neil young/skynyrd bash

"Sweet Home Alabama" was an answer to two controversial songs, "Southern Man" and "Alabama" by Neil Young, which were critical of social conditions in the South. "We thought Neil was shooting all the ducks in order to kill one or two," said Ronnie Van Zant at the time (Dupree 1974).
Van Zant's musical response, however, was equally controversial, with references to Alabama Governor George Wallace and the Watergate scandal. Despite (or perhaps because of) the debate, the song has become one of the most popular examples of Southern rock. It reached the top ten of the US charts in 1974 and was the band's second hit single

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Home_Alabama_%28song%29

Comments from Patterson Hood (of DBT): "I wrote this song to tell of the misunderstood friendship between Ronnie VanZant and Neil Young, who were widely believed to be bitter adversaries, but were in truth very good friends and mutual admirers."

Ronnie & Neil:

"Church blew up in Birmingham
Four little black girls killed for no goddamn good reason
All this hate and violence can't come to no good end
A stain on the good name.
A whole lot of good people dragged threw the blood and glass
Blood stains on their good names and all of us take the blame

Meanwhile in North Alabama, Wilson Pickett comes to town
To record that sweet soul music, to get that Muscle Shoals sound

Meanwhile in North Alabama, Aretha Franklin comes to town
To record that sweet soul music, to get that Muscle Shoals sound

And out in California, a rock star from Canada writes a couple of great songs about the
Bad shit that went down
"Southern Man" and "Alabama" certainly told some truth
But there were a lot of good folks down here and Neil Young wasn't around

Meanwhile in North Alabama, Lynyrd Skynyrd came to town
To record with Jimmy Johnson at Muscle Shoals Sound
And they met some real good people, not racist pieces of shit
And they wrote a song about it and that song became a hit

Ronnie and Neil Ronnie and Neil
Rock stars today ain't half as real
Speaking there minds on how they feel
Let them guitars blast for Ronnie and Neil

Now Ronnie and Neil became good friends their feud was just in song
Skynyrd was a bunch of Neil Young fans and Neil he loved that song
So He wrote "Powderfinger" for Skynyrd to record
But Ronnie ended up singing "Sweet Home Alabama" to the lord

And Neil helped carry Ronnie in his casket to the ground
And to my way of thinking, us southern men need both of them around

Ronnie and Neil Ronnie and Neil
Rock stars today ain't half as real
Speaking their minds on how they feel
Let them guitars blast for Ronnie and Neil"

PBM

PissBottleMan wrote:

Comments from Patterson Hood (of DBT): "I wrote this song to tell of the misunderstood friendship between Ronnie VanZant and Neil Young, who were widely believed to be bitter adversaries, but were in truth very good friends and mutual admirers."

Ronnie & Neil:

"Church blew up in Birmingham
Four little black girls killed for no goddamn good reason
All this hate and violence can't come to no good end
A stain on the good name.
A whole lot of good people dragged threw the blood and glass
Blood stains on their good names and all of us take the blame

Meanwhile in North Alabama, Wilson Pickett comes to town
To record that sweet soul music, to get that Muscle Shoals sound

Meanwhile in North Alabama, Aretha Franklin comes to town
To record that sweet soul music, to get that Muscle Shoals sound

And out in California, a rock star from Canada writes a couple of great songs about the
Bad shit that went down
"Southern Man" and "Alabama" certainly told some truth
But there were a lot of good folks down here and Neil Young wasn't around

Meanwhile in North Alabama, Lynyrd Skynyrd came to town
To record with Jimmy Johnson at Muscle Shoals Sound
And they met some real good people, not racist pieces of shit
And they wrote a song about it and that song became a hit

Ronnie and Neil Ronnie and Neil
Rock stars today ain't half as real
Speaking there minds on how they feel
Let them guitars blast for Ronnie and Neil

Now Ronnie and Neil became good friends their feud was just in song
Skynyrd was a bunch of Neil Young fans and Neil he loved that song
So He wrote "Powderfinger" for Skynyrd to record
But Ronnie ended up singing "Sweet Home Alabama" to the lord

And Neil helped carry Ronnie in his casket to the ground
And to my way of thinking, us southern men need both of them around

Ronnie and Neil Ronnie and Neil
Rock stars today ain't half as real
Speaking their minds on how they feel
Let them guitars blast for Ronnie and Neil"

PBM

Beat me to it.

DiRtyFranK38 wrote:

interesting. then why would they say something dissing neil though.

Have you never dissed a friend in jest? You know....yanked their chain??

BTW, this fine state, Alabama, is not full of racist pieces of shit or KKK members or church bombers or stupid rednecks. A few apples made the whole barrel look bad.

Like it was said before Ronnie thought Neil was putting down everyone in the south, as opposed to just the evil ones. They eventually become good friends and Neil says that Sweet Home Alabama is one of his all-time favorite songs. Like PBM was saying DBT especially on the Southern Rock Opera album go into their relationship a lot. I am a huge Neil Young fan as well as a huge Lynyrd Skynyrd fan. You should look into Ronnie's lyrics more on other songs not just Sweet Home Alabama. He is truly a poet as is Neil. This new Tribute band they call Lynryd Skynyrd that plays now is terrible in my opinion and it makes the original Skynyrd from the past look bad. They should not use the Skynyrd name with I believe it has one surviving member from the original band. The original Skynyrd from the 70's was magical. Anyways I digress...

It's covered in this podcast too:

http://www.lyricsundercover.com/

Episode 65 (the top one) looks at Southern Man & Sweet Home Alabama

And Neil did tag the chorus to Sweet Home Alabama onto the end of Southern Man on his show on 11/12/77 too, as a nod to Ronnie's passing.

And there's also this from the great analysis on this subject over at Thrashers Wheat:

So were Neil and Skynyrd were really friends or foes? If you look closely at the cover photo of the last Lynyrd Skynyrd album "Street Survivors", you can see Ronnie Van Zant wearing a Neil Young "Tonight's the Night" album cover t-shirt.

Or, as Fred Mills puts it in his book review of Lynyrd Skynyrd: Remembering The Free Birds Of Southern Rock by Gene Odom, "[Ronnie Van Zant would] just as soon go onstage wearing one of several Neil Young T-shirts that he owned in order to fuck with any yahoos in the crowd who missed the humor and irony of the “Sweet Home Alabama” lyrics."

And Kenny C. posted on the comments another interesting t-shirt observation: In the concert film "Rust Never Sleeps", Billy Talbot, the Crazy Horse bass player, is wearing a Lynyrd Skynyrd t-shirt! It's the Skynyrd shirt that looks like a Jack Daniels whiskey label. Just something else to ponder...


It seems that whatever grudges Lynyrd Skynyrd had for Neil's music may have been resolved - if there ever was any feud to begin with. From an interview with Ronnie Van Zant:

"We wrote Alabama as a joke. We didn't even think about it - the words just came out that way. We just laughed like hell, and said 'Ain't that funny'... We love Neil Young, we love his music..."

http://www.thrasherswheat.org/jammin/lynyrd.htm

scot88 wrote:

hahaha, dude, the guitar solos and riffs in most skynyrd songs shit all over neil's playing. just listen to the freebird solo, and the lead guitar in that smell. neil simply cannot compare.

i enjoy both, but i have to say, i like skynyrd a hell of a lot more than neil.

redneck.

merkinball wrote:

And there's also this from the great analysis on this subject over at Thrashers Wheat:

So were Neil and Skynyrd were really friends or foes? If you look closely at the cover photo of the last Lynyrd Skynyrd album "Street Survivors", you can see Ronnie Van Zant wearing a Neil Young "Tonight's the Night" album cover t-shirt.

Or, as Fred Mills puts it in his book review of Lynyrd Skynyrd: Remembering The Free Birds Of Southern Rock by Gene Odom, "[Ronnie Van Zant would] just as soon go onstage wearing one of several Neil Young T-shirts that he owned in order to fuck with any yahoos in the crowd who missed the humor and irony of the “Sweet Home Alabama” lyrics."

And Kenny C. posted on the comments another interesting t-shirt observation: In the concert film "Rust Never Sleeps", Billy Talbot, the Crazy Horse bass player, is wearing a Lynyrd Skynyrd t-shirt! It's the Skynyrd shirt that looks like a Jack Daniels whiskey label. Just something else to ponder...


It seems that whatever grudges Lynyrd Skynyrd had for Neil's music may have been resolved - if there ever was any feud to begin with. From an interview with Ronnie Van Zant:

"We wrote Alabama as a joke. We didn't even think about it - the words just came out that way. We just laughed like hell, and said 'Ain't that funny'... We love Neil Young, we love his music..."

http://www.thrasherswheat.org/jammin/lynyrd.htm

you beat me to it i was about to pull up this page and put the same shit on here.

I mean neil wrote powderfinger for them to do but it just did not work out that way so neil recorded it.

intodeep wrote:

Well hard to argue with a personal opinion, but my opinion differs greatly

As for guitar playing their are many folks out there that have better chops then neil on guitar. That said those who love his playing generally love it for the feeling neil evokes with that playing. Neil really is good at setting a tone for his songs and his solo's can be simple one note solo's (cinnamon girl) but still sound awesome.

I mean the feeling he evokes on songs like Cortez the Killer and Like a Hurricane are awesome to me.

So yeah maybe the guys in Skynard can play "better" but neil plays with a purpose to me and that is what i love about him.

As for lyrics... man it is not even close neil can pump out some lines that will just hit me right in the heart.

Skynard.... not so much a couple songs maybe but i could name off the top of my head if i had to 20 neil songs that just are special to me.


But i'm not downing your opinion i just disagree... A LOT

my post was in response to someone who said neil was a "beast at the guitar." sorry, but when i think of a "beast at the guitar", one note solos don't really cut it.

different strokes i guess.