Sweet Home Alabama by Rhonda_Kaye

Rhonda_Kaye - Sweet Home Alabama

Rhonda_Kaye

Apr 21, 2025 03:31pm

I added some harmony and tyfl! From Wikipedia, The song was written in response to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Young" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Neil Young</a>'s "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Man_(song)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Southern Man</a>" that was released in 1970 because it took the entire South to task for the bloody history of slavery and its aftermath.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Home_Alabama#cite_note-SouthernMan-4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">[4]</a> Young is name-checked in "Sweet Home Alabama"'s lyrics.It reached number 8 on the US chart in 1974 and was the band's second hit single.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Home_Alabama#cite_note-5" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">[5]</a> None of the three writers of the song were from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Alabama</a>; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronnie_Van_Zant" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Ronnie Van Zant</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Rossington" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Gary Rossington</a> were both born in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacksonville,_Florida" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Jacksonville, Florida</a>, while <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_King" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Ed King</a> was from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glendale,_California" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Glendale, California</a>. In an interview with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_%26_Gun" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Garden & Gun</a>, Rossington explained the writing process. "I had this little riff," he said. "It’s the little picking part and I kept playing it over and over when we were waiting on everyone to arrive for rehearsal. Ronnie and I were sitting there, and he kept saying, 'play that again'. Then Ronnie wrote the lyrics and Ed and I wrote the music."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Home_Alabama#cite_note-6" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">[6]</a>"Sweet Home Alabama" was a major chart hit for a band whose previous singles had "lazily sauntered out into release with no particular intent". The hit led to two TV rock show offers, which the band turned down.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Home_Alabama#cite_note-Dupree-7" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">[7]</a> In addition to the original appearance on Second Helping, the song has appeared on numerous Lynyrd Skynyrd collections and live albums. One verse of the song includes the line, "Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers/And they've been known to pick a song or two." This refers to the town of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_Shoals,_Alabama" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Muscle Shoals, Alabama</a>, a popular location for recording popular music because of the "sound" crafted by local recording studios and back-up musicians. "The Swampers" referred to in the lyrics are the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_Shoals_Rhythm_Section" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section</a>. These musicians, who crafted the "Muscle Shoals Sound", were inducted into the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama_Music_Hall_of_Fame" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Alabama Music Hall of Fame</a> in 1995<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Home_Alabama#cite_note-13" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">[13]</a> for a "Lifework Award for Non-Performing Achievement" and into the Musician's Hall Of Fame in 2008 (the performers inducted into the latter were the four founding Swampers—<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Beckett" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Barry Beckett</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Hawkins_(drummer)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Roger Hawkins</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hood" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">David Hood</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Johnson_(musician)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Jimmy Johnson</a>—plus Pete Carr, Clayton Ivey, Randy McCormack, Will McFarlane, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spooner_Oldham" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Spooner Oldham</a>).<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Home_Alabama#cite_note-14" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">[14]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Home_Alabama#cite_note-15" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">[15]</a> The nickname "The Swampers" was given to the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section by producer Denny Cordell during a recording session by singer/songwriter <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Russell" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Leon Russell</a>, in reference to their 'swampy' sound.Part of the reference comes from the 1971–1972 demo reels that Lynyrd Skynyrd had recorded in Muscle Shoals with Johnson as a producer/recording engineer. Johnson helped refine many of the songs first heard publicly on the Pronounced album, and it was Van Zant's "tip of the hat" to Johnson for helping out the band in the early years and essentially giving the band its first break.Lynyrd Skynyrd remains connected to Muscle Shoals, having since recorded a number of works in the city and making it a regular stop on their concert tours.The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PBS" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">PBS</a> show <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Lens" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Independent Lens</a> aired a documentary on Muscle Shoals and its place in music history in mid-April 2014.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Home_Alabama#cite_note-16" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">[16]</a> <img src="https://singsnap.imgix.net/message-board/threads/MIFQ/2015eec562_WPKN_media.png">