When I initially heard about Neil Young's demand, my knee-jerk response was how the mighty have fallen. However, it wasn't very long before I was reminded that Neil Young has always been a scumbag. His song Southern Man was an attack on the culture and values of what we now associate with rural Trump supporters. Back then, Lynyrd Skynyrd…
When I initially heard about Neil Young's demand, my knee-jerk response was how the mighty have fallen. However, it wasn't very long before I was reminded that Neil Young has always been a scumbag. His song Southern Man was an attack on the culture and values of what we now associate with rural Trump supporters. Back then, Lynyrd Skynyrd wrote Sweet home Alabama in response, which was essentially the same invitation that most Trump supporters would offer to Neil Young today. Why don't you come say that to my face, you pathetic little hippie p$&&y?
Worth reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X in the same light. Malcolm mocked the media establishment which blamed primarily, often exclusively, the South. Some excepts if I may:
(1) The Deep South white press generally blacked me out. But they front-paged what I felt about Northern white and black Freedom Riders going South to "demonstrate. " I called it "ridiculous"; their own Northern ghettoes, right at home, had enough rats and roaches to kill to keep all of the Freedom Riders busy.
(2) I believe my own life mirrors this hypocrisy. I know nothing about the South. I am a creation of the Northern white man and of his hypocritical attitude toward the Negro.
So, yes. We can see how Neil Young was simply amplifying and perpetuating the presumed "woke" biases of his time. Those rednecks. Those bad rednecks. Don't look at us. Never at us. Look at those rednecks.
What's funny about Ronnie VanZandt writing that stanza about Neil Young was that Ronnie would probably have loved to get within arm's reach of Neil. Ronny was a prolific fist fighter with a hair trigger temper. It would have been great to see him get close enough to Neil to show him what he really thought instead of just writing a few lines about Neil into the lyrics of "Sweet Home Alabama".
When I initially heard about Neil Young's demand, my knee-jerk response was how the mighty have fallen. However, it wasn't very long before I was reminded that Neil Young has always been a scumbag. His song Southern Man was an attack on the culture and values of what we now associate with rural Trump supporters. Back then, Lynyrd Skynyrd wrote Sweet home Alabama in response, which was essentially the same invitation that most Trump supporters would offer to Neil Young today. Why don't you come say that to my face, you pathetic little hippie p$&&y?
I've been waiting for this comment. Thanks 👍
Worth reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X in the same light. Malcolm mocked the media establishment which blamed primarily, often exclusively, the South. Some excepts if I may:
(1) The Deep South white press generally blacked me out. But they front-paged what I felt about Northern white and black Freedom Riders going South to "demonstrate. " I called it "ridiculous"; their own Northern ghettoes, right at home, had enough rats and roaches to kill to keep all of the Freedom Riders busy.
(2) I believe my own life mirrors this hypocrisy. I know nothing about the South. I am a creation of the Northern white man and of his hypocritical attitude toward the Negro.
So, yes. We can see how Neil Young was simply amplifying and perpetuating the presumed "woke" biases of his time. Those rednecks. Those bad rednecks. Don't look at us. Never at us. Look at those rednecks.
What's funny about Ronnie VanZandt writing that stanza about Neil Young was that Ronnie would probably have loved to get within arm's reach of Neil. Ronny was a prolific fist fighter with a hair trigger temper. It would have been great to see him get close enough to Neil to show him what he really thought instead of just writing a few lines about Neil into the lyrics of "Sweet Home Alabama".