Tout le binz autour de cette histoire de "racisme" vient en fait d'une petite guerre qui a eu lieu entre l'excellent http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Young">Neil Young et les valeureux Lynyrd Skynyrd. Tout a démarré avec les chansons "Southern man" et "Alabama" de Neil Young, au sein desquelles il s'en prend de manière un peu trop manichéenne à une certaine mentalité sudiste, raciste, qui existe bel et bien.

Southern man
better keep your head
Don't forget
what your good book said
Southern change
gonna come at last
Now your crosses
are burning fast
Southern man

I saw cotton
and I saw black
Tall white mansions
and little shacks.
Southern man
when will you
pay them back?
I heard screamin'
and bullwhips cracking
How long? How long?

Southern man
better keep your head
Don't forget
what your good book said
Southern change
gonna come at last
Now your crosses
are burning fast
Southern man

Lily Belle,
your hair is golden brown
I've seen your black man
comin' round
Swear by God
I'm gonna cut him down!
I heard screamin'
and bullwhips cracking
How long? How long?

Oh alabama
The devil fools with the best laid plan.
Swing low alabama
You got spare change
You got to feel strange
And now the moment is all that it meant.

Alabama, you got the weight on your shoulders
Thats breaking your back.
Your cadillac has got a wheel in the ditch
And a wheel on the track

Oh alabama
Banjos playing through the broken glass
Windows down in alabama.
See the old folks tied in white ropes
Hear the banjo.
Dont it take you down home?

Alabama, you got the weight on your shoulders
Thats breaking your back.
Your cadillac has got a wheel in the ditch
And a wheel on the track

Oh alabama.
Can I see you and shake your hand.
Make friends down in alabama.
Im from a new land
I come to you and see all this ruin
What are you doing alabama?
You got the rest of the union to help you along
Whats going wrong?

Frustrés par les paroles de la chanson, Ronnie Van Zandt, le chanteur de Lynyrd Skynyrd, écrivit un texte qui fut très mal compris... "Sweet Home Alabama"...

Big wheels keep on turning
Carry me home to see my kin
Singing songs about the southland
I miss alabamy once again
And I think its a sin, yes

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 dont need him around anyhow

Sweet home alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet home alabama
Lord, Im coming home to you

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

Sweet home alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet home alabama
Lord, Im coming home to you
Here I come alabama

Now muscle shoals has got the swampers
And theyve been known to pick a song or two
Lord they get me off so much
They pick me up when Im feeling blue
Now how about you?

Sweet home alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet home alabama
Lord, Im coming home to you

Sweet home alabama
Oh sweet home baby
Where the skies are so blue
And the governors true
Sweet home alabama

Lordy
Lord, Im coming home to you
Yea, yea Montgomery's got the answer

Ronnie Van Zandt et Neil Young étaient potes... la preuve par la photo...

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Ronnie Van Zandt portant un tee-shirt de Neil Young

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Idem

http://discussions.texasbowhunter.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=105329&d=1246469267">
Idem

Les passages controversés de la chanson ""Sweet Home Alabama" sont ceux qui suivent...

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

Il s'agit ici de Birmingham en Alabama, et non de la ville de Grande-Bretagne. Le gouverneur dont il est question était un gouverneur raciste et ségrégationniste nommé George Wallace. Mais comme l'a précisé Ronnie Van Zandt, il fallait bien entendre après la mention du gouverneur dans la chanson "Boo Boo Boo !", ce qui fait référence aux manifs dans les seventies auxquelles participèrent Lynyrd Skynyrd pour déloger le gouverneur en question de son poste en le huant : "Boo Boo Boo !" et Ronnie précise bien, faisant référence aux manifestants dont lui et le groupe étaient : "Now we all did what we could do"... on a fait ce qu'on a pu... Ronnie Van Zandt a précisé : ""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." (Cité par Lee Ballinger in "Lynyrd Skynyrd: An Oral History") et il précise en parlant du gouverneur raciste qui s'appelait Wallace :"Wallace and I have very little in common, I don't like what he says about colored people." La dernière phrase de la chanson enfonce le clou, puisque Ronnie dit clairement : "Yea, yea Montgomery's got the answer" ce qui fait référence au boycott des bus qui eut lieu à Montgomery, précisément en Alabama, pour que cesse la ségrégation dans les bus. Ce boycott dura un an et fut suffisamment suivi pour foutre la merde et pousser la Cour Suprême des Etats-Unis à déclarer la ségrégation non-constitutionnelle !!! Neil Young chanta plusieurs fois la chanson en concert pour rendre hommage à Lynyrd Skynyrd après le Crash d'Avion qui emporta une bonne partie de la formation d'origine.

En fait, les sudistes de Lynyrd Skynyrd n'avaient pas supporté que Neil Young puisse penser que les sudistes étaient tous, sans exception, des "rednecks" racistes et beaufs...

Il y a aussi ce témoignage, choppé http://lynyrdskynyrddixie.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=14082">sur un forum américain et qui ne manque pas de piquant...

"Was reading Gene's book last night and got to the chapter where he talks about the Confederate flag, etc. This reminded me how often I've heard people question whether Skynyrd was a bunch of Southern racists.

I can tell you absolutely, they were not. Around 1970, or so, Skynyrd was in Chattanooga, TN playing at McCaully Military Academy for their prom or something, and afterwards, they came to a small club where my band was playing. The club was called Natty Bumppo's. They listened until we took a break and then asked to sit in. This is a whole 'nother story in itself, but to the point, Ronnie really liked our guitar player, an excellent musician named John who played with James Brown and some other R'n'B bands. He could play our set list in the style of Hendrix one night, Jeff Beck the next, The Meters the night after that, etc.

Anyway, after Ed left the band Ronnie, who had gotten John's mother's number that night, called him up and offered John the gig. John said something like, "Are you crazy?", I can't see me standing on stage in Waycross Ga. under a confederate flag playing 'Sweet Home Alabama' for your redneck fans!". Ronnie assured him it wasn't like that and that it would be OK. But John stayed in Chattanooga.

I never doubted John's voracity, but if I had, I would have known the story was true after the crash when I saw him. He was visibly shaken. "I would have been on that plane", he said. "I would be dead".

I forgot to mention, John was black. Skynyrd thought he was great. Ronnie apparently wanted him in the band. Enough said.

Peace"

A noter, qu'après le Crash d'Avion qui emporta une bonne partie du groupe originel, le groupe s'étant reformé en 1987 commença à afficher des idées plus républicaine encore qu'avant. Mais j'ai un très bon souvenir d'une interview que j'ai lue dans les années 90, je ne sais plus si c'est dans "Guitar Player" ou dans "Guitar World", en anglais, où, en effet, Gary Rossington et Ed King disaient combien ils aimaient les grands bluesmen noirs, ce qui appuie en effet l'absence de racisme chez eux.

Egalement, la petite anecdote à propos de Neil Young... à partir de la fin des années 70 et au tout début des années 80, pendant une courte période, Neil Young afficha des idées beaucoup plus réactionnaires que de par le passé... une influence sudiste ??? Hu hu hu ! Il affirma qu'il était d'accord avec certaines idées de Reagan et le monde de la contre-culture de Gauche américaine se fâcha contre lui... ce qui ne l'empêcha pas de sortir un excellent disque : "re-ac-tor" (1981) où certains textes sont, comme le titre de l'album l'indique, assez réac'...