Alabama: Song of the South Meaning

Song Released: 1988

Song of the South Lyrics

Song, song of the south.
Sweet potato pie and I shut my mouth.
Gone, gone with the wind.
There aint nobody looking back again.

Cotton on the roadside, cotton in the ditch.
We all picked the cotton but we never got rich.
Daddy was a...

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   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Mar 12th 2017 !⃝

   Song of South is a snapshot of American history when poor people trying to provide for themselves hit hard times. The reference to "Mr. Roosevelt" is simply to show how people left their unproductive farms and found work in government programs designed to keep the country afloat during the Great Depression. It also references how poor people became "Southern Democrats" through such programs. It's a snapshot of Southern rural life, y'all. It's not the entire history of the South.

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Mar 27th 2008 !⃝

   It was about the great depression. In the lyrics "the cotton was short and the weeds were tall, but Mr. Roosevelt's gonna save us all at the time one of the Roosevelts were in office.

3. 3TOP RATED

   #3 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Feb 11th 2014 !⃝

   All you guys need to know is that it's a great song by a great artist.
4. anonymous

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   Oct 8th 2021 !⃝

   "Sweet potato pie and I shut my mouth" means "I couldn't think of any other words that rhyme with south".
5. anonymous

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   Apr 4th 2021 !⃝

   It's about how blacks took over the south, raped the cattle and stole the white women after the war of Northern Aggression. Fools

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
6. anonymous

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   May 8th 2020 !⃝

   bruh this song is trash lmaoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
7. anonymous

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   Aug 17th 2018 !⃝

   It was hardly about the invading army raping and pillaging.
   If you talk to a southerner now, you'll hear their grandparents and great grands beef was the 20 years after the civil war. There was lawlessness amongst themselves due to the legal system completely dropping out of existence. That part was much worse than the invasion. The invasion was brilliantly planned by William T Sherman designed to burn down the plantations. That would get a whole lot more attention than killing the poor folks. The plantation owners were the lawmakers.
8. anonymous

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   May 24th 2014 !⃝

   Y'all must be a bunch of stupid northern city folks. This song is clearly about the great depression. Learn your history!
9. anonymous

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   Nov 18th 2013 !⃝

   OK... this song is most definitely NOT about the dust bowl. Maybe you should be hitting the history books dude... It s about the sharecroppers of the south in the 1920's and 30's and how they were so greatly impoverished. Their land was foreclosed, which they didn't even own by the way (it was on lease) and how many of them had to move to the city. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was a socialist act of Roosevelt that called for the development of impoverished land in the south that would provide high paying jobs building hydroelectric dams from the government. Many people were able to purchase luxuries that were almost unnecessary. BTW, im a city kid so na meen...
10. anonymous

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    May 29th 2013 !⃝

    Y'all a bunch of dem big city mo-rons. This song's about the Dust Bowl, if ya don't know what that is, i suggest ya hit your history books!

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
11. anonymous

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    Feb 3rd 2013 !⃝

    Read the part of history between WWI and WWII that's what a lot of the song is about
12. anonymous

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    Oct 4th 2011 !⃝

    The song is sarcastic.
    
    "Song, Song of the South" refers to the idyllic country way of life in the south before the War between the states.
    
    "Gone, gone with the Wind" refers to what happened after the South was invaded. The South was raped, pillaged and burned during the war and many innocent civilians lost there lives were lost to the invading army.
    
    "There aint nobody looking back again" refers to the fact that the education system imposed by the north largely glosses over what really occurred, in favor of painting all Southerners as racist slave owners.
    
    "Sweet potato pie and I shut my mouth" refers to Southern people forgetting about it and keeping quiet for a little security provided by the Federal government. This was after years of widespread poverty resulting from the war through the depression.

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