Lynyrd Skynyrd – Sweet Home Alabama

First video, above, has been recorded live on 7/2/1977 at Oakland Coliseum, in Oakland, CA.

Second video (below) is a live recording from August 21, 1976 at Knebworth.  The show has gone down in Lynyrd Skynyrd history as one of the band’s greatest performances. The 1976 Knebworth show features Ronnie Van Zant’s iconic vocals and their famed triple guitar attack of Gary Rossington, Allen Collins and Steve Gaines in front of a crowd estimated between 150,000 and 200,000.

Embed

Copy and paste this HTML code into your webpage to embed.

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Sweet Home Alabama

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Sweet Home Alabama (Live at Knebworth '76)06:17

Sweet Home Alabama from the album Second Helping, released in 1974

The story of “Sweet Home Alabama” begins not in Alabama but in Jacksonville, Florida. That’s where, in 1964, five teenagers formed what would eventually become the iconic rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. It wasn’t until five years after getting together that they finally settled on the name Lynyrd Skynyrd though, after their former P.E. teacher Leonard Skinner who penalized guitarist Gary Rossington for his long hair because it was against the high school’s policy.
In 1972, the band, then comprised of lead vocalist Ronnie Van Zant, drummer Bob Burns, guitarists Allen Collins and Gary Rossington, bassist Leon Wilkeson, and keyboardist Billy Powell released their first self-titled album, followed by another, Second Helping, in 1974. The first track was a huge hit. Called “Sweet Home Alabama,” the single reached number eight on U.S. charts—its popularity due, at least in part, to a controversy hidden in the verses.
Well, maybe hidden isn’t the right word. Lynyrd Skynyrd directly name-dropped their supposed adversary, Neil Young, in the song.

“WELL I HEARD MISTER YOUNG SING ABOUT HER/ WELL I HEARD OLD NEIL PUT HER DOWN/ WELL, I HOPE NEIL YOUNG WILL REMEMBER/ A SOUTHERN MAN DON’T NEED HIM AROUND ANYHOW”

Big wheels keep on turning
Carry me home to see my kin
Singing songs about the Southland
I miss Alabamy once again
And I think it’s a sin, yes

Well I heard Mister Young sing about her
Well, I heard ol’ Neil put her down
Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
A Southern man don’t need him around, anyhow

Sweet home Alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet Home Alabama
Lord, I’m coming home to you

In Birmingham they love the governor, (boo! boo! boo!)
Now we all did what we could do
Now Watergate does not bother me
Does your conscience bother you?
Tell the truth

Sweet home Alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet Home Alabama
Lord, I’m coming home to you

Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers
And they’ve been known to pick a song or two
Lord they get me off so much
They pick me up when I’m feeling blue
Now how about you?

Sweet home Alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet Home Alabama
Lord, I’m coming home to you

C’mon, Pop. Don’t let it stop there.

Visits: 2