Revenge of the Rednecks

This is the best article on Southern Rock I think I have ever read. It properly puts Lynyrd Skynyrd in it's place and clearly shows what's up with Charlie Daniels.

Thanks Buddy.

Daniels, though, was the first to switch gears. He pulled a commercially expedient political 180 at the dawn of the Reagan era, becoming a spokesman for just the sort of murderous peckerwoods heÂ’d castigated in song only a few years before.

(Dickey) Betts said

Daniels is frightening, and I didn'’t even know Doug Gray (Marshall Tucker Band) had gotten involved in that stuff. But they don'’t represent all us players from down South. I enjoy playing with '’em, but let'’s just leave it at that. Bob Dylan can take care of the political stuff.

Amen Dickey, Amen!

This article brings up some issues that I've struggled with for awhile. At some point after having become an Allmans fan in high school I began to wonder why Skynyrd seemed more popular than the Allmans. Too me it was obvious that the Allmans were a better band, more soulful, more original and a better show. I just thought that Skynyrd played to the worst of Southern music & culture. They have had some great songs but for the most part they were just loud, dumb and drunk. And the post tragedy version of the band was and is worse than the original - hell, it's not even a good cover band - and there is NO fire. Whereas the Allmans post tragedy band, although it hit some serious bumps along the way, has become a powerhouse of music. The music is intuitive, soulful & powerful. The band members seem happy to play and happy to play with one another.

I just wish Skynyrd would drop from the current vernacular and drift into the "I remember them" category where you can proudly recall that they were once a good band, never quite the class of the Allmans but a good band regardless.