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".
Alabama (Canadian band)
In 1973 Alabama released a single, "Song of Love" that appeared on the top 100 in the RPM Magazine chart, peaking at No. 26 in June that year. A second single, "Highway Driving", was written by Fykes and Knight and was released through Maple Creek Music; it reached No. 42 in August 1973. The song was nominated for a Juno Award for Canadian Country Single of the year in 1974; Alabama also received a nomination as Best Country Group.