WARREN ZEVON YOUNG FULL

It's a song designed to take the piss out of every 'hometown' song, every song that shirks off criticisms in the name of 'it's home', every song that's proud despite it all. Whereas 'Sweet Home Alabama' says that you shouldn't attack a certain way of life because it's not all bad, Play it All Night Long says you shouldn't defend it because it's not all good. And 'Play It All Night Long' is a critique of that defense. 'Sweet Home Alabama' is a defense of that critique. 'Southern Man' is a critique of the south. Those lyrics should tell you right out of the gate that the song isn't pulling any punches.

WARREN ZEVON YOUNG FULL

'Sweet home Alabama' Play that dead band's song Turn those speakers up full blast Play it all night long Either way, Young and Skynyrd eventually put aside their differences without much ado. It's not even clear how much of the song is tongue in cheek or sincere, in character or literal. Whether you think those two assertions are valid criticism or stupid deflections of actual criticism is up to you. If the American people shouldn't feel personal guilt over Watergate, then why should southerner feel guilty over the actions of their governors? In addition to being about how a Canadian living in California doesn't have the right to critique them, it also likens the southern politicians to Nixon. They saw it as an unnuanced generalization, or as they put it: '.thought Neil was shooting all the ducks in order to kill one or two.'įrom that opinion comes 'Sweet Home Alabama', a song which name checks Young by name. Some of them were members of a band called Lynyrd Skynyrd. The song works in pretty broad strokes, which is why it drew the ire of certain southerners. 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 In 1970, Neil Young wrote the song 'Southern Man', which is basically an admonishment and condemnation of southern racism. 7, Zevon passed away.In response to another (in my opinion misguided) post on this sub about Sweet Home Alabama, I though I'd do a bit of a writeup on the song and the grander narrative it fits within, as well as opening the situation up for discussion. Two weeks after the album's release, on Sept. The album and several songs were nominated for Grammys it won for Best Contemporary Folk Album, and 'Disorder in the House,' the Springsteen duet, won for Best Rock Vocal Performance. 26, 2003, and became Zevon's highest-charting album since Excitable Boy reached No. 'Keep Me in Your Heart' is a carefully played goodbye coming at the end of one of Zevon's best albums. Not that anyone was given any hope: Zevon went on David Letterman's program after his diagnosis and chatted with the host in one of the most heartening, and heartbreaking, moments to ever grace late-night TV. Zevon played this as his epitaph and, in a way, it's his last devilish trick on his audience. From the song's opening line (' Shadows are falling, and I'm running out of breath') to its last (' These wheels keep turning, but they're running out of steam / Keep me in your heart for a while'), it's nearly impossible to make it through the song without getting choked up. It hits hardest on the album's last track, 'Keep Me in Your Heart,' a teary farewell to family, friends and fans. Death runs through most of the songs – from 'Please Stay,' disguised as a lover's plea, to the cover of Bob Dylan's 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door.' He knows it, and so do his collaborators and backing musicians.

But the defiant tone captured in early songs like 'Frank and Jesse James' can be heard once more on tracks like 'Dirty Life and Times,' and his eternal romance-on-the-rocks fatalism breaks through on 'She's Too Good for Me.'īut the album is mostly about end days. Zevon's illness certainly fueled the urgency of these final recordings, which betray a frailness in his voice – and even in his spirit, at times.

Warren zevon young