Southern Man

VINYL FORMAT. Neil Young's Southern Man, articulates a marked disgust with the reactionary and inherently racist tendency of regional nationalism. Everyone is familiar with the alleged animosity between Young and Alabama's Lynyrd Skynyrd over the blatantly condemnatory articulation of the South's almost fascistic obsession with local heritage, blood & soil, the completely fallacious belief in a national story, a legacy of firm local traditionalism that fuels so much of the racism in the south. Past, present, and future is accounted for, and the legacy of slavery is carried on through demented 'local pride' that goes largely unquestioned, disguised as it is. Young put out a song that sought to openly and aggressively single out the violent legacy of Southern racism and its influence still operating strong within Southern social thought, refusing to let it fade away from the popular memory, just as the most influential and high-ranking of apologists were beginning to formulate and put into action the notion of equality finally achieved in the new America.