Drive-By Truckers - The Three Alabama Icons lyrics

I grew up in north Alabama
Back in the 1970s when
Dinosaurs still roamed the earth
I'm speaking, of course, of the three
Great Alabama icons: George
Wallace, Bear Bryant
And Ronnie Van Zant now
Ronnie Van Zant wasn't from Alabama
He was from Florida
He was a huge Neil Young fan
But in the tradition of Merle
Haggard writing Okie From Muskogee
To tell his dad's
Point of view on the hippies in Vietnam
Ronnie felt that the other side of
The story should be told
Neil Young always claimed that
Sweet Home Alabama
Was one of his favorite songs
And legend has it that he was
An honorary pallbearer at Ronnie's funeral


Such as the duality of the Southern Thing

And Bear Bryant wore a cool lookin' red
Checkered hat and won football games
And there's few things more
Loved in Alabama than
Football and the men who know how
To win at it so when the
Bear would come to town, there would be
A parade me, I was one of them
Pussy boys cuz i hated football
So i got a guitar but a guitar was a poor
Substitute for a football with the
Girls in my high
School so my band hit the road
And we didn't play no Skynyrd
Neither i came of age rebelling against the
Music in my high school parking
Lot it wasn't until years later after
Leaving the South for a while
That I came to appreciate and
Understand the whole Skynyrd thing
And it's misunderstood glory i
Left the South and
Learned how different people's perceptions of
The Southern Thing was
From what I had seen in my life
Which leads us to George Wallace

Now Wallace was, for all practical purposes
The governor of Alabama from 1962
Until 1986 once when a law
Prevented him from succeeding himself
He ran his wife Lurleen in his
Place and she won by
A landslide he's most famous as
The belligerent racist voice of
The segregationist South
Standing in the doorways of schools
And waging a war against
The federal government that he decried
As hypocritical now Wallace
Started out as a lawyer and a
Judge with a very progressive
And humanitarian track record for a
Man of his time, but he lost his first bid
For governor in 1958
By hedging on the race issue against a
Man who spoke out against
Integration wallace ran again
In '62 as a staunch segregationist and
Won big and for the next decade he spoke
Out loudly he accused Kennedy and King of
Being communist and he was
Constantly on national
News representing "the good
People" of Alabama

And ya know race was only an issue
On TV in the house that I
Grew up in wallace was viewed as a
Man from another time and place
But when I first ventured out of
The south I was shocked at
How strongly Wallace was
Associated with Alabama
And it's people racism is
A worldwide problem
And it's been since the beginning
Of recorded history and
It ain't just white and black
But thanks to George Wallace, it's always a
Little more convenient to play it with a
Southern accent bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd
Attempted to show another side of the
South, one that certainly exists
But few saw beyond the rebel flag and
This applies not only to their
Critics and detractors but also from their
Fans and followers so for
A while, when Neil Young would come to town
He'd get death threats
Down in Alabama ironically, in 1971, after
A particularly racially charged campaign
Wallace began backpeddling and he opened up
Alabama politics to
Minorities at a rate faster than
Most Northern states or
The federal government
Wallace spent the rest of his
Life trying to explain away his racist past
And in 1982 he won
His last term in office with over
90% of the black vote
Such as the duality of the Southern Thing

And George Wallace died back in '98
And he's in hell now
Not because he's a racist his
Track record as a judge and his late life
Quest for redemption make
A good argument for his being, at worst
No worse than most white men of his
Generation, North or South because
Of his blind
Ambition and his hunger for votes
He turned a blind eye to the
Suffering of black America and he
Became a pawn in the fight
Against the Civil Rights cause

Fortunately for him, the devil
Is also a southerner, so this song's gonna
Take place in hell, told from
The devil's point of view, as he
Does what any good southerner would do
When company's comin' he brewed up
Some good sweet tea, and he
Whoops up some southern hospitality
For the arrival of the new guest