Released: 1980
Alabama’s ‘Song of the South’ is a nostalgic tune that paints a picture of Southern life during the Great Depression. It’s a tale of struggle, resilience, and the enduring spirit of the South, told through the lens of a poor farming family.
The lyrics ‘Sweet potato pie and I shut my mouth’ is a colloquial expression in the South, suggesting contentment with simple pleasures, like a slice of sweet potato pie. The phrase ‘Gone, gone with the wind’ is a nod to the famous novel and film, symbolizing the fleeting nature of the past.
‘Cotton on the roadside, cotton in the ditch’ speaks to the prevalence of cotton farming in the South, a tough and unprofitable labor. The line ‘Daddy was a veteran, a Southern Democrat’ reflects the political leanings of the South during that era, often associated with the working class.
‘Well, somebody told us Wall Street fell / But we were so poor that we couldn’t tell’ is a reference to the Wall Street Crash of 1929, which triggered the Great Depression. However, for the poor, life was already hard, so the crash didn’t make much difference.
‘Cotton was short and the weeds were tall / But Mr. Roosevelt’s a-gonna save us all’ speaks to the hardships of farming during the Depression, and the hope placed in President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal policies.
‘Mama got sick and Daddy got down / The county got the farm and we moved to town’ tells the story of the family losing their farm, a common occurrence during the Depression. The line ‘Papa got a job with the TVA’ refers to the Tennessee Valley Authority, a New Deal agency that provided jobs during the Depression.
The repeated chorus ‘Song, song of the south / Sweet potato pie and I shut my mouth / Gone, gone with the wind / There ain’t nobody lookin’ back again’ serves as a refrain, encapsulating the song’s themes of nostalgia, hardship, and the relentless march of time.
