[punkrockmonday #???] Drive By Truckers - Three Great Alabama Icons; Ronnie and Neil

From their great album Southern Rock Opera ("Ronnie and Neil", actually a much better song, is after the jump). The narrator could be me, at least with respect to growing up in Bear Bryant era Alabama and having no appreciation for football.

After the jump, a picture of Lynyrd Skynyrd lead singer Ronnie Van Zant in a Neil Young T-Shirt (which he wore often in concert) and a picture of Neil Young in a Lynyrd Skynyrd T-Shirt, as well as an embed and lyrics to one of the Truckers' masterpieces, "Ronnie and Neil."

First some pictures. Here's Ronnie in his well worn Neil Young t shirt (the classic "Tonight's the Night" album cover). Not only was this worn in concert, but also on the cover of Skynyrd's Street Survivors.

Now, Neil Young in a classic Skynyrd shirt. One should also note that in the concert film "Rust Never Sleeps" Crazy Horse's guitarist is wearing a Skynyrd t-shirt.

I should also close with two things. First Ronnie on all those confederate battle flags:

However, the band had serious reservations about the label they were tagged with. Particularly troubling was the Confederate flag that often hung behind the stage. In 1975, Van Zant mused, “That was strictly an MCA gimmick to start us off with some label. It was useful at first, but by now it’s embarrassing except in Europe, where they really like all that stuff because they think it’s macho American.” The “stars and bars” that eventually began popping up in the band’s crowds became more than embarrassing. It was bad enough to be portrayed as ignorant hayseeds. It was entirely another to be categorized as racist. (Glide Magazine) 

Finally, the Drive By Truckers again, with the aptly titled, "Ronnie and Neil" (lyrics after the embed). One of the nice things about the song is that it actually interprets "Sweet Home Alabama," pointing out that the Muscle Shoals lyrics were part of Skynyrd's love letter to the blues and R&B scene there.

Church blew up in Birmingham
Four little black girls killed for no goddamn good reason
All this hate and violence can't come to no good end
A stain on the good name.
A whole lot of good people dragged threw the blood and glass
Blood stains on their good names and all of us take the blame

Meanwhile in North Alabama, Wilson Pickett comes to town
To record that sweet soul music, to get that Muscle Shoals sound

Meanwhile in North Alabama, Aretha Franklin comes to town
To record that sweet soul music, to get that Muscle Shoals sound

And out in California, a rock star from Canada writes a couple of great songs about the
Bad shit that went down
"Southern Man" and "Alabama" certainly told some truth
But there were a lot of good folks down here and Neil Young wasn't around

Meanwhile in North Alabama, Lynyrd Skynyrd came to town
To record with Jimmy Johnson at Muscle Shoals Sound
And they met some real good people, not racist pieces of shit
And they wrote a song about it and that song became a hit

Ronnie and Neil Ronnie and Neil
Rock stars today ain't half as real
Speaking there minds on how they feel
Let them guitars blast for Ronnie and Neil

Now Ronnie and Neil became good friends their feud was just in song
Skynyrd was a bunch of Neil Young fans and Neil he loved that song
So He wrote "Powderfinger" for Skynyrd to record
But Ronnie ended up singing "Sweet Home Alabama" to the lord

And Neil helped carry Ronnie in his casket to the ground
And to my way of thinking, us southern men need both of them around

Ronnie and Neil Ronnie and Neil Rock stars today ain't half as real
Speaking their minds on how they feel
Let them guitars blast for Ronnie and Neil