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".
Sweet Black Angel
Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, “Sweet Black Angel” is one of the few outright political songs written by the Rolling Stones. A country-blues ballad, it is about civil rights activist Angela Davis, who was facing murder charges at the time. Steve Kurutz writes in his review:
Davis is not mentioned by name in the lyrics:
Initial recording took place at Mick Jagger’s “Stargroves” home in England during the mid 1970 "Sticky Fingers" sessions with overdubs and final mixing being completed later at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles between December 1971 and March 1972. Jagger is on lead vocals and harmonica, Richards and Mick Taylor on guitars and backing vocals, Bill Wyman on bass and Charlie Watts on drums. Richard “Didymus” Washington plays marimba while producer Jimmy Miller lends support on percussion.