redneck agenda.
Now everybody do the propaganda.
And sing along in the age of paranoia.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
Convincing them to walk you.

Don't wanna be an American idiot.
One nation controlled by the media.
Information nation of hysteria.
It's going out to idiot America.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
Convincing them to walk you.

•  dude, you watched the grammys?

  did you, like, lose a bet or something?

  "after the Rapture, we get all their shit"

  It's time: the albany project.

  by lipris on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 07:45:41 PM PDT

  •  Somebody has to watch CBS

    There might be a commercial

    by TheChanMan on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 07:49:19 PM PDT

    •  The revolution starts now

      Steve earle, the rockabilly guy has a CD that won tonite.

      He host a show in Air America radio!
      (incidentally, the CD is pretty good rock cd.)

      ------

      so yeah, even librul.... can do rockabilly!

      come on guys. this one is a big score.
      for Air america radio too.

      by fugue on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:46:28 PM PDT

•  I kept hoping that they would cut

  to the faces of Gretchen Wilson, et al. as GD sang the words "I'm not part of a redneck agenda." It would've been priceless.

  by bonobo on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 07:46:29 PM PDT

•  If Rush gets to go off about Million Dollar Baby

  I get to go off about dissing Neil Young, who is still going strong. Pearl Jam had the ultimate Award show performance when they invited Young to come sit in on "Keep on Rockin in Your Free World"

  That crap tonight didn't even compare!

  by TheChanMan on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 07:48:17 PM PDT

  •  I saw Milliion Dollar Baby this weekend

    It is such a long and boring movie. It has a compelling story, but it runs way, way too long. I was bored throughout it all!

    by jiacinto on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 07:54:27 PM PDT

  •  Young and Ronnie Van Zant

    Reportedly thought highly of each other and each others' music.

    Yeah, they played Sweet Home Alabama and did a tribute to southern rock on the grammies. So what? Is everthing part  of some vast red-state conspiracy?

    by Argyle on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:16:28 PM PDT

    •  Yeah, I read a Rolling Stone article

      about Neil Young a long time ago.  He said the first time he heard "Sweet Home Alabama" that he really liked what they were doing with the guitars, and when he heard himself as the subject of one of the verses, he liked the song even more.  Neil has always had a perverse streak about a mile wide.

      by hoosierspud on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 09:20:54 PM PDT

•  Welllllll......

  yeah. I dunno.

  If its any consolation, half that audience under 30 probably dont have any idea what those lyrics mean. THey just know that its a fun bar song. Lynyrd Skynyrd isnt exactly Bob Dylan in terms of the power of their message. neil Young was actually pretty cool about the song, from what Ive heard.

  Dont let nedneckery from 30 years ago get you down...just have a beer and sing the watergate part extra loud, heavy on the irony and snark.

  by ablington on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 07:53:06 PM PDT

•  I switched back and forth to see...

  ...was playing. I caught Green Day and enjoyed it. I turned off the southern rock salute, although I do enjoy alot of it. Growing up, I enjoyed, "Sweet Home Alabama." That was before I was old enough to know what it was about.

  by Alumbrados on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 07:54:07 PM PDT

•  Sweet Home Alabama

  was also a retort to "Alabama" by Neil Young:

  Oh Alabama
  The devil fools
  with the best laid plan.
  Swing low Alabama
  You got spare change
  You got to feel strange
  And now the moment
  is all that it meant.

  Alabama, you got
  the weight on your shoulders
  That's breaking your back.
  Your Cadillac
  has got a wheel in the ditch
  And a wheel on the track

  Oh Alabama
  Banjos playing
  through the broken glass
  Windows down in Alabama.
  See the old folks
  tied in white ropes
  Hear the banjo.
  Don't it take you down home?

  Alabama, you got
  the weight on your shoulders
  That's breaking your back.
  Your Cadillac
  has got a wheel in the ditch
  And a wheel on the track

  Oh Alabama.
  Can I see you
  and shake your hand.
  Make friends down in Alabama.
  I'm from a new land
  I come to you
  and see all this ruin
  What are you doing Alabama?
  You got the rest of the union
  to help you along
  What's going wrong?

  And I suppose you could make the argument that could have pissed off a few of the yokels what with the "banjos and broken glass" thing, kind of makes me think of "Deliverance", you know? Anyway, Neil's pretty much a redneck himself, just from a colder clime, by rights these guys should be tradin' shots and playin' pool together.

  by PBJ Diddy on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 07:54:08 PM PDT

  •  more analysis

    if you are interested here is some more analysis of Young and Skynyrd.

    by ccw on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:01:43 PM PDT

    •  Interesting Read (n/t)

      by tlh lib on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:05:42 PM PDT

    •  More from Cameron Crowe

      Neil Young gave a tape to Joel Bernstein to give to me which I gave to Ronnie [Van Zant], that had three songs on it - "Captain Kennedy," "Sedan Delivery," and "Powderfinger" - before they'd come out. And he wanted to give them to Lynyrd Skynyrd if they wanted to do one of his songs. They didn't fit on Street Survivors.

      Neil loved that band and said they reminded him of the Buffalo Springfield and they made him yearn for the days of the Buffalo Springfield. He loved Lynyrd Skynyrd and he loved being mentioned in the song.

      Being a huge Neil Young fan, I sort of appointed myself as cheerleader for that love affair to happen and blossom. I think it was happening - Ronnie was wearing that [Neil Young] shirt on the album cover and on the road. I was really happy to be able to play a part in getting some new Neil songs into Ronnie's hands. I don't remember what he had to say about it, but he was a huge Neil Young fan.

      http://theuncool.com/writtenby/oralhistory.htm

      Sounds like the Neil Young smackdown was more of a joke than anything else.  

      by johnny rotten on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:13:55 PM PDT

    •  That was Cool

      It was a bit like the conspiracy theories of the similarities between JFK and Lincoln's asassination.

      It's been what 30 years since those songs came out. I suspect none of the actual artists involved really care much.

      My point is more to the fact of what pleasure the people on stage tonight sang: I hope Neil Young will Rember/A southern man don't need him around any how.

      I thought it was obviouly a sort of knock on liberalism in general. Dicky Betis sang the watergate line and he has probably either blacked that whole decade out or is a Democrat. I'd bet the former.

      by TheChanMan on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:18:54 PM PDT

      •  BTW

        Did you know that Lynyrd Skynyrd was the headline band in a July 1976 Gator Bowl concert to benefit Jimmy Carter's campaign:

        http://www.skynyrd.com/articlea.html

        by johnny rotten on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:27:12 PM PDT

        •  That show, and Atlanta and Houston shows

          headlined by the Allman Brothers, were the payoff for Carter's aides' assistance in killing off an investigation of cocaine wholesaling by Capricorn Records President Phil Walden. We originally broke the story in the March, 1976 issue of the Yipster Times.

          by ben masel on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 10:08:11 PM PDT

  •  Neil a redneck?

    Eccentric. Blunt. Over the top. Opinionated.

    But a redneck? This is a man who once played in a Motown band with Rick James! (The Mynah Birds)

    I would have happily agreed that his voice is a strange instrument, but I just don't get the redneck comment... care to explain?

    by thingamabob on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:18:51 PM PDT

    •  He's good people,

      and not full of citified "sophist-a-macation" or nuthin'. I always think of Neil (One of my favorites BTW) as a country boy from a different country. He looks and dresses like a rural dude and he writes a lot of "downhome" stuff. I see his roots culturally as essentially equivalent to the southern, rural, homogenous scene that generated Skynard et. al. - just northern instead of southern.

      It's not meant to be derogatory, just to indicate a "heartland" way of looking at things (as a native Coloradan, I would say, I began life as a redneck myself, although I do got's book learnin'). Certainly the persona he displays (one I'm inclined to believe is authentic) eschews pretention -- the true mark of a good redneck!

      by PBJ Diddy on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:31:48 PM PDT

      •  I see your liberal

        about your use of the word "redneck". I can grok that.

        I've always thought it odd that two of the quintessentially American voices in rock are actually Canadian--Neil and The Band ('cept for Levon Helm).

        And they're both great. And great acts. I hope you've had a chance to catch neil live. he's a blast.

        by thingamabob on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:35:27 PM PDT

        •  I've seen Neil live,

          I think...three times?

          All very different. My favorite was in Red Rocks amphitheatre in Colorado his hair was long and gray and he whipped it up and down like he was trying to flay the audience with it during the long guitar solo in "Down by the River"...

          As for "redneck", I use that expression for just about anybody with sideburns and even the slightest rural accent...(kind of like the "N" word, I guess it's used as an insult by outsiders but within the community, it can be tossed around pretty loosely) I suppose I ought to stop doing that since so many people find it perjorative.

          by PBJ Diddy on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 04:05:54 AM PDT

        •  P.S.

          Also Levon Helm, who is a pussycat of a guy...unfortunately he was unable to sing the times I saw him, due to his throat cancer operations, but I had the fortune to hear his daughter Amy who is lovely both to the eye and the ear.

          by PBJ Diddy on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 04:07:51 AM PDT

  •  Neil Young is a red neck?

    Don't package him like that.

    He just came to Canada to do a benefit concert to save some trees.

    Besides he has two sons disabled with muscular distrophy. What a heartbreak. And he gives generously  for the cure.

    I think I love him.

    by Agathena on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:43:50 PM PDT

    •  you know whats strange

      Both of his sons have MD, and that disease is not genetic, according to what my brother told me.

      by desiunion on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 09:06:54 AM PDT

•  skynyrd

  FREEBIRD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  I really do not understand the "In birmingham they love the governor" reference. What the heck does that have to do with watergate??

  Growing up in west virginia, I do understand certain things about the sountern white mentality. I used to be for the confederate flag, because although to some it represented slavery, I think its meaning today represents the southern white culture in general, not necessarily that part dealing with slavery and racism. Just like african americans like the malcom X, the white southerners feel like their voices are being muzzled, and they use the flag as a representation of southern america. There are certain groups of white people in this country who are in really dire situations, and having some pride in themselves can motivate them to do better. That doesnt mean taking it too far, but as a person of color, I can conceed that the southern flag is not always a symbol of racism. I guess people can say that about the swastika, but then native americans can have objections to the american flag as well, so its complicated.

  by desiunion on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 07:54:10 PM PDT

  •  asdf

    the white southerners feel like their voices are being muzzled

    would that it were true.

    by wu ming on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:00:35 PM PDT

    •  what

      what?

      by desiunion on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:01:17 PM PDT

    •  You guys just don't get it

      The confederate flag is often revered NOT because it represents slavery, but because it represents the thousands of men who fought and died for their country.  Can you not realize this?  Christ, give this a rest.  Are there bigots, racists, and nutcases in the south?  Yes, of course there are.  But there are also those of us who love the south, the history - excluding the slavery issue - and take pride in our part of the country.  I like to think we are in the majority, but perhaps not yet.  But we are trying to fix things, without completely erasing the rest of our history.  What do you want us to do?  Remove the headstones from the Confederate graves too?
      I now reside in WI.  Should WI wipeout all reference to the 50s because of Joe McCarthy?  

      by Miss Blue on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:56:49 PM PDT

      •  yes but mostly no

        On your first point, give me a break.  Southerners do not fly the confederate flag in recognition of the men who fought and died for the confederacy.  It was 140 years ago, and nobody has any personal connections to them anymore.  I agree that it is also not, for the most party, a celebration of slavery or an expression of racism.  I think it mostly boils down to one of more of the following: group think, tradition, rebellion, anti-yankeeism, and stubbornness.  None of which are particularly significant.  I suggest the South find a more meaningful way to celebrate their heritage than to embody it within the flag of a failed secessionist movement 140 years ago.  I can't think of a more ridiculous way to say "I'm proud to be Southern."

        by R Lucian on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 09:13:16 PM PDT

        •  Are you from the South?

          My guess is no.  The flag IS the south.  What would you suggest we replace it with - a cotton ball?  Sorry you don't like it, but for a southerner, nothing says it like the flag.  I have abandoned it, as so many others have, because of the negative feelings it brings out in so many others, but I feel a loss.  I would love to fly it proudly up here in the north, but my better judgement prevents me from doing so.

          by Miss Blue on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 09:18:46 PM PDT

          •  yea

            I see your point, thats what i said above. I never really took offense to the flag on the general lee in dukes of hazzard.

            by desiunion on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 09:23:10 PM PDT

          •  sort of

            I'm from a state that sometimes like to think and act like its Southern and sometimes does not:  Kentucky.  There were plenty of yahoos in high school flying enormous confederate flags behind their trucks.  That's funny since Kentucky never seceeded.

            But I don't think it matters much where I'm from.  I've spent enough time in the actual South, and have talked to enough people who have lived their whole lives there to know that the statement "the flag IS the south" is a ridiculous statement.  I wouldn't have you replace it with anything I'd have you put it in a museum and move on.

            by R Lucian on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 09:36:57 PM PDT

            •  I think to African Americans

              The flag symbolizes something more sinister than it might to you. I think it's something that should be left to all citizens to decide, however. But your kidding yourself if you don't think millions of African Americans are offended by it. They may not always say it, but they are.

              Like I said, I don't have anything against the song itself. I just don't like the way it was represented tonight. I thought it was USED in a political and partisan way. Maybe I'm nuts.

              Two other great Southern Rock songs are Freebird (a way better choice) and the Outlaw's Green Grass and High Tides Forever. Both are celebrations of the South and far more appropriate for the occasion.

              by TheChanMan on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 09:48:25 PM PDT

          •  Confederate flag in history.

            I'd say two things about this.  One is that the majority of southern arguments about the centrality of the Confederate flag (the battle flag specifically) to their identity and history would seem a lot cleaner had that flag not enjoyed such a resurgence of use during the 1960s as an explicit rejoinder to the Civil Rights movement.  Now, people who've grown up since then with the culture of the flag may not think of it that way, but it's really hard to argue that it stands for anything but racism when you look at the dates on which different states began flying the flag at government buildings.

            Second, my time in Alabama suggests to me that, in fact, the people who are most likely to fly that flag or wear it on their shirts or whatever are actually the most grievous rednecks, and likely to be racists.  That's not just my blue-state judgment, that's something I've heard from my friends who've lived their entire lives in Alabama - in rural, overwhelmingly white counties in Alabama, and not as part of the cultural elite of those counties, either.

            So while I'm not at all arguing that your motivations for missing the flag are problematic, I don't think we can generalize from that, given the evidence in the other direction.

            by MissLaura on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 10:58:15 PM PDT

            •  Great entry.

              Also, the south fought under many different "Confederate Flags." The one they champion now was not the last one, nor the one used for the longest amount of time, I believe. It is the one the segregationists used to protest integration, and to support continued racist policies, however. When Georgia changed our state flag, they actually used a more historically acurate "Confedrate Flag" to base the design upon. It supports the south without supporting racism. Because of this knowledge, I know that anybody pushing what we now call the Confedrate Flag, is pushing racism.

              by gttim on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 05:49:53 AM PDT

        •  why this southern white flies the flag

          I wave the sonofabitch in the federal government's face to tell them to get the hell out of my life. That's what it means to the majority of southerners, and that undying foundation of the flag's meaning couldn't be more relevant.

          by retired on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 11:14:02 PM PDT

      •  does your south

        include southern blacks? they don't seem all that proud of that aspect of their history. whose heritage, whose history gets to represent the south? one would think there were other things about the south more worth celebrating or holding up as a collective symbol than the stars and bars. as for southern whites having their voices muzzled, you have got to be kidding me; southern whites are constantly held up as the "heartland," repository of all patriotism, the only authentic americans, and have been feted by the right wing as well as the DLC for well over a generation.
        

        by wu ming on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 10:07:25 PM PDT

        •  southern white culture.

          It represents the southern white culture. There were mostly bad things about the southern white culture, but there were also good things that white people anglo saxons can take pride in. Since dubya was elected, the southern w. culture is getting its due, but some people in the north or east have this superiority complex over the southern states. Whenever I go to new jersey or new york my cousins make so much fun of rednecks, and tractors, and incest. These are negative stereotypes that are propegated in the north, that just go to show that people need to make a conscious effort to actually study the southern values, before making a quick judgement.

          by desiunion on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 09:05:36 AM PDT

  •  I always understood it

    to mean "we like George Wallace and what he stands for, so screw you."

    by kineticdissent on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:04:04 PM PDT

    •  yea but

      What does it mean when he says, "be we all did what we could do."

      by desiunion on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:09:43 PM PDT

      •  Also

        Why does the chorus sing "boo boo boo!" after the "love the governor" line?  

        by johnny rotten on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:15:38 PM PDT

        •  on that one

          it sounds pretty mocking to me...mocking people who disagreed.

          now, bear in mind I have no conclusive evidence to my take on the lyrics.  all I have is ~10 years or so experience as a DJ, and I've played that song so many times I could vomit.

          by kineticdissent on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:47:23 PM PDT

      •  we all did...

        I take it to mean that they opposed George Wallace, but they accept the political reality that "in Birmingham they all love the governor" and still can love their home and Southern culture.

        I think the Watergate line is a kind of "methinks thou dost protest too much" observation. You know, it's good to hold politicians accountable when they're in the wrong, but perhaps the furor over Watergate--as if Nixon invented political dirty tricks and corruption--may have been a sign of a guilty conscience. Would Nixon's critics feel the same outrage and call for impeachment if it had been a Democrat, I think he wonders.  

        I take the Neil Young verse as nothing more than a little "mind your own business, you got your own race troubles up North and out West." It's a valid point. Randy Newman made a similar observation about Northern hypocrisy on race issues in his song "Rednecks." It doesn't let the South off the hook because racism also exists elsewhere in the country, but I think it's fair for Lynyrd Skynyrd to wonder why he put it all on Southern Man rather than writing about the problems in his own backyard.

        Anyway, it's a good song with a great guitar hook, and I can't imagine a "Southern Rock" tribute without it. It gets played on "Classic Rock" radio every day, throughout the country. There's nothing wrong with performing it at the Grammies. Lighten up.

        by frightwig on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 10:09:07 PM PDT

    •  asdf

      
      I always took the song's meaning to be like "We don't like you Yankees poking around down here, so get the hell out."

      Somewhere I remember hearing that a Skynyrd member was actually buried in a Neil Young shirt. With the exception of this tussle, they liked each other.

      by True Blue Boston on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:30:22 PM PDT

•  Well, I didn't watch the grammies

  but last night while watching either Saturday Night Live or the West Wing rerun, I heard do many commericals for the "Heartland" breakfast with sappy, sentimental music and pictures of ranchers. I live in BOSTON dammit. I don't want no stinking heartland breakfast. I want my latte.

  by lecsmith on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 07:56:47 PM PDT

  •  Latte?

    Dont you get a regular coffee at Dunk's?

    Whatevah.

    by ablington on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:00:54 PM PDT

  •  was it the SNL rerun

    with Ben Affleck in the gay marriage? I hate when SNL reruns make me laugh out loud but as a Bostonian I loved those stupid 'Sully & Denise' skits.

    by ablington on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:02:12 PM PDT

    •  No it was new, it had a skit about

      North Korea admitting they had nuclear weapons. I used to love those skits about Nomah.

      by lecsmith on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:13:56 PM PDT

•  Don't forget neil young's "Alabama"

  Young's other song about Alabama similarly decries the hypocrisy of slavery, discrimination, etc, though in less explicit terms--no lines about "bull whips cracking" here. Nevertheless, the "wheel in the ditch" and the "wheel on the track" represent pretty clearly the state's comprimising ambivalence on racial issues. Both are great songs, and I agree with the diarist: enthroning this song on national TV has offensive political undertones and overtones--celebrate a provincial culture characterized by bigotry at the expense of left wing counter culture. As a final insult, February happens to be Black History Month. Honoring this song was wrong for all kinds of reasons.  

  Oh Alabama
  The devil fools
  with the best laid plan.
  Swing low Alabama
  You got spare change
  You got to feel strange
  And now the moment
  is all that it meant.

  Alabama, you got
  the weight on your shoulders
  That's breaking your back.
  Your Cadillac
  has got a wheel in the ditch
  And a wheel on the track

  Oh Alabama
  Banjos playing
  through the broken glass
  Windows down in Alabama.
  See the old folks
  tied in white ropes
  Hear the banjo.
  Don't it take you down home?

  Alabama, you got
  the weight on your shoulders
  That's breaking your back.
  Your Cadillac
  has got a wheel in the ditch
  And a wheel on the track

  Oh Alabama.
  Can I see you
  and shake your hand.
  Make friends down in Alabama.
  I'm from a new land
  I come to you
  and see all this ruin
  What are you doing Alabama?
  You got the rest of the union
  to help you along
  What's going wrong?

  by monkeymind on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:03:41 PM PDT

•  conundrum

  Sweet Home Alabama - the lyrics are not only stupid and offensive, but also just plain lousy. But I have to say the music is actually a pretty darn fine piece of rock'n'roll.

  Neil Young, on the other hand, wrote so many incredible songs - and then he did that Let's Roll thing, which I could've really done without. So there.
  

  by brainwave on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:11:46 PM PDT

•  that's the beauty of this country..

  Green Day can diss the rednecks who played earlier, and Joss Stone and Melissa Etheridge can belt out Janis tunes and make me forget all the foolishness, good god, if Joss was single I'd fly to England to ask her out.  

  by jbou on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:20:25 PM PDT

•  I happened to tune in...

  during that song. It sucked then and it sucks now.

  But I believe it was in response to Young's song titled Alabama from his Harvest album.

  by Jim Riggs on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:25:39 PM PDT

•  Toby Keith and Billy Ray Cyrus duet n/t

  by thingamabob on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:31:53 PM PDT

•  I love this diary

  Stevie Ray Vaughn is a family favourite. He reached us right here in Canada through those PBS Austin City Limits concerts. I still miss him.

  Also, I find Art, such as expressed in the lyrics you posted is such a relief from politics. It's actually clearer to me than political discussion.

  Thank you.

  by Agathena on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:35:45 PM PDT

  •  Thise SRV Shows on Austin City Limits Are Great!

    I say that because they replay them all the time. You can see his guitar work so well. There's one show where he pulls a string. I don't play guitar but it was really neat how he dealt with it.

    I think the best Austin City Limits show ever was with your hommie Leonard Cohen. 1981. They showed a rerun of it a couple years ago and it was amazing.

    BTW, this is one American that thinks the best band in the world is the HIP. They rock! Not big in the lower 48 but they should be.

    by TheChanMan on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 09:37:30 PM PDT

•  Is Neil Young still a Republican?

  He sure was one for a while. I lost most of my respect for the man (though not for the music) when I learned that.

  The only thing that kept my respect was the Bridge School, and the benefits therefore.

  by Kitsap River on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:50:04 PM PDT

  •  Neil/Republicans

    He liked Ronald Reagan, I recall.

    by frightwig on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 10:13:05 PM PDT

  •  Not sure, but

    I saw him live during Gulf War the first and I seem to recall him saying or playing something kinda anti-war, to the extent that my mom said "so I guess he's not a republican any more."  

    by MissLaura on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 11:00:22 PM PDT

•  Oh Cmon!

  Give me a freakin break.  Does everything have to become political?  Sweet Home Alabama is a statement of pride - in THEIR HOME STATE.  Christ.  I don't give a crap what their history was, at the time Skynard wrote the song, he was defended the honor of HIS HOME.  Just as I do about my state.  And gee, we have McCarthy to cope with back in our past.

  I thought the show was excellent, outstanding.  There was NO Republican slant - if anything, it was strongly tilted to the liberal agenda.  Let's see, we had Green Day's American Idiot prominently featured, and it won an award.  We had an incredible tribute to Janis Joplin by Joss Stone and Melissa Etheridge.  And by damn, Melissa nailed it - sheer perfection.  Several artists were sporting white Peace armbands.  And U2 - does it get any more liberal than that?  Name me one conservative group that was featured.  You can't - there weren't any.  Even the country artists - Tim McGraw (liberal Dem), Keith Urban (Australian), and Gretchen Wilson (featured with a very radical country group more often than not, that happens to have a black rapper as a member).

  I'm a cowgirl, and country music is played at every event I go to with my horses.  I have to cope with rednecks almost daily.  Believe me, I recognize a Repub slant a million miles away.  You are way off base here.  Not all southerners are right wing, but even the liberals have a sense of pride in their hometowns.  

  by Miss Blue on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:50:32 PM PDT

  •  Yeah, wasn't that Joplin tribute great?

    I just recently watched Festival Express - if you like Joplin, you should check it out. A great performance of Cry Baby, and if you get the DVD there are some additional Joplin performances in the extras.

    by lesliet on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:57:54 PM PDT

  •  Pride in one's home state

    Is a dangerous thing when that home state is a hotbed of segregation, bigotry, and lynchings.  It's like the Freepers who are proud of America and hate to see us libruls put it down.  Blind alliegence to a nation, state, or even school is ignorant at best and usually dangerous.
    

    by Subterranean on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 09:36:39 PM PDT

    •  What are you supposed to do if you are German?

      You don't have to glorify the holocaust to be proud of German heritage and history if you are a German. So why can't Alabamans be proud of their state? Is everything Southerners do tainted by slavery? There are plenty of good things in the South that have nothing to do with slavery, racism and the confederacy. I don't like the Confederate flag but it doesn't mean you are a klansman if you do.

      Southerners get called ignorant so often people in media centers that they are right to be defensive. Nobody caricatures poor North Dakotas as backwards or poor California farmers as dumb as dirt. There is no monolithic South and it's counterproductive to suggest otherwise.

      by joejoejoe on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 11:14:28 PM PDT

      •  who is saying they shouldn't be?

        Not Me. I'm talking about Tim McGraw and that country chick's version of it.

        I don't think either one of them is even from Alabama. No matter what--you'll always have Bear Bryant and Keith Jackson. Rumblin', fumblin,'etc...

        by TheChanMan on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 04:01:38 AM PDT

•  just another bizarre Grammy moment

  I'm sorry but of all the things to pay a multi-musician homage to - Southern rock was somewhat odd. Skynyrd might have been somewhat enjoyable in the 70s, but I don't know about dredging up that shit now.

  Van Zant's intent was most likely harmless and inoffensive back then with Sweet Home Alabama, but over the years the song became an anthem for the "proud to be a redneck", Confederate flag waving types. So, I agree - it is uncomfortable watching that shit.

  I get into trouble with this, but I think that the rise of Country ("Hot, New Country") over the last few years across the entire country allows people to sink into a comfort zone of bigotry behind a wall of "traditional values".

  by HairOnFire on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 08:54:54 PM PDT

•  nauseating lyrics, ancient rockers

  rednecks on parade, tossing down the gauntlet at the grammies --- "In your face, Hollywood!"

  poor ol' Dickie Betts was up past his bedtime

  
  In birmingham they love the governor
  Now we all did what we could do

  Now watergate does not bother me
  Does your conscience bother you?
  Tell the truth

  These musicians publicly endorsed segregation, bigotry, and all the evil excesses of the Nixon era.  

  i think i will stand with green day

  by Rxtr2 on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 09:23:53 PM PDT

•  Green Day ROCK!

  Fuck Skynyrd, although that song is actually pretty good besides the lyrics.  

  Grammys?  Isn't that the show where the entertainment corporations pat themselves on their backs?  Lovely.

  by Subterranean on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 09:33:16 PM PDT

•  Gimme a fucking break

  Although I don't give a shit about southern rock, this diary is really whiny.

  At least it's rock, man.

  and GREEN DAY's "American Idiot" is the best fucking CD of the last two years!

  Rock on fuckers!

  land of make believe, and it don't believe in me
  

  by Sam Loomis on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 10:06:02 PM PDT

  •  oooh, check out

    Britney Spears on HBO right now....
    mmmm, Skinemax!

    by Sam Loomis on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 10:09:55 PM PDT

  •  Ten years n/t

    by RubDMC on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 10:44:08 PM PDT

  •  oh Look at you

    Whining about how whinny a diary is.

    BTE, I always thought Green Day kind of sucked. This albulms slightly better than garbage. Modest Mouse is ten times the band.

    by TheChanMan on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 04:05:35 AM PDT

•  Green Day's actually from Rodeo

  a little industrial town about 15 minutes north of Berkeley where the band really came into it's own. they're just not a San Francisco band.

  by colorless green ideas on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 11:10:31 PM PDT

•  Molly Hatchet.

  Didn't they put out a CD "Molly Hatchet's Greatest Hit" or something.

  It amazes me that they didn't have the staying power of The Beatles or The Rolling Stones.

  by gttim on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 05:54:13 AM PDT

  •  There's a gater in the bushes

    and he's calling your name
    He says, 'come on, boy, ya better make it on home again.'

    You gotta sing it with a real nassel type voice. I saw them once at the fair. A little hard to hear it with the tractor pull going on, however.

    by TheChanMan on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 05:42:24 PM PDT