There is lyric in Sweet Home Alabama that specifically mentions Neil Young. I’ve never known what that was about, until I accidentally tripped on that knowledge last night.

It turns out that SHA was an “answer song” to two of Neil Young’s songs: Alabama, and Southern Man, both dealing with racism/slavery in the South.

The boys from Skynyrd took offense to Young’s broad characterization of southerners, specifically Alabamans, being racist. So they wrote a song about it.

Turns out there are many Answer Songs, mostly from the Country and Hippity Hop genres. I don’t know if I’ve heard of any of them.