This quartet of songs is wonderfully, refreshingly genre-defining. These tunes have proved they are resistant to time, trends, and fluctuating musical tastes. Every chance I get to hear them, I am eager to listen yet again. Like all masterpieces, there is always something new to discover or re-discover in them. Revisiting these songs is a pleasure, an adventure, and a privilege. So without further ado, here are "Long Haired Country Boy" by Charlie Daniels Band, "Ramblin' Man" by the Allman Brothers Band, "Sharp Dressed Man" by ZZ Top, and "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. If you are skeptical of their cultural value, just imagine yourself roaring down a highway on a gorgeous summer day with one of these songs at full volume in the radio, your hair flying in the wind. Need I say more?
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"Long Haired Country Boy" by Charlie Daniels Band (1974)
Per American Songwriter, Charlie Daniels, who died at 83 in 2020, described what led to the creation of "Long Haired Country Boy." "It was just kind of the way I was feeling at the time. I remember [writing] the song. I sat down, and my wife Hazel was doing something in the kitchen. I was sitting there with my guitar, and I started doing this song. I said, 'What do you think it is?'"
According to oxfordamerican.org, "Charlie Daniels was, in one very real sense, hippie to the core. The Charlie Daniels Band's first hit was a novelty song called "Long Haired Country Boy," the opening stanza of which went like this: 'People say I'm no good and crazy as a loon / 'Cause I get stoned in the morning / And get drunk in the afternoon.'" Defiant and cocky, this song was generation-defining. The world can always use one more authentic and ageless hippie, especially one with the talent and superb musicianship of the late, great Charlie Daniels.
"...Preacher man talking on T.V.
Puttin' down the rock and roll
Wants me to send a donation
'Cause he's worried about my soul
He said Jesus walked on the water
And I know that it's true
But sometimes I think that preacherman
Would like to do a little walking too
But I ain't asking nobody for nothin'
If I cant get it on my own
If you don't like the way I'm livin'
You just leave this long-haired country boy alone...."
'Ramblin' Man' by the Allman Brothers Band (1973)
The exquisitely loping, insistent pace of this marvelous song aligns with the theme and title. It implies restlessness, being footloose, gravitating to the highway as fast as possible. Home is where you hang your hat and stow your boots, if just for a night. The intoxicating allure of the road reigns supreme.
The song came from the group's guitarist, Dickey Betts, per American Songwriter via Betts' book, Anatomy of a Song. It describes his own peripatetic experiences growing up. "When I was a kid, my dad was in construction and used to move the family back and forth between central Florida's east and west coasts. I'd go to one school for a year and then the other the next. I had two sets of friends and spent a lot of time in the back seat of a Greyhound bus. Ramblin' was in my blood." This song put it in ours, too.
"...I'm on my way to New Orleans this mornin'
Leaving out of Nashville, Tennessee
They're always having a good time down on the bayou
Lord, and Delta women think the world of me
Lord, I was born a ramblin' man
Tryin' to make a livin' and doin' the best I can
And when it's time for leavin'
I hope you'll understand
That I was born a ramblin' man...."
'Sharp Dressed Man' by ZZ Top (1983)
Being sharply dressed means looking pulled together, from your hair to your shoes. Impeccable grooming, intelligent fashion sense, striking colors and styles. Looking like you care about the image you present to the world. A sharp dressed man is irresistible to women. What female could turn away from Cary Grant, for example? Or more recently, the debonair Tom Cruise or Tom Brady? Maybe ZZ Top wasn't into GQ, but they knew what a sharp dressed guy was, and they sewed it up perfectly (no pun intended!) in this everlasting song.
Per Songfacts, "In a 1985 interview with Spin magazine, [ZZ Top] bass player Dusty Hill explained: "Sharp-dressed depends on who you are. If you're on a motorcycle, really sharp leather is great. If you're a punk rocker, you can get sharp that way. You can be sharp or not sharp in any mode. It's all in your head. If you feel sharp, you be sharp." Yep, you got that.
"Clean shirt, new shoes
And I don't know where I am goin' to
Silk suit, black tie (black tie)
I don't need a reason why
They come runnin' just as fast as they can
'Cause every girl crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man
Gold watch, diamond ring
I ain't missin' not a single thing
Cufflinks, stick pin
When I step out, I'm gonna do you in
They come runnin' just as fast as they can
'Cause every girl crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man...."
'Sweet Home Alabama' by Lynyrd Skynyrd (1974)
According to the American Anthem series on NPR, this song was a feisty retort to Neil Young, who criticized the South for its controversial and painful history of prejudice and slavery in his song "Southern Man." Lead Lynyrd Skynyrd singer Ronnie Van Zant, who co-wrote the song, realized that the band would get plenty of flak for the tune.
"We knew that by doing that song, just writing those lyrics, we knew from the beginning that we'd get a lot of heat for it. And I did attack Neil Young in that song," he said in the documentary If I Leave Here Tomorrow on Showtime via NPR. Years later, in his 2012 autobiography, Young seemed to acknowledge what he had written in his own song was off-base. "I didn't like my words when I wrote them. They are accusatory and condescending."
"...Big wheels keep on turnin'
Carry me home to see my kin
Singin' songs about the Southland
I miss Alabamy once again, and I think it's a sin, I said
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...."
