I apologize in advance. This record moved me -- a lot -- and I’m going to write and write and write.
Alabama. I’ve been there a lot, personally and on business. My college roommate and best buddy Gary is from Huntsville; my good friend Michael the City fan is from Mobile. I have clients in Birmingham and Montgomery, and I’ve even been in Eufuala for work.
In short, Alabama isn’t a foreign land to me.
And that helps me a lot in getting a deeper understanding of
Southern Rock Opera because THIS is the kind of record I’ve been patiently awaiting in this thread.
I wanted music I’ve never heard, even though I’ve heard OF this band often. I couldn’t pinpoint a tune nor even describe a style (though I guessed), other than the name was kinda cool (which is why I guessed right).
So this is a perfect choice for me -- it's music I’m simply too old and busy to encounter today or go looking to find. To me this is new, even though its 21 fucking years old.
It also helps that I utterly love Lynyrd Skynyrd. The airplane crash happened just as I was getting into music -- it might be the first “music” tragedy I really felt, and felt the most, until John Lennon died. I can’t find a CD nor Spotify re-release of
Gold and Platinum, their greatest hits record that I wore the grooves out of in high school.
But it’s okay, cuz we have Drive-By Truckers, and they’re harder, and darker. Not better per se, but 1) I don’t think they think they are, 2) I don’t think they are trying to be, and 3) it doesn’t matter.
On a double record, not to mention a concept record, there’s a lot to parse. But there are plenty of highs. The monster blowout chords on “Ronnie and Neil”. That little Tom Petty nod on “Dead, Drunk and Naked”. “Birmingham”, the song that aims to resolve the “feud” between Skynyrd and Neil Young over “Alabama” (I just loved this idea conceptually), even though it’s semi-specifically addressed later. The feedback stretched like razor wire over “The Southern Thing” as it eviscerates northern/western stereotypes of Dixie. The turns of phrase in “Zip City”. And this is just the first “disc”.
I get the complaints about sameness, and overselling the theme, though I’m okay with that, because the tunes are right and the theme is so interesting. Sure, there are weak moments as befits most (all?) double-concept-opera records. I wasn’t a big fan of “Moved” — it doesn’t fit tonally IMO, and slow and echoey isn’t my thing. But then we get the genius LS rip on “Road Cases”, and maybe the best song on the record in “Life In The Factory”, which could be Springsteen (or Mellencamp even) with the guitars turned up to 11.
But now . . . the dread begins to build, because you know -- we all know -- how this ends.
“Shut Your Mouth And Get Your Ass on the Plane” cruises along in that hurried, loud, conventional southern boogie way that underlies that those in the band, and all of us, thought everything was just fine. Just normal. Just another trip to just another show . . .
And then . . . from “Greenville to Baton Rouge” . . . something goes wrong.
Every guitar is screaming “no no no”.
And the last moments, like “Angels And Fuselage”, feel like an eternity. Memories, fear, life flashing before the eyes, angels, trees . . . quiet, sad, dissonant, beautiful . . . and they're gone.
How can you not weep?
“Message”-wise, or just lyrically, unlike some of the other stuff we’ve had here to which I’ve had some strenuous objection, this record has something to say -- I mean, literally. Patterson Hood just SAYS it. He sings it, but he also SAYS it, in the tragic opener, and with the pointed comments in “Three Great Alabama Icons.” In that regard, I’m reminded a bit of D Boon of The Minutemen -- another great musician lost way to soon, like Ronnie, who concentrated on exploring his roots (in San Pedro, CA in D’s case).
Remember what I noted about stereotypes of Dixie? Both Gary and Michael are lawyers, and as left wing as can be. Gary actually did pro bono work for prisoners in Guantanamo. Even in what people perceive as the back woods, there are forward people.
Like the Drive-By Truckers.
This is a moving and magnificent accomplishment, a wonderful tribute, but a great listen in its own right. I worry a lot about the South rising again over here, but in these guys’ case we’ll make an exception.
Southern Rock Opera is a stupendous record. 9/10, and in just two listens, entering my top 100 of all time. A hundred thanks to
@bennyboy for selecting it.
