R.S.’s Greene revisits “Alabama”
Rolling Stone’s Andy Greene posted a flashback to 1977 when Neil Young covered “Sweet Home Alabama,” just weeks after Lynard Skynard’s tragic plane crash.
Green wrote: (According to legend, Ronnie Van Zant was buried in a Tonights the Night T-shirt, though this remains a hotly disputed topic.) Just weeks after the accident, Young played a show in Miami to raise money for a children’s hospital. Near the end, he played a medley of “Alabama” and “Sweet Home Alabama” as a tribute to the band. There’s no video, but you can hear an audience tape right here.
Young has not played “Alabama” a single time since that night. “‘Alabama’ richly deserved the shot Lynyrd Skynyrd gave me with their great record,” Young wrote in his 2012 book, Waging Heavy Peace. “I don’t like my words when I listen to it today. They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, too easy to misconstrue.”