Ronnie and Neil

by Patterson Hood

Church blew up in Birmingham
Four little black girls killed
For no goddamn good reason
All this hate and violence
Can't come to no good end
A stain on the good name
A whole lot of good people
Dragged through the blood and glass
Blood stains on their good names
And all of us take the blame

Meanwhile in north Alabama
Wilson Pickett comes to town
To record that sweet soul music
To get that Muscle Shoals sound

Meanwhile in north Alabama
Aretha Franklin comes to town
To record that sweet soul music
To get that Muscle Shoals sound

And out in California
A rock star from Canada writes
A couple of great songs
About the bad shit that went down
'Southern Man' and 'Alabama'
Certainly told some truth
But there were a lot of good folks down here
And Neil Young just wasn't around

Meanwhile in north Alabama
Lynyrd Skynyrd comes to town
To record with Jimmy Johnson
And that Muscle Shoals Sound

And they met some real good people
Not no racist pieces of shit
And they wrote a song about it
And that song became a hit

Ronnie and Neil
Rock stars today ain't half as real
Speaking their minds on how they feel
Let them guitars blast for Ronnie and Neil

Now Ronnie and Neil became good friends
Their feud was just in song
Skynyrd was a bunch of Neil Young fans
And Neil he loved that song
So he wrote 'Powderfinger'
For Skynyrd to record
But Ronnie ended up singing
'Sweet Home Alabama' to the Lord

And Neil helped carry Ronnie
In his casket to the ground
And to my way of thinking
Us southern men need both of them around