dbt tracks # 49 - The Three Great Alabama Icons

[Clams]

Along with Self Destructive Zones, Ronnie & Neil and Putting People on the Moon (among a few others), The Three Great Alabama Icons was one of the first DBT songs that made me really pay attention and say "Holy shit, these guys are for real." I always thought that some cool college or high school history teacher could use this song as the basis for a unit on racial relations and segregation in the 60's and 70's south.

Discuss.

PS - If anyone has an accurate copy of the lyrics, please pst em for me. Thanks.

[Iowan]

I remember the first time I heard this, I was laying in bed hungover and I had my computer right next to me. I was playing SRO all the way through for the first time and thought to myself "what the fuck is this?" (in a good way of course)

I still get chills when Patterson's talking about George Wallace and raises his voice for the "and he's in HEEELLL now!" part.

[RevMatt]

Even though I grew up in the northeast I could totally relate to this song. "A guitar was a poor substitute for a football with the girls in my high school, so my band hit the road. And we didn't play no Skynyrd either. I came of age rebelling against the music in my high school parking lot." I felt like he was telling my story.

[scotto]

Even though I grew up in the northeast I could totally relate to this song. "A guitar was a poor substitute for a football with the girls in my high school, so my band hit the road. And we didn't play no Skynyrd either. I came of age rebelling against the music in my high school parking lot." I felt like he was telling my story.

Same here. I grew up in Arkansas rather than Alabama, but at about the same time. The line you quoted is spot-on for my high school years.
I easily got into just about all DBT's songs the minute I heard 'em, but this one packed the most dramatic "He's tellin' my story" moment.
Coincidentally, see this thread for related thoughts: http://www.threedimesdown.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2245

[RevMatt]

It was not only a "he's telling my story" moment but it brought back a whole lot of other memories, too. I was hooked from the opening song, "Days of Graduation" but that line made me remember how a bunch of jocks crashed the punker's party during senior year and just started kicking people's asses for no reason. It was at my guitar player's girlfriend's house. We were in the back yard drinking beer and listening to The Clash when about fifteen came from out of nowhere. Just because we liked The Clash, The Ramones and U2. There were only about fifteen to twenty punk rockers in my high school which had about 2,000 students. But we saw all the best shows. I wonder how many of those dumbass jocks ended up paying hundreds of bucks to see U2 in a football stadium. I saw them at The Ritz for eight dollars. Stood at the rail. Met the bass player after the show.

Class of '82

[dime in the gutter]

greatest party killing tune of all time.

fucking love this song.

which leads us to george wallace

[Swamp]

Why I relate to this song.
I came of age in Skynyrds hometown as a
Neil Young fan.
My mom is from Alabama.
She's a die hard Bama fan.To her Bear Bryant is God.
Last time we took her to an Alabama game in the "Swamp" she cussed everybody in
our section. We know these people. We've sat next to them almost 18 years.
which brings us to George Wallace
On the day he got shot my mom had taken us boys to the beach.
My sister had stayed home for some reason and my dad was on
the carrier USS America in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.
As we pulled up in the driveway, my sister came running out of the
house screaming "they shot George Wallace"
My mom flipped out. She ran in the house and grabbed a .22 rifle
and ran back out in the front yard with it. She was pissed. To this
day I have no idea who she was gonna shoot.
Buy the time he died she disliked him cause she had heard he beat
his wife.

[Zip City]

Great storytelling
Ties entire album together
Fascinating history

yet

I skip it and Wallace every time.

[GuitarManUpstairs]

Great storytelling
Ties entire album together
Fascinating history

yet

I skip it and Wallace every time.

Hmm...? Sometimes I skip forward to these songs then go back and listen from the beginning. I could dig the sound of DBT immediately on many of the songs but like Iowan said, this was the one that made it obvious that these boys' water ran deeper than most. Also, its scary to me that 30-40 years down the line there are still so many parallels in todays politics. "He called Kennedy and King communists..." Well...I guess Hell's just the place for 'em. (cough..Trump..cough..sarapalin..cough.....Jeez this cold is killing me! )

[Zip City]

guess I shouldn't say every time. I dig the background music of this song. I can only listen to Patterson's spoken word stuff so many times though. It's not like you can sing along.

Wallace gets skipped all the time, though.

[GuitarManUpstairs]

I really don't dig the Rob Malone stuff so much either but Wallace doesn't bother me as much for some reason. Most likely cause its Patterson's lyrics and I love how the transition from 3GAI to Wallace makes you almost feel like you're at a play and you're getting that spoken word intro right before the curtain gets pulled back and you have the character of the Devil contemplating Wallaces arrival.

I kind of wish they would do more of this, maybe as a side project. Patterson seems to be friendly with so many different artists - seems like if he wanted he could put together an "Audio-Play" where these artists could play the characters woven through the story. It might be similar in some respects to what was done in SRO but with different subjects/characters/sounds/arrangements and have the various characters interact more directly with one another through the song cycle. I know this is not new ground or a ground breaking idea - it has been done before, probably by many more artist than i am familiar with (White Mansions comes to mind - collaboration b/w Waylon Jennings/Eric Clapton/EmmyLou Haris/others) but I would love to see Patterson take a stab at it.

[Smitty]

I dig the TDU version of "Wallace" with Patterson on vocals.

Probably could've combined 3GAI & Wallace for this thread

[GuitarManUpstairs]

I dig the TDU version of "Wallace" with Patterson on vocals.

Probably could've combined 3GAI & Wallace for this thread

Wouldn't happen to have a recording of this would ya?

[Smitty]

TDU show featuring WALLACE w/Patterson on vocals

[GuitarManUpstairs]

WALLACE w/Patterson on vocals

Says "Page not Found" WTF???

[Smitty]

try it now

http://www.archive.org/details/dbt2007- ... 184.flac16

[GuitarManUpstairs]

Got it. Much thanks!

[Smarty Jones]

I always thought that some cool college or high school history teacher could use this song as the basis for a unit on racial relations and segregation in the 60's and 70's south.

Senior year in AP U.S. Government and Politics. The teacher assigned us an essay in which we had to choose a song and write about how its lyrics related to minority voting in American politics. I didn't think there was anything that better suited the prompt - so I used The Three Great Alabama Icons.

[GuitarManUpstairs]

I always thought that some cool college or high school history teacher could use this song as the basis for a unit on racial relations and segregation in the 60's and 70's south.

Senior year in AP U.S. Government and Politics. The teacher assigned us an essay in which we had to choose a song and write about how its lyrics related to minority voting in American politics. I didn't think there was anything that better suited the prompt - so I used The Three Great Alabama Icons.

Alsum!!!! So how did that go??? Would have loved to hear your teacher's reaction to that....

[Smarty Jones]

I don't think he'd ever heard of SRO, much less DBT....I got a "Great!" comment at the top of my essay when it was handed back. A lot of the points I'd made in it were circled as "interesting" throughout, and I couldn't have asked for a better score. I think my paper was the one breath of fresh air amongst the other students' papers on Gag-a and Lil' Wayne (don't ask me WHAT they could've been writing about).

It was fun bringing DBT up in that class. We got into a classroom discussion about eminent domain when we were into the chapter on civil liberties, and I brought up the whole point Cooley had made about the TVA in Uncle Frank. The teacher had never heard that story about the Wilson Dam before, and all the people being promised jobs in a Ford plant that never came to town. He was dumbfounded when I told him I'd heard all about it in a song, and it made him sit down and look it up on his computer. Few minutes later, he muttered aloud to the class, "oh my God, she's right!"

[Sub]

The trade school I was in a couple years ago had a final project and we got to choose to write about any subject we wanted for a ten page report so since they let us research our subject online and we had to spend a lot of time on it I choose to write about one of the few things that could hold my interest, which happened to be DBT. I really enjoyed the project and I was a bit surprised to find out they enjoyed reading it even though DBT was certainly never on their radar till I turned that report in.

I covered just about all you could want to know about DBT, I wish I still had a copy of it. I'd like to think it inspired the instructor to go out and give DBT a listen but I doubt that happened.

[DJ23]

So I'm really new to DBT but I already love them, and holy hell ,I just heard this song for the first time and it blew me away.

[Sub]

Well the one good thing about finding new music a little late is the chance at hearing these songs for the first time.

[Zip City]

I was demolishing a bathroom in my old house when I first heard this song

[beantownbubba]

It takes a certain amount of balls to put a spoken word "song" on any rock/pop album, but you gotta double or triple that to put one on an album you're calling an "opera"

[GuitarManUpstairs]

I was demolishing a bathroom in my old house when I first heard this song

TMI -

[GuitarManUpstairs]

It takes a certain amount of balls to put a spoken word "song" on any rock/pop album, but you gotta double or triple that to put one on an album you're calling an "opera"

Its ok when its fuck'in badass!

[njMark]

I know this gets said a lot but in all honesty, DBT has taught me more about Southern history and legends than any other thing in my life. I knew who Wallace was but no more than that, only time I saw his face was in Forrest Gump. Absolutely love the 3GAI/Wallace duo.

[jwolf]

A friend of mine whom I respect and with whom I trade music burned me a copy of SRO. It was pretty new at the time and even tho I was from NY and living out west, I had gone to HS in Chapel Hill, NC and college in Wilmington, NC. We were more into southern rock in NY than the folks I met at HS in the south, because like in the song, the people I met who were into southern rock were the jocks. I was into everything, including all the "new" music at the time (Ramones, Clash, etc) and couldn't understand the whole "football" mentality.
Having a burned copy of this, I had no idea the name of any songs, but the first thing I heard was a song that reminded me of a scene from the movie Wild at Heart...and then I heard this song and was floored at the writing. I couldn't believe it and still think it's a great listen. I never skip it.

[scotto]

Has anyone mentioned how the musical vamp under Patterson's vocals on this tune is reminiscent of Neil's "Danger Bird"?
Maybe it's so obvious that no one's mentioned it, but I listened to both back to back to back tonight and had a heck of a time.
But then, I drank a lot of beer, too.
Carry on.