Posted on 03/30/2005 4:35:33 AM PST by Chi-townChief
Maybe it was during the Grammy Awards, when an all-star band jammed to this song onstage, reminding us of a time when you had to play an instrument to be considered a musician. Maybe it was when I was at P.J. Clarke's on State Street on the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day, and green-clad revelers of all ages started dancing when the song came on the jukebox. I didn't see a man who danced with his wife, but I did see a girl who wasn't born when the song was released -- and she was singing along with every word, as if it had been her homecoming theme.
Maybe it was when I heard the song as the theme for a NASCAR video game.
Maybe it was when Hilary and Hailey Duff appeared at an event at the W Hotel City Center on Adams a couple of weeks ago, and the crowd went wild when DJ AM incorporated the song's famous opening riff into his mix.
Maybe it was when the song popped up during a screening of the upcoming Matthew McConaughey-Penelope Cruz movie "Sahara" -- just the latest of many, many, many films to use this tune on the soundtrack.
Maybe it was all those factors, building to a crescendo.
All I know is that somewhere along the way, it hit me.
"Sweet Home Alabama" is the greatest rock and roll song of all time.
Some Lynyrd Skynyrd purists will tell you that "Sweet Home Alabama" isn't even the greatest Skynyrd song of all time, that the honors should go to "Tuesday's Gone" or some lesser-known album cut. (But probably not the overrated "Freebird.") Still, no Lynyrd Skynyrd song, and few rock songs from any band, have cut such a wide and lasting swath through the popular culture, while somehow retaining power and freshness.
'Big wheels keep on turnin' '
When I hear the first notes of "Stairway to Heaven" or "Smoke on the Water," I lunge for the radio dial. Enough is enough. When I hear the first notes of "Sweet Home Alabama," well, I turn it up.
The opening guitar lick is one of the most recognizable and electrifying intros in the history of popular music, right up there with the first notes of "Ohio," "Layla," "Baba O'Reilly" and "Revolution."
The lead vocals are muscular and clear and unapologetic.
Everybody knows the first line: "Big wheels keep on turnin.' " Not everybody knows the second line ("Carry me home to see my kin"), but it doesn't matter, you can keep singing anyway and catch up with "And I think it's a sin, yeah."
The chorus is just about perfect. You cannot and should not resist singing along with it.
The guitar work is killer.
The chick-singer background work is heavenly.
The lyrics matter. Yes, they're a bit incendiary. The founding members of Lynyrd Skynyrd were from Florida, and they embraced the Confederate flag as a stage prop. "Sweet Home Alabama" was written in part as a response to Neil Young's "Southern Man," and it includes a line seemingly sympathetic to Gov. George Wallace. But Ronnie Van Zant and his bandmates in Skynyrd also recorded "The Ballad of Curtis Lowe," an important song that embraced black music and spoke of the young Van Zant's rebellion against institutional racism.
It's everywhere
Taken as a whole and in the context of the times, "Sweet Home Alabama" is not in any way a racist song. Neil Young understood that, and so did Jimmy Carter, a liberal who welcomed the band's support.
Enough with the defense. If I'm casting my vote for the song with the best message about tolerance and peace and love, I could come up with countless better selections, from "Turn! Turn! Turn!" by the Byrds to "What's Going On?" by Marvin Gaye.
But we're talking pure rock. And as piece of pure rock, "Sweet Home Alabama" kicks ass.
It's also a pop culture touchstone, more so now than 30 years ago. "Sweet Home Alabama" has been featured in "Forrest Gump," "The Girl Next Door" and "To Die For," among other films. Of course there's also the movie "Sweet Home Alabama," with a cover version from Jewel.
In "Con Air," when the inmates take over the plane and party to the sounds of "Alabama," Steve Buscemi's Garland Greene character makes the immortal observation: "Define irony: a bunch of idiots dancing around on a plane to a song made famous by a band that died in a plane crash."
Then there's the scene in "8 Mile" when Eminem's B-Rabbit customizes the lyrics to reflect the sad state of his own life: "Cuz I live at home in a trailer/Mom I'm comin' home to you!"
Over the last five decades, there have been enough great rock and roll songs to make an iPod cry. Rolling Stone magazine recently listed its top 500, with Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" at the top. I could list 100 stronger contenders, from "Won't Get Fooled Again" to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" to "Hey Jude" to "November Rain" -- but none surpasses "Sweet Home Alabama."
Turn it up.
Nope. I am 45. They were listening to it in the 1960s, when it was a big deal for older people to listen to any rock and roll.
" Honey "
See the Tree how big it's grown
But Friend it hasn't been too long
It wasn't big.
I laughed at her and she got mad
The first day that she planted it
Was just a Twig
Then the first Snow came
And she ran out to brush the Snow away
So it wouldn't die
Came runnin' in all excited
Slipped and almost hurt herself
And I laughed 'til I cried
She was always young at Heart
Kinda dumb and kinda smart
And I loved her so
And I surprised her with a Puppy
Kept me up all Christmas Eve
Some Years ago
And it would sure embarrass her
When I came home from workin' late
'Cause I would know
That she'd been sittin' there and cryin'
Over some sad and silly
Late, late Show
And Honey I miss you
And I'm being good
And I'd love to be with you
If only I could
......................
Should I just duck, or run?
For all out guitar, The Outlaws' "Green Grass and High Tides" is a winner. About 10 minutes of solid overlapping guitar licks.
Uughh....
Both. Now.
Speaking of Dire Straits, I always liked the opening of "Walk of Life"... No guitar licks but it is still kinda cool and in the right frame of mind, it'll get me going.
Well, thank you for that, Skooz. I started feeling really old there for a second. My MIL loves Credence, and she's 78. Music makes the world go 'round, eh?
Same here.
Anything by George Thourogood and the Destroyers or Bo Diddley will get my foot to tapping.
" I Drink Alone !!!"
*snicker* One of my favorite scenes in that movie!!
For some good Doobies I'd recommend the Vices/Habits album and Stampede. Songs such as Road Angel, Neal's Fandango. Any Doobies, pre-Michael MacDonald.
One of the fondest memories I have is one of the only times I carried the ball in a football game, the band busts into "25 Or 6 to 4", and the music pumps me up for an extra 15 yds and a touchdown. The only touchdown I scored in my sophomore year.
Thorogood totally kicks ass on old Hank's "Move It on Over." I saw him and Bo together in a bar about 20 years ago. Not too shabby!
I bet that was a great show!
Hank Williams
JAMBALAYA
Goodbye, Joe, me gotta go, me oh my oh.
Me gotta go, pole the pirogue down the bayou.
My Yvonne, the sweetest one, me oh my oh.
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou.
Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and fillet gumbo
'cause tonight I'm gonna see my ma cher amio.
Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gayo,
son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou.
Thibodaux, Fontaineaux, the place is buzzin',
kinfolk come to see Yvonne by the dozen.
Dress in style and go hog wild, me oh my oh.
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou.
Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and fillet gumbo
'cause tonight I'm gonna see my ma cher amio.
Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gayo,
son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou.
Settle down far from town, get me a pirogue
and I'll catch all the fish in the bayou.
Swap my mon to buy Yvonne what she need-o.
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou.
Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and fillet gumbo
'cause tonight I'm gonna see my ma cher amio.
Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gayo,
son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou.
- Hank Williams
"Swamp Music" COOKS!!! If you want to hear another great piece of guitar heaven, listen to "Come On a My Kitchen" on Shades of Two Worlds by the Allman Bros. An' while your at it, don't miss DESERT BLUES!!
Anybody post that lyric ought to take his ground and take his lickin's....
"When I hear the first notes of "Stairway to Heaven" or "Smoke on the Water," I lunge for the radio dial. Enough is enough. When I hear the first notes of "Sweet Home Alabama," well, I turn it up."
When I read this I thought, "Really! This is so true!" And just proves the point that "Sweet Home Alabama" is, indeed, the greatest Rock and Roll song of all time!
"And what whiny, sniveling, condescending hippie song ever deserved a rebuttal more than Neil Young's "Southern Man"?"
Don't forget that Neil Young is a Canuck from Canuckistan! Just like Peter Jennings. And so many other America-haters.
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