Sweet Home Alabama
"Sweet Home Alabama" was written as an answer to two songs, "Southern Man" and "Alabama" by Neil Young, which dealt with themes of racism and slavery in the American South. "We thought Neil was shooting all the ducks in order to kill one or two," said Ronnie Van Zant at the time. The following excerpt shows the Neil Young mention in the song:
In his 2012 autobiography "Waging Heavy Peace", Young commented on his role in the song's creation, writing "My own song 'Alabama' richly deserved the shot Lynyrd Skynyrd gave me with their great record. I don't like my words when I listen to it. They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, and too easy to misconstrue".
Josephine Sabel
Sabel was a vaudeville performer for many years, billed as "The Queen of Song." She popularized songs including "A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight", "Somebody Loves Me", and "Bicycle Built for Two". She also sang "coon songs" that caricatured African-American speech and culture, for example "Bye Bye Belinda" (written by H. Y. Leavitt, billed as a "Darktown Triumph") and "Little Alabama Coon", an 1893 hit song written by Hattie Starr. She continued performing late in her life, as a nostalgia act in the 1930s.