Album:
The song is on the album Second Helping.
Songwriters:
Ed King, Gary Rossington, Ronnie Van Zant
Producer:
Al Kooper
Record label of Australian release:
MCA
Sweet Home Alabama from the 2018 DVD release Live in Atlantic City:
Wikipedia:
None of the three writers of the song were from Alabama; Ronnie Van Zant and Gary Rossington were both born in Jacksonville, Florida, while Ed King was from Glendale, California.
Lynyrd Skynyrd used a Confederate flag in shows but many fans were critical of this. On CNN in 2012, members of the band said they had discontinued the use of Confederate imagery, because they did not want to be associated with racists who adopted the flag. However, protests from some fans forced them to bring it back.
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Home_Alabama and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynyrd_Skynyrd
Songfacts:
Lynyrd Skynyrd is from Jacksonville, Florida. They wrote this song about their impressions of Alabama and as a tribute to the studio musicians at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, where they recorded from 1970-1972. The studios gained fame during the ’60s and ’70s when it became the vogue thing for artists like Bo Diddley, Aretha Franklin and many big southern rock groups to record there.
Some of the lyrics are a jab at Neil Young:
“I hope Neil Young will remember
A southern man don’t need him around anyhow”
Young had written songs like Southern Man and Alabama, which implied that people in the American South were racist and stuck in the past.
Read more: www.songfacts.com/facts/lynyrd-skynyrd/sweet-home-alabama
Also by Lynyrd Skynyrd: Free Bird
This song is also on our Spotify playlist Bang a Gong – the 70s
New to Bang a Gong? Click HERE to learn more about us.