JEW BOY DIGS THE SKYNYRD

As an addendum to what I wrote below about Southern rock in “5 Things About Living in the South that I am Sort of in the Middle About,” I have since begun to really dig and appreciate the unsophisticated pleasures of Lynyrd Skynyrd and not in a kitschy way. This group of furry-maned redneck wankers from Jacksonville, Florida personified Southern rock with their swampy, mosquito-bitten, ramshackle groove-on and had just a little bit of soul to their sound. Rather than a greatest hits collection, which mostly feature their numerous classic rock standards, I would recommend their debut record Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd, which includes “Mississippi Kid,” a very authentic-sounding blues tune about corn bread and killing folks from Alabama set to some fancy mandolin pickin’, and “Things Goin’ On,” which has a dandy keyboard riff and some nonsensical funky lyrics from Skynyrd front dude Ronnie Van Zant. You know that you are gettin’ used to yer new digs when you are a Westside Jew raised on Run DMC and Benny Goodman shakin’ yer tail to Skynyrd while dreaming of a pimento cheese sandwich. Something has happened to your insular Jew, Frappucino-guzzling, post-election-befuddled, complaining-about-the-economy world when you find yourself reconsidering “Sweet Home Alabama” and tapping your foot and shaking your finger to “Swamp Music.” You are many moons away from your bagel noshing homeland.