This is a classic rock track, firmly hung on the classic rock wall of fame, remembered throughout the annals of popular music history, Sweet Home Alabama Ukulele imagined. Even those uninterested in this type of music usually will be familiar with this track, so synonymous as it has become with home coming and returning.
If the title of the track wasn’t clear enough, this is a southern American band, proud dearly of their home state Alabama. Upon release it was a big hit, many others clearly as enthusiastic, and the stereotypical hip swinging hard rock in full fashion on the air waves.
Lead guitarist, Ed King, claimed to have dreamed the chords and the solos of the song, though there is decidedly not too much to dream about on or about this track, aside from home of course.
A three chord song written firmly in a country rock style, this song isn’t terribly difficult to pick up, and many of the finer details will be accrued with repeated practise, the chords cycling through in this order for the entire duration of the track. This kind of simplicity has rendered the track a write of passage of sorts for aspiring guitarists and ukulelists for it is so often prescribed in the early stages of learning the instrument by well meaning tutors.
The Story of Sweet Home Alabama Ukulele
The song is by Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, first appearing on their sophomore album Second Helping from 1974. The song was written in response to Neil Young’s ‘Southern Man’, which was released in 1970, because it took the entire South to task for the bloody history of slavery and its aftermath, and rightfully so in my opinion Young is name-checked in the lyrics to ‘Sweet Home Alabama’.
None of the three writers of the song were from Alabama. Ronnie Van Zant and Gary Rossington were both born in Jacksonville, Florida, while Ed King was from Glendale, California. In an interview with Garden & Gun, Rossington break down the writing process. ‘I had this little riff,’ he said. ‘It’s the little picking part and I kept playing it over and over when we were waiting on everyone to arrive for rehearsal. Ronnie and I were sitting there, and he kept saying, ‘play that again’. Then Ronnie wrote the lyrics and Ed and I wrote the music.’
‘Sweet Home Alabama’ was a major chart hit for a band whose previous singles had ‘lazily sauntered out into release with no particular intent’, according to certain sources.
Controversies
Ed King, the song’s co writer, contradicted his former bandmates in a 2009 post on his website, claiming that the tune was originally intended as the unabashed defense of Alabama, even Gov. Wallace, that almost all of the song seems to be:
‘I can understand where the ‘boo boo boo’ would be misunderstood. It’s not us going ‘boo’ … it’s what the Southern man hears the Northern man say every time the Southern man’d say ‘In Birmingham we love the gov’nor’. Get it? ‘We all did what we could do!’ to get Wallace elected. It’s not a popular opinion but Wallace stood for the average white guy in the South. ‘Watergate doesn’t bother me’ because that stuff happens in politics… but someone’s conscience ought to bother them for what happened to Wallace. Arthur Bremer may or may not have been a yankee but he sure destroyed whatever chance Wallace had to be president. And hardly anyone in America noticed. I still like the plaque that hangs here in my office that says I’m an honorary member of the Alabama State Militia… signed personally by George C. Sure, the man had his flaws. But he spoke for the common man of the South. And, whoa, I’m gonna get in trouble over this whole dang post!’
Sweet Home Alabama Ukulele Chords and Lyrics
Given that the entirety of the song can be played with just three chords, it would be pertinent to explore the lyrics in more detail, though before we go on the chords will be detailed below, for your diligent study:
The Actual Lyrics to Sing Along to
One, two, three
Turn it up
Big wheels keep on turnin’
Carry me home to see my kin
Singin’ songs about the south-land
I miss Alabamy once again and I think it’s a sin, yes
Well I heard Mister Young sing about her
Well I heard ol’ Neil put her down
Well I hope Neil Young will remember
A southern man don’t need him around anyhow
Sweet home Alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet home Alabama
Lord I’m comin’ home to you
In Birmingham they love the governor (boo-hoo-hoo)
Now we all did what we could do
Now Watergate does not bother me
Does your conscience bother you?
Tell the truth
Sweet home Alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet home Alabama (oh yeah)
Lord I’m comin’ home to you
Here I come, Alabama
Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers
And they’ve been known to pick a song or two (yes they do)
Lord they get me off so much
They pick me up when I’m feelin’ blue
Now how about you?
Sweet home Alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet home Alabama
Lord I’m comin’ home to you
Sweet home Alabama (oh, sweet home)
Where the skies are so blue
And the governor’s true
Sweet home Alabama (lordy)
Lord I’m comin’ home to you, yeah, yeah
Montgomery’s got the answer
Final Tones
So, there you have it! Hopefully this guide to the Sweet Home Alabama Ukulele chords has been to your satisfaction. There is plenty of research to be done here, with many of the topics covered being rather complex, certainly not for those who did not understand the film Heat for example. My own politics do not in any way align with those of the band, but it would be interesting to see where you stand: the wrong side or the right side?
