Neil Young feud with Lynard Skynard and it's place on the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brian Finale

Last night Conan O'Brien closed an ugly chapter in late night television history as he closed out his run on as the Tonight Show host after a paltry seven months behind the desk. O'Brien took the classy route out, given the opportunity to say anything he liked about NBC he chose not to bag on them but instead thanked the network for taking a chance on him and for 20 years of mostly good times.

But Conan's last show may help close a debate that has nothing to do with the Tonight Show, NBC, Jay Leno or anything else. Conan may have given rise to another opportunity to discuss an old chestnut of whether Neil Young and the members of Lynard Skynard had some sort of feud going on and whether there is still some sort of division there.

Conan's last musical guest was Neil Young who came on and sang "Long May You Run" a song which according to Neil Young is about a car and a girl but when you hear it feels like it about so much more. Later in the show after Conan gave his farewell speech the stage curtain's opened and Will Ferrell, dressed in full southern rock regalia led the Tonight Show band on what may be the best ever version of Lynard Skynard's Free Bird I have ever heard (full disclosure here, I was a teenager in the 70's and every fucking cover band on the planet was doing Free Bird back then, I learned to loathe that song).

Now you may or may not know but there was a much ballyhooed alleged feud  between Neil Young that came about when Neil released the songs Southern Man and Alabama. Both songs painted the southerner with a pretty wide brush, perhaps too wide as it seemed that Neil (who is Canadian) was basically saying EVERY southerner was racist and responsible for past transgressions which the average southerner had nothing to do with.

 Skynard, led by front man Ronnie Van Zant released what is commonly known as a response song called "Sweet Home Alabama" which has been in subsequent years seen as a defense of racism and a condemnation of Young and people like him. Young is called out in the song with the lyric "Well I hope Neil Young will remember/  Southern Man don't need him around anyhow".  "Sweet Home Alabama" was labelled a racist song and Skynard as a band were tagged as being a bunch of ignorant bigots themselves. They didn't help dissuade anyone from that notion as in concert a Confederate flag would unfurl behind the band as they played the controversial song.

But, were they and was the song racist? Van Zant seemed to confuse the matter. In one interview the Skynard lead singer is quoted saying "We wrote Alabama as a joke. We didn't even think about it - the words just came out that way. We just laughed like hell, and said 'Ain't that funny'... We love Neil Young, we love his music..." but in another interview with Rolling Stone he said "We thought Neil was shooting all the ducks in order to kill one or two," in essence supporting the notion that southerners did not need some Canadian guy telling them what was wrong with their world.

The meaning of Sweet Home Alabama continues to be debated, with people mostly taking whatever view they are predisposed to take. For my part I have no real opinion, I think the song is not for me and while it could be racist it also might not be and we can't condemn the song or the band based on how people interpret it or use it. Remember when Ronald Reagan used Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" during his campaign. Springsteen objected not just because he did not support Reagan and did not give the campaign permission to use the song, but because whoever decided to use the music obviously missed the point of the song and did not listen to the lyrics beyond the chorus. Neil Young himself had a song sort of adopted by people for the wrong reason with "Rockin' in the Free World" as it is often quoted in a sort of jingoistic way when the real meaning of the song was criticism of Bush the First's social policies.

If there was a feud between Young and Van Zant and the other members of Skynard it was either over-blown or patched up.  For his part Young was quoted saying about Skynard and about the song "Oh, they didn't really put me down! But then again, maybe they did! (laughs) But not in a way that matters. Shit, I think Sweet Home Alabama is a great song." In the same interview in Mojo Magazine Young says he was going to give the song Powderfinger to Skynard along with a couple of other songs.

Van Zant for his part admired Young and often wore Neil Young t-shirts when performing. The shirt that Will Ferell is wearing during his cover of Free Bird is the same Neil Young shirt that Van Zant wears on the cover of Skynard's 1977 album Street Survivor. The singer also wore the same Neil Young shirt (which was the cover of Young's Tonight's the Night album) on tour.

The stories get weirder and stranger and not really verifiable. Neil Young claimed that Ronnie Van Zant was wearing a Neil Young shirt when he died. It as rumored that the Skynard frontman was also buried in a Neil shirt and that fans had dug up his grave to try and verify the fact. While Van Zant's grave was desecrated police said there was no evidence that the coffin had been opened.

So, there on the Tonight Show you have Neil Young paying tribute to Conan, then going off to perform on the Haiti telethon all on the same day that he found about the death about longtime friend and producer Larry Johnson. That is a class act and a pro by definition.

Then on comes Ferrell complete with pregnant wife and adding the like of Beck and Ben Harper to the Tonight Show band to perform Free Bird, a a Lynard Skynard song about someone escaping a relationship that is going nowhere and was probably doomed from the start. Sporting long hair, Tonight's the Night t-shirt and pulling out a cowbell during the solo. Behind the entire band was a giant American flag (as opposed to the Confederate battle flag that Skynard would have used) and it almost seemed to fly in the face of of the whole Young/Skynard thing. I mean Conan O'Brien is a savvy guy with a good knowledge of his music and pop culture history. No way would he have okayed something that might have offended Neil Young.

As much s I can't stand Free Bird, it was a perfect way for Conan to go out.