What did Neil Young sing in “Southern Man” that pissed off Skynard so much that they nailed him in “Sweet Home Alabama”. It’s hard to understand Young’s nasaly voice sometimes ya know.
I would also suggest that you checked the lyrics to the song Alabama on the Harvest album.
Probably this incredibly, vividly accurate portrayal of everyday Southern life by someone who’s obviously seen it from first-hand experience:
“Southern Man,” from After the Goldrush (1970)
Some lyrics:
*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?
.
.
.
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?
*
You can see how this might offend some people.
OTOH, I have seen several interviews with members of Skynyrd where they basically claim they were goofing on Young and that there are no hard feelings.
I don’t know whether that is PR or real, but I am pretty sure that Young has appeared at the same venue as Lynyrd Skynyrd without anyone needing to forcibly keep them apart.
From a chat (I don’t know the year) posted on the Lynyrd Skynyrd Official Internet Home Page:
There is also Warren Zevon’s rejoinder to Sweet Home Alambama: – Play it All Night Long
Daddy’s doing sister Sally
Gradma’s dying of cancer now
The cattle all of have brucilocis
We’ll get through somehow
I’m going down to the Dew Drop Inn
To see if I can drink enough
There ain’t much to country living:
Sweat, piss, jizz and blood
Sweet Home Alambama
Play that dead band’s song
Turn those speakers up full blast
Play it all night long
(Preview, you moron.)
I think the confusion started when Lynyrd Skynyrd did not realize Neil was singing about his people in Southern CANADA, NOT THE UNITED STATES!!!
I mean, look at all the oppression that goes on in Leamington and Windsor, Ontario, for god’s sakes! WE WILL NOT BE SILENT!
But seriously ladies and germs . . . I spoke to someone that was from Jacksonville many moons ago, and he said like Skynyrd he and most Southerners are still big Neil Young fans, they just didn’t agree with what he said about them. He also said, and this was in the 1980s, “if you talk shit about Skynyrd down there, you’ll get knifed.”
He was of course speaking for himself, not all Southerners, but I think that statement about Young kind of reflects some of what was posted here.
Just out of curiosity . . .did Young ever perform that song in the South, and if so, what happened?
and of course NY answered LS with “Walk On” off of ON THE BEACH.
“hear some people putting me down,
take my name and pass it round…
they do their thing and I do mine”
And you can hear a sample of Neil singing the words “Southern Man” in his trademark nasal whine right after Van Zant sings “Well, I heard ole’ Neal put her down.” It helps to have headphones maybe.