The Three Great Alabama Icons

I grew up in North Alabama, back in the 1970's,

When dinosaurs still roamed the earth 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 writin'

Okie from Muskogee to tell his dad's point of

View about the hippies 'n Vietnam, Ronnie felt

That the other side of the story should be told.

And Neil Young always claimed that Sweet Home

Alabama was one of his favorite songs. And legend

Has it that he was an honorary pall bearer at

Ronnie's funeral such is 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'd be a parade. And me, I was one a' them

Pussy boys cause 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 either I came of age rebellin'

Against the music in my high school parkin'

Lot It wasn't till years later after

Leavin' the South for a while that I came to

Appreciate and understand the whole Skynyrd thing

And its misunderstood glory I left the South

And learned how different people's perceptions

Of the Southern Thing was from what I'd 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 Lerline in his place and she won

By a landslide He's most famous as the

Belligerent racist voice of the segregationist

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South Standing in the doorways of schools and

Waging a political war against a Federal

Government that he decried as hypocritical And

Wallace had 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 spoke out loudly He accused Kennedy

And King of being communists. He was constantly on

National news, representing the "good" people

Of Alabama And you 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

And when I first ventured out of the South, I was

Shocked at how strongly Wallace was associated

With Alabama and its people Ya know 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. And 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 backpedaling, and he

Opened up Alabama politics to minorities at a rate

Faster than most Northern states or the Federal

Government. And Wallace spent the rest of his life

Trying to explain away his racist past, and in

1982 won his last term in office with over 90% of

The black vote Such is 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 But 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