A student did a presentation on Neil Young’s After The Gold Rush. When they addressed the Southern Man song they also declared that Lynyrd Skynyrd wrote Sweet Home Alabama as a response. I like that Lynyrd Skynyrd was pissed off and laid out their rebuttal in song, like when McCartney replied to How Do You Sleep with Dear Friend. Even better for Skynyrd was that it was a hit. I wonder what that was like for Neil, that millions heard that melodic rebuttal or whether he cared. You can’t be a fan of Neil Young’s without noticing how many people hate his guts and how many (myself included) appreciate his nerve to call it like he sees it. Not so easy to do. You might be wrong, you might hurt people you didn’t intend to hurt blah blah blah, but life is short. It is a worthy debate, to be more concerned about hurt feelings rather than alleviating suffering. Makes me think this a good subject for a new class assignment, RESPONSE SONGS. “well I heard Mr. Young sing about her. Well I heard old Neil put her down. Well I hope Neil Young will remember, a southern man don’t need him around anyhow” I love how fair it was for Neil Young to look at the South and make an anti-racist statement and how equally fair it was for those guys, who unlike Neil grew up in the south, to tell him to go fuck himself because they’re all being painted with the same brushstroke. People always are saying to me that the times we are in uniquely polarize, but I do not think so. I do not think these things have ever not been constantly going on.