Three Great Alabama Icons Chords by Drive-By Truckers

[Ebm] _ _ _ _ [Fm] _ _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Eb] _ _ _ [Bb] _ [F] _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ [F] _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _
[F] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Ebm] _ _ _ _
[F] _ _ _ _ _ [Gm] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _
_ [F] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ [Eb] _ I grew up in North [F] Alabama back in the [Bb] 1970s [A] when dinosaurs still [C] roamed the earth.
[D] Speaking of course of [Eb] the three great Alabama [F] icons, George Wallace, [G]
Bear Bryant, and Ronnie
[Bm] Van Zant.
_ [Eb]
Now Ronnie Van [Bb] Zant wasn't from [F] Alabama, he was [Bb] from Florida.
[A] He was a huge [G] Neil Young fan,
but in the tradition [Ebm] of Merle Haggard writing Noki from [Fm] Muskogee to tell his dad's point of
view about the [Gm] hippies in Vietnam, Ronnie felt the other side of the story should [Eb] be told.
Neil [C] Young always claimed [F] that Sweet Home Alabama was [G] one of his favorite songs,
and legend has it he was an [F] honorary pallbearer in Ronnie's [Eb] funeral, such [Cm] is the duality [F] of the
southern [G] thing.
_ _ _ _ [Gm] _ _ _
[Bb] _ Bear Bryant wore [A] a cool looking red checkered hat and [Gm] won football games.
There's
few things more loved in Alabama [Eb] than football and the men who know [Dm] how to win at it, so when
the bear [G] would come to town there would be a parade.
[A] Now me I was one of them pussy [Eb] boys
because I hated football, [Bb] so I got a guitar.
A [G] guitar is a poor substitute for a football with
the girls in my high school, [Gm] so [Eb] my band hit the road.
[Bb] We didn't play no skinnered either.
[Cm] I came of [F] age rebelling against [Gm] the music in my high school parking [Eb] lot.
It wasn't until years
later [F] after leaving the south for a [Gm] while that I came to appreciate and understand the whole
skinnered thing [A] and its misunderstood glory.
[D] I left the south and learned how different [C] people's
perceptions [G] of the southern thing was from what I'd seen [Bb] in my life, [Dm] which leads [Gm] us to George
Wallace.
[F] _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ Now [D] Wallace was for all [Eb] practical purposes [Dm] the governor of Alabama from [G] 1962 until 1986,
once when a law [Dm] prevented [Eb] him from succeeding himself he ran his wife Lurleen in his [F] place
and she won by a [Gm] landslide.
He's most famous as the belligerent racist [Eb] voice of the segregationist
[F] south standing in the doorways of schools and [G] waging a political war against the federal
government that he [Gm] decried as [D] hypocritical.
[Eb] Wallace [Dm] had started [C] out as a lawyer and a judge [Gm] with very
progressive and humanitarian track record for a man of his time.
_ [F] He lost his first bid for
governor in [G] 1958 by hedging on the race issue against a man who spoke [Dm] out against [Eb] integration.
Wallace ran [A] again [F] in 62 as a stomp [Eb] [G] segregationist and won big and for the next [Gm] decade [A] spoke [Eb] out
loudly.
He accused [Dm] Kennedy and King of being communist.
[G] He was constantly on national news
[Dm] representing the good [Eb] people of Alabama.
_ [Bbm] _ [C] _ _ _
[Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Dm] And you know race was [Eb] only an issue on TV in the house
[F] that I grew up in.
[Gm] Wallace was viewed as man from another time and place.
When I first ventured out
of [Bb] the south I was shocked at [F] how strongly Wallace was associated [G] with Alabama and its people.
You know racism is [Dm] a worldwide problem [Eb] and it's [F] been since the beginning of recorded [Dm] history
[Gm] and it [G] ain't just white and black but thanks to [Bb] George Wallace it's always a little [Eb] more
convenient to play it with [F] a southern accent. _
[Bb] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ [Eb]
And bands like Leonard [Dm] Skinner attempted to show
another side of the [G] south one that certainly exists but few saw beyond the rebel [Bb] flag and
this [Eb] applies not only to [F] their critics and detractors but [Bb] also [Gm] from their fans and followers.
So for a [G] while when Neil [F] Young would come to town he'd get death threats down in Alabama.
_ [Bb] _
[Gm] Ironically in 1971 after [Bb] a particularly [D] racially [F] charged campaign Wallace [G] began [Dm] backpedaling and
he [Gm] opened up Alabama politics to minorities at a rate faster than most [Eb] northern states or the
federal government.
_ [G] [F] Wallace spent the rest of [Gm] his life trying to explain away his racist past
and [Eb] in 1982 he won his last [F] term in office with over 90 percent of [G] the black vote such is the
duality of the southern [Eb] thing. _ _
_ [F] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Eb] And George Wallace died [F] back in 98 and he's in hell [G] now not because
he's a racist.
His track record as a judge and his late life quest for redemption make a good
[Dm] argument for his being at worst [Gm] no worse than [Dm] most white men of [A] his [Bb] generation north or south
but because of his blind [F] ambition and his hunger for votes [G] he turned a blind eye to the suffering
of [Eb] black America and he became [Bb] a pawn in the fight [F] against the civil rights [Dm] cause.
_ _ _ [A] _
_ _ [Eb] _ _ Fortunately for [Bb] him the devil is also a [Gm] southerner.
So this song's gonna take place [Eb] in hell told from
the devil's point of view as he does [F] what any good southerner would do when [Gm] company's coming.
He brewed up some good sweet [G] tea and he whoops up some [C] southern hospitality
for the arrival [G] of the new guest.
_ [Em] _ _