What Is Southern Rock?

I used to be a researcher with Country Music Television, and occasionally, between Dukes of Hazard reruns and Larry the Cable Guy specials, we would produce a show about music. My favorite one of these shows was called 20 Greatest Southern Rock Songs.

In the five months I spent working on that show, people would often ask to see a list of the 20 songs CMT deemed the best of Southern Rock. The usual reaction boiled down to dismissive nodding at the more obvious choices – the Allman Brothers’ Ramblin’ Man, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Freebird – followed by a barrage of 'what about' questions: What about ZZ Top? What about Tom Petty? What about REM?

Valid questions, but Southern Rock is not just rock produced by people raised below the Mason-Dixon line. It’s defined as much by time as by place.

In 1969, record executives Phil Walden and Frank Fenter launched Capricorn Records, and one of the first acts they signed was Georgia's Allman Brothers Band. Music critics called the band's sound 'Southern Rock,' as a way of differentiating it from other blues-based jam bands like Cream, who were from England, and the Grateful Dead, who were from San Francisco.

Seeing the marketing angle, Walden and Fenter signed a slew of other bands from the South – an area of the country mostly ignored by U.S. record labels. The Marshall Tucker Band, Elvin Bishop and Wet Willie all made Capricorn their home, and all saw action on the pop charts.

Other labels followed suit: MCA brought on Lynyrd Skynyrd. Arista signed the Outlaws. Epic Records had Charlie Daniels, creator of Southern Rock’s defining anthem – or dumbest novelty tune, depending on your politics – with The South’s Gonna Do It Again.

Hence:

-ZZ Top cannot be considered Southern Rock because they are ‘the lil’ ol’ band from Texas.’ Texas ain't part of the South.

-Tom Petty might have been born in Florida, but he didn't have a record until the late-70s, just as New Wave was replacing Southern Rock as the Next Big Thing.

And yes, the Georgia Satellites, whose Keep Your Hands to Yourself hit the Billboard top 10 in 1986, are often considered a Southern Rock band, but they’re the exception that proves the rule. Oh, and then there's Blackfoot, who had a couple of hits in 1980, but they’re only considered Southern Rock because frontman Rickey Medlocke once played drums for Skynyrd.

Oh and REM? Sure, they’re from Georgia, but come on.

Recommended Southern Rock listening...
-At Fillmore East, The Allman Brothers Band
-pronounced leh-nerd skin-nerd, Lynyrd Skynyrd
-The Marshall Tucker Band
-Struttin’ My Stuff, Elvin Bishop
-Keep On Smilin’, Wet Willie
-The Outlaws
-A Rock and Roll Alternative, Atlanta Rhythm Section
-Ozark Mountain Daredevils
-Flirtin’ With Disaster, Molly Hatchet
-Fire on the Mountain, The Charlie Daniels Band

Comments

[Harry]

What about Widespread Panic? They're as Southern as Southern Rock gets!