"Sweet Home Alabama" Acoustic "Guitar" Cover "Lynyrd Skynyrd" "Kid Rock" "Lyrics" "Al Robitaille"

To learn this version of Sweet Home from a slower demonstration please go to:
   • "Sweet Home Alabama" While Wife Sleeps Ups...  

For a super slo-motion video (complete with tab) of the solo:    • Tabbed Solo to Sweet Home Alabama in Slow ...  

For my latest videosGo to    / alrobitaille  .

Lyrics and some chords at bottom of this video description :)

If you cut and paste them into your word processor/editor it may line the chords up a little better over the lyrics.

"Sweet Home Alabama" is a song by Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd that first appeared in 1974 on their second album, Second Helping.
• It reached #8 on the US charts in 1974, and was the band's second hit single.

Creation and recording

At a band practice shortly after bassist Ed King had switched to guitar, King heard fellow guitarist Gary Rossington playing a guitar riff that inspired him (in fact, this riff is still heard in the final version of the song and is played during the verses as a counterpoint to the main D-C+9-G chord progression). In interviews, Ed King has said that, during the night following the practice session, the chords and two main guitar solos came to him in a dream, note for note. King then introduced the song to the band the next day.
The famous "Turn it up" line uttered by Ronnie Van Zant in the beginning was not intended to be in the song. Van Zant was just asking producer Al Kooper and engineer Rodney Mills to turn up the volume in his headphones so that he could hear the track better.

There is a semi-hidden vocal line in the second verse after the "Well, I heard Mr. Young sing about her" line. In the left channel, you can hear the phrase "Southern Man" being sung lightly (at approximately 0:55). This was producer Al Kooper doing a Neil Young impression.

"Sweet Home Alabama" was a major chart hit for a band whose previous singles had "lazily sauntered out into release with no particular intent". None of the three writers of the song were originally from Alabama. Ronnie Van Zant and Gary Rossington were both born in Jacksonville, Florida. Ed King was from Glendale, California.

"Sweet Home Alabama" was written as an answer to two songs, "Southern Man" and "Alabama" by Neil Young, which dealt with themes of racism and slavery in the American South. "We thought Neil was shooting all the ducks in order to kill one or two," said Ronnie Van Zant at the time.

The following extract shows the Neil Young mention in the song:
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 anyhow

Van Zant's other response was also controversial, with references to Alabama Governor George Wallace (a noted supporter of segregation) and the Watergate scandal:

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

In 1975, Van Zant said: "The lyrics about the governor of Alabama were misunderstood. The general public didn't notice the words 'Boo! Boo! Boo!' after that particular line, and the media picked up only on the reference to the people loving the governor." "The line 'We all did what we could do' is sort of ambiguous," Kooper notes "'We tried to get Wallace out of there' is how I always thought of it."

Journalist Al Swenson argues that the song is more complex than it is sometimes given credit for, suggesting that it only looks like an endorsement of Wallace. "Wallace and I have very little in common," Van Zant himself said, "I don't like what he says about colored people."

Sweet Home Alabama
Lynyrd Skynyrd

KEY OF G
Big wheels keep on turning
Carry me home to see my kin.
Singing songs about the Southland
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,
Southern Man don't need him around anyhow

Sweet Home Alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet Home Alabama
Lord I'm comin' home to you
F C D
In Birmingham they love the Gov'nor B oo h oo h oo !
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 comin' 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 'bout you

Recorded August 1, 2011 using me new Panasonic HDC-TM700 and AVS Video Editing Software