In other words, “Sweet Home Alabama” is not only a song about Alabama. It is a song about the idea of the South, about its pride and its discomfort, about the feeling that someone from outside judged it crudely and too fast, about the insistence on defending a place without being able to erase its darkness. It is a tribute to the musicians of Muscle Shoals. It is Skynyrd’s first major chart hit. It is an answer to Neil Young, but also a song Neil himself respected