MUSC 2019 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers Band, Rebel Rebel
Lecture 15 - Southern Rock, Disco
April 17, 2018
10:51 AM
70s music were broken into subgenres
The Allman Brothers
• Dwayne Allman
• No dressing up - boots, cowboy hat, very authentic
o Nothing was showy
• Song: "Midnight Rider"
o Taps into the identity of a rebel
• Rebel pride, standing up against the law
▪ On the run to not g et caught
o Riff-based song
Song: "Sweet Home Alabama" - Lynyrd Skynyrd
• Written in response to another artist
o One of the artists' is Neil Young, who wrote a song about how Alabama was a racist, white
supremacist state
o They tried to challenge the song, to say there is more than the white supremacist notion of
Alabama
• Riff-based song - multiple riffs
• A lot of blues-based guitar
• Lyrics are regional, specifically Alabama
o Celebrates the regional pride
• Prominent displays of regional pride in the form of the confederate flag (used as the
symbol to preserve institutional slavery in the south)
• During their performance, they draped the entire confederate flag as their backdrop
Song: "Free bird" - Lynyrd Skynyrd
• Starts slow, representing freedom, before transitioning into a rock-like song
Tom Petty
• Songwriter, part of a band
• Song: "Here comes my girl" - Tom Petty
o Thick southern brawl - projecting the sound of southern-ness
o About how hopeless life is without the girl
o Alternates between 2 chords - speech is monotone, drab quality
• During pre-chorus, when he talks about the girl, his voice jumps into a higher range,
preparing the chorus
▪ Gives life to the voice
o Difference in voice between verse and chorus - of how the girl takes the guy out of the
hopelessness feeling
• Song: "Southern Accent"
o About southern pride
o Stereotype about "rednecks"
o Everything has a Southern accent
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
