I'm a fan of "Southern Rock," but sometimes the lyrics make me wonder if i should drop it. Generally I listen more for music than message, but I don't want my kids hearing "be proud you're a rebel..."
“…cuz the South’s gonna to do it again.”
But man, that song rocks, especially the end. In a, you know, country way.
Hank, hank jr, David Allen Coe, all of that is a vibe. Real damn shame there’s some straight n-words in a few of those old songs though, really ruins the vibe to hear the racism come out
If by “lack of manners” you mean “not tolerating racism” then I know exactly what you’re talking about. At least, that’s my experience with southerners.
Would you like to come hang out sometime? NW Florida here. I REALLY mean that. I’m asking and I’m serious.
I got a couple of spare rooms, loads of things to do around here if you like outdoors stuff. Floating the rivers and creeks in kayaks and such is my jam. Stop on random sandbanks, swap in a cold beer, eat a little, explore, move on.
I’ve never lived anywhere where people were less racist. I know, hard to believe. I live on the edge of a redneck town. My street is ~30% black, the rest white. We got one Asian! And I will marry her this Friday. Everyone is coming.
I cannot clap hard enough for your honest post. You must be a fine person for having said all that out loud and I love you for it. I’m embarrassed by my little prejudices as well, and I hate those god damned limits I put on myself. We get past those by travelling and sharing. Only way I know.
Man, that spring-feed water is COLD! I’m a Florida boy myself, and I love doing all that stuff you mentioned. I hope he takes you up on the offer because the world needs more connection.
I’m in Florida too, and the most racist people I know moved here from Michigan. Apparently up north there is more segregation than in FL, they told me they went to “the white high school” and my husband said the same thing about Indiana and Maryland, the high schools he went to were segregated.
Those guys come down here where we had enforced school integration (which did work somewhat as far as I can tell) and we are just more mashed together and mixed, and they find out they are actually dead racist and think “those people” should be in a different neighborhood and a different school from their kids. They were just able to ignore their racism up north by never interacting with anyone of a different “race”.
Saturday night special is my favorite one to bring up to the “fans”. Like I can see how you don’t necessarily get the others, but how anybody can hear “a handgun is made for killing, ain’t no good for nothing else, so why don’t we take our handguns and throw them to the bottom of the sea” and think that this guy is just another good ol boy is beyond me.
Call me naive, but I always thought Curtis Lowe was about society not respecting bums who play good music for beer/wine money aka the starving artist. Even though the protagonist loved him as a mentor/entertainer.
Racism or the fact that he was black wasn’t the main factor in the issues the protagonist is singing about, just that he happened to be black… though I’m betting it didn’t help the way people/protagonist’s mom viewed the two of them spending so much time together
I always say him as an inspiration to Bleeding Gums Murphy and Lisa in the Simpsons.
Just my 2 cents. I agree with the rest of your list though.
The thing to keep in mind is that Curtis would have been an old black man in the early 60s so he had lived through quite a lot of the black experience to where the alcohol and music was an escape rather than being a starving artist’s expression
Put these in your music queue and let the streaming service find music based on them, there is a lot of newer southern rock and also country music that doesn’t have the baggage. I love that style of music too.
Bit late to this, OP, but you might want to check out Jim White, and especially his first album The Mysterious Tale of How I Shouted Wrong Eyed Jesus. It’s not rock exactly, more alt-folk, but it’s definitely Southern and it’s thoughtful, fun stuff.
There are great recommendations already in this thread, so I’ll add one for Jason Isbell. Formerly of Drive-by Truckers, Southeastern is a good place to start with his solo work.
I don’t disagree, but I’m saying it’s not that that I like. It’s the musical style, I really like it. I love Freebird and Sweet Home Alabama, Ramblin’ Man by the Allman Brothers, Frankenstein by Edgar Winter, tons of really good songs.
Sweet Home Alabama really grinds my gears. Neil Young sings about systemic racism in the south and Skynard retorts ‘yea some people here are racist ♪ but not all of us are ♪ frig off Neil Young♪ whoa now look at the sky’. Horse shit lyrics, sick composition.
I think you’re mistaking VanZants’ self-awareness of his southern pride and conflicting knowledge of the south’s troubled history with an intentional caricaturization .
The song was certainly written in response to Young , as Van Zant thought Neil had been too broad. However, he obviously was aware that Neil had a point, so walking the line between pointing out Neil’s generalization (as Van Zant saw it) while expressing pride was difficult and I think, ultimately too difficult a challenge.
Allmans are great. I grew up loving Skynyrd, but I can’t really listen to most of it anymore. Check out “Play it all night long” by Warren Zevon for a pretty brutal mockery of “Sweet home Alabama”.
I’m REALLY looking forward to that! I’ve liked Warren Zevon ever since Linda Ronstadt recorded “Poor poor pitiful me.” And who doesn’t like “Werewolves of London?”
I feel the same way about a lot of modern hip-hop and pop music. I really enjoy the music but I just can’t relate in any way to the bragging lyrics about having loads of money.
Feel like I’ve heard the Lamborghini Urus casually mentioned in about a dozen UK hip-hop tracks over the past 6 months…
They’re just not timeless. If you were to go back in time to sell your ancestors on a song from the future, a lyric like “me wearing my Oaklies and taking a Polaroid selfie in Times Square” is probably not gonna translate so well. Therefore the song’s message is probably superficial.
Not all hip-hop obviously, Pharcyde are pretty solid lyrically.
I actually have a sub dedicated to calculating how timeless a song is:
For fans of Pharcyde, check out Del The Funky Homosapian, aka Deltron 3030 for some albums, and a prominent member of the Heiroglyphics crew (who are also similarly lyrically inclined.) Idk how it’ll rank on your timeless-o-meter but he’s the only dude I’ve ever heard say “lurid” in a song.
Edit: OH and fans of Gorillaz will recognize his voice, he rapped on some of their biggest tracks.
at a certain point southern rock & country changed from actual rebellion (Cops are bastards, Vietnam was a mistake, an unjust law needs a kick in the pants) to “I’m an oppressed martyr because someone told me I’m not allowed to be a dick to other people. America is great! jihad jihad jihad”
Since you chose CDB, here is an interesting bit of trivia about that song in particular:
The song uses a clever play on words to promote Southern rock music. … The “it” that the South is going to do again, it is implied, is to produce additional popular rock groups.
Daniels factually bristled at more nefarious interpretations of what the “it” was. … Daniels told Billboard, “I’m damn proud of the South, but I sure as hell am not proud of the Ku Klux Klan. I wrote the song about the land I love and my brothers. It was not written to promote hate groups.”
Maybe use the songs as an opportunity for discussion … or save it for your kid-free time.
But. At the same time, if you need to pull up a Wikipedia article for people to not think you are a piece of shit, does it matter?
It is the Pepe the frog situation (that actually was a lot more complicated but). Some people used it because they wanted to take the meme back. Most used it to represent hate and bigotry. I know what I assumed when I saw it posted
And if someone is listening to an anti robot anthem on the hover train, people will assume they are an asshole.
This is no different than any other media. Multiple shows have made the joke that 80s comedy films were basically nothing but rape. And that is why you have the really awkward conversations when you recommend one.
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