"Sweet Home Alabama" is racist!?!?!

[madoka]

Since when did this song have anything to do with racism? I hear this song all the time, so I'm very surprised to learn this.

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Chicago police said on Monday they are investigating an incident caught on video during a weekend protest that appears to show a Chicago police car blasting the song "Sweet Home Alabama."

The 1974 song, by the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, has been taken by some as supporting former Alabama Governor George Wallace, a segregationist, but members of the band have said the lyrics were misunderstood.

The video was shot at the "Black Lives Matter" protest on the west side of the nation's third largest city on Saturday by photographer Gabriel Michael, according to the news website DNAinfo.com. Michael could not be reached immediately for comment.

The video shows an unmarked police car seems to be playing the song while driving along with several other Chicago police vehicles.

The video in question:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snviTYMXn7I

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Anything that rednecks like can be spun as racist. Period. Doesn't matter if it's intentional or not, if it's associated with pickup trucks with gunracks and confederate flags on them it's a no-no.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

It's not racist. He also references Neal Young's Strange Fruit in passing.

 

[MongGrel]

Anything that rednecks like can be spun as racist. Period. Doesn't matter if it's intentional or not, if it's associated with pickup trucks with gunracks and confederate flags on them it's a no-no.

This, more or less.

That would just be BS though.

 

[zinfamous]

I thought it was about Lynrd Skynrd being mad that Neil Young was a much better writer and musician than all of them, combined?

 

[SlitheryDee]

No, but "Daddy's Hands" by Holly Dunn is at least partially about child abuse.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I thought it was about Lynrd Skynrd being mad that Neil Young was a much better writer and musician than all of them, combined?

Writer maybe but, musician? I don't think so.

 

[Ruptga]

Duh, where have you been OP?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Home_Alabama#Controversy

 

[GHz_ghost]

It is not inherently racist, but it is in this context.

It's a douchey thing to do.

 

[madoka]

Duh, where have you been OP?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Home_Alabama#Controversy

Just how old are you that you'd be aware of a pop song controversy from 1974? I got the impression you were a young dbag, but maybe you're just an old one?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Just how old are you that you'd be aware of a pop song controversy from 1974? I got the impression you were a young dbag, but maybe you're just an old one?

Wiki's just his window on the world.

 

[Humpy]

OP asks what the song has to do with racism and in the same post links a video showing what the song has to do with racism.

The song now has something to do with being a dumbass as well.

It's all about that context.

 

[Ruptga]

I'm a 27 y/o dbag, thank you very much, but I've also had the wonderful fortune to grow up in a small town in the south. Or the midwest, Missouri is kindof a gray area. Either way, things change very slowly in that cultural cesspool, including taste in music. Between that and people's southern pride demanding they blast it from any vehicle they can at least every few months, I've heard it a lot and on at least a few occasions I've heard people talking about its racial baggage.

I don't have much of on opinion on it, personally, because I don't care about the song, I'm not a redneck, and different parts of the song can be taken whichever way a person's biases want them to be. How people react to the song is more interesting to me than the song is.

 

[Markbnj]

Anyone who thinks either the band or the song were racist should watch the documentary "Muscle Shoals" on Netflix.

 

[madoka]

OP asks what the song has to do with racism and in the same post links a video showing what the song has to do with racism.

The song now has something to do with being a dumbass as well.

It's all about that context.

You mean like how it was a Saturday before the Alabama game kind of context, Mr. Jumps to Conclusions?

 

[RU482]

the only thing I think of when I hear that song is Kentucky Fried Chicken

 

[Humpy]

You mean like how it was a Saturday before the Alabama game kind of context, Mr. Jumps to Conclusions?

Could be.

 

[wabbitslayer]

We all did what we could do.

 

[DigDog]

Big wheels keep on turning
Carry me home to see my kin
Singing songs about the south-land
I miss 'ole' 'bamy once again
And I think it's a sin

Well I heard Mister Young sing about her
Well I heard ole Neil put her down
Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
A southern man don't need him around any how

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

In Birmingham they love the Gov'nor
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
...

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 bout you?

Sweet home Alabama
..
Songwriters: VAN ZANT, RONNIE / ROSSINGTON, GARY ROBERT / KING, EDWARD C.
Sweet Home Alabama lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

so . much. racism.

 

[mpo]

What Merry Clayton (who sang backup on the song) had to say about participating on the song:

Clayton reveals that, although they were hired hands who often recorded their vocals when the main artists weren't even around, they had a surprising amount of freedom in the studio. There is, for instance, the session to do Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama," a song Clayton wanted no part of.

"The way Alabama was treating black people? Bombing churches? Nobody wanted to sing a song about Alabama back then, honey," Clayton says. "I was about to pull out of the session until my husband said, 'You need to sing that song, Merry. Maybe you're not on the front line in the South, protesting, but you can protest with that song.' "

That's what she and fellow background singer Clydie King did: "I got to the session and I told Clydie, 'We have to sing that lyric, "sweet home Alabama," like we're angry. Sing it through your teeth.' And I'm glad we did. It's one of the greatest sessions I've ever done."

http://www.twincities.com/ci_23578852/foreground-background-singer-merry-clayton-featured-20-feet

'20 Feet from Stardom' was a very good documentary. Her recollections of 'Gimme Shelter' were great and heartbreaking.

 

[Fingolfin269]

You know what's racist?

I wrote a text to someone mentioning that I was going to the store to buy a white and 2 coloreds.

That's when I realized thanks to this PC world I should probably clarify that I was talking about strands of Christmas lights. You know, just in case someone else might read that text and parse it out of context as racist.

 

[Rakehellion]

You know what's racist?

I wrote a text to someone mentioning that I was going to the store to buy a white and 2 coloreds.

That's when I realized thanks to this PC world I should probably clarify that I was talking about strands of Christmas lights. You know, just in case someone else might read that text and parse it out of context as racist.

Out of context it makes no sense at all.

 

[Rakehellion]

It is not inherently racist, but it is in this context.

It's a douchey thing to do.

Yeah, it's the kind of passive-aggressive racism you see from forum members here.

Why would a cop car blast loud music in the first place?

 

[Mai72]

I loved the song.

 

[Six]

LOL. Chicago Police are some the funniest, most unprofessional bunch of cops I've seen. For example, driver parks car in front of no parking spot and walks into some kind of a shop. CPD immediately pulls up, speed writes a ticket, slaps it on the windshield, and gets into his patrol car. Driver runs out to patrol car and starts arguing. Cop lower the driver side window. Driver sticks his head partially inside patrol car, and cop speeds off flinging the driver, all while yelling "neener neener neener" on the partol car's PA system.