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    Unfurling 'Sweet Home Alabama,' A Tapestry Of Southern Discomfort

    More than 40 years after its release, Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama is still one of the most recognized rock anthems celebrating the deep South. It's also a song with a complicated legacy.
    by Felix Contreras Dec 17, 2018 4 minutes
    Ronnie Van Zant in 1975, onstage with Lynyrd Skynyrd at the Omni Coliseum in Atlanta.

    This story is part of American Anthem, a yearlong series on songs that rouse, unite, celebrate and call to action. Find more at NPR.org/Anthem.

    It starts with one of the best known guitar riffs in rock and roll. What follows is a down-home ode to the state that is known as the heart of Dixie: folksy colloquialisms, eternal blue skies, family. Pretty simple, right? Maybe not.

    Lynyrd Skynyrd's "" cracked the Top 10 back in 1974. Since then, it's become a kind of anthem for the state and the fight song for for the University of Alabama's Crimson Tide football team. But its history and meaning are complicated.

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