Lynyrd Skynyrd relaxes for a vintage photo at the height of their popularity in 1977

‘Sweet Home Alabama’answers ‘Southern Man
By JP Rool
September 1974
Back in the 1960s there used to be songs and “answer” songs. “Wolverton Mountain” and its answer
“I’m the Girl From Wolverton Mountain,” spring most freely to mind. The “answer” always picked up the theme of original and expanded your knowledge of the situation. In most cases, the answer never got as big as the question. But that was in the “60s. That’s a little different today. Right now on the radio you can hear an answer set of the 70s: “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Walk On.” The exchange actually was launched back in 1971 when Neil Young sang “Southern Man.” In it, he said: “Southern man, better keep you head/Don’t forget what your good book said/Southern change gonna come at last/Now your crosses are burnin’ fast – . ./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 crackin’/How long? How long? Southern man Seems some people- Southerners especially—took offense and a Southern band named Lynyrd Skynyrd put that opposition to music. “Sweet Home Alabama” is the “answer” to “Southern Man.” Lynyrd Skynyrd hails from Florida and has built a reputation for hard playing all across the bottom half of the country. Performing before a large Confederate flag, the band celebrates the joy of Southern living today.

Lynyrd Skynyrd performed at the Charleston Civic Center Sept. 22, and Neil Young’s question was raised and put down. Lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, who co-wrote “Alabama” with band members
Ed King and Gary Rossington, says he has nothing against-Neil Young”. “His music’s not our favorite
kind,” Van Zant says, “but the South’s different than other places.” What Van Zant dislikes about Neil Young’s “Southern Man” is that it is typical of the attitude Northerners (and that’s anybody who’s not a Southerner) hold about Dixie.

“It doesn’t admit that things can change,” Van Zant charges. “Whatever the South might have been
like, it isn’t necessarily that today. There’s a new feeling, a free spirit down here now,” he says.
Young, of course, refers to oppressions of blacks in Dixie, but the antibusing riots in Boston, of all places, show ignorance can be anywhere. Skynyrd has reacted to that “lub dat Dixieland” mentality with a response that “All that trouble’s behind us now. It’s just blue skies and friendly people on the good earth. The bare gray bones are beneath it. Buried. And leave’em there.”

Van Zant finds “Southern Man” an “ol” song about a past that’s dead. And best left forgotten. That’s why he sings: “Well, I heard Mr. Young sing about us./I heard old Neil put us down./I hope Neal Young will remember/A South man don’t need -him around/Anyhow.” But the cycle doesn’t end
there. Neil Young, who doesn’t dislike Lynyrd Skynyrd—in fact enjoys the band’s boogies, even “Sweet Home Alabama”—has responded to the tune with another answer. It’s called “Walk On” and in it Young admits he’s heard the criticism and seeks a truce. “I” hear some people been talkin’ me down./Bring up my name, pass it ’round./They don’t mention the happy times,/They do their thing. I do mine./Ooh, baby, that’s hard to change/I can’t tell them how to feel/Some get strong, some get strange/Sooner or later it all gets real—/Walk on He even adds a little Southern boogie shuffle and
some nice slide guitar as if to say, “Okay, Lynyrd, maybe I’ve got a little left to learn.” Does the string stop here or does the answer’s answer get an answer? We’ll just have to wait and listen.

Lynyrd Skynyrd's breakout album "Second Helping" in 1974

Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1977, Simple men from simple beginnings - Ronnie Van Zant and Gene Odom with Lynyrd Skynyrd Band

Lynyrd Skynyrd performs before the multitudes in 1977

Lynyrd Skynyrd during photo shoot in Jonesboro, Georgia 1973. This rare vintage photo is one that did not make the pronounced album cover.

One of the many iconic symbols of Southern Rock Music. Lynyrd Skynyrd Rebel Flag. LynyrdSkynyrdDixie.com