That ain't my America is a fantastic song!! Keep telling it the way it is boys.......not enough of us in this Country speak there minds!!

I agree with you 100%. We need more people to speak our minds. It is great to have guys like Skynrd do it for us.

The way America is running, with all the morons as leaders, i dont see how we didnt get nuked yet. We should be living the Simple Life, and the title is right. This isnt our America

Yeah and the "Chosen One" is oversea's with Oprah (WTF????) fighting to get the Olympic's in HIS hometown???????

Aren't there more important things to be concerned about than the freakin' Olympics!!!!! That NO ONE WATCHES or CARES ABOUT....

Sorry for "venting" after all it is.....

SKYNYRD NATION DAY!!!!!!!

@LynSkyn1981: AMEN!!!!!!!!!!! Spoken like a true American!

@medwaysimpleman: AMEN to you also!!!!!!!!

=medwaysimpleman said:Yeah and the "Chosen One" is oversea's with Oprah (WTF????) fighting to get the Olympic's in HIS hometown???????

Aren't there more important things to be concerned about than the freakin' Olympics!!!!! That NO ONE WATCHES or CARES ABOUT....

Sorry for "venting" after all it is.....

SKYNYRD NATION DAY!!!!!!!

@roadfatigue: well put my frynd, and here in utah the illegals are the main growth, and some folks are pissed about on the census coming up that they are offended by the propsed question to be on it, being, are you a legal citizen of the U.S.? go figure that one out!

Hello Tom! Please don't censor this message. All kinds of Skynyrd fans deserve the right to speak their mind about the new record!

That Ain’t My Skynyrd

What bothers me about songs like ”God and Guns” and ”That Ain’t My America” is that they totally lack the wit, depth and complexity that were the trademarks of Ronnie Van Zants songwriting.

Indeed, it must be a sign of bad self confidence to retreat to old clichés about guns and America, as though there is no other audience out there for Skynyrd these days than white Christian NRA-members constantly hollering about the price of gas.

People! Ronnie Van Zant was so much wiser than that. And the appeal of his songs was a lot greater than that. The sad thing about the current band is that they’re seemingly trying to confirm all the prejudice a lot of people have historically had of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

The majority of music fans out there still don’t realize what a brilliant songwriter Ronnie Van Zant was and what a fantastic band 70’s Skynyrd was. And a lot of people don’t realize what kind of subjects Ronnie Van Zant actually wrote about.

There was a very obvious reason why Gary Rossington and Allen Collins did not reform Skynyrd after the crash. They knew very well that things could never be the same. Still I can understand why Gary Rossington and the others ultimately decided to call themselves Skynyrd again. And who could deny them the right to the name and the opportunity to make a good living? But it’s getting increasingly hard to accept the way the use the name and increasingly sad to witness them turning into some kind of Sarah Palin-soundtrack.

To all of you who think Lynyrd Skynyrd is exclusively for conservative republicans I (with a little help from my friends) must once again slay the myths and misconceptions about the greatest of all American rock bands.

Ronnie Van Zant supported Jimmy Carter strongly in the 1976 race, and the band raised a lot of money for his campaign. To him, Carter was for the working man, and would restore trust and integrity to the government, as well as heal the nation after Vietnam.

In reference to "Sweet Home Alabama", bassist Leon Wilkeson stated that they "supported Wallace about as much as your average American supported Hitler".

There's a "Boo! Boo! Boo!" after the mention of Wallace in that song.

Watergate didn't bother a cynic who was used to Washington D.C. playing games with southerners, especially since Nixon showed his opportunistic colors with the "Southern Strategy". Ronnie said that when he wrote that lyric, he just laughed, because he knew it would "either blow us wide open, or piss everyone off so bad we won't get a second chance."

Clydie King and Merry Clayton are African-Americans, and they sing the background vocals on the song, which pretty much discredits any charges of racism. As for those pesky stars 'n bars... MCA Records made them use it for a marketing tool, and Ronnie finally got his way when the flag was no longer used on their final tour in 1977, before the plane crash. He said Europeans loved it more than the Americans, because "they are into that macho American shit".

"Things Goin' On" is anti-Vietnam and advocates helping the inner cities with the money that was wasted on the war and the moon program. Have things changed that much?

"Saturday Night Special" is anti-handgun, and calls for voluntary gun control ("why don't we dump 'em all, people, to the bottom of the sea?").

"All I Can Do Is Write About It" is pro-environmental.

"The Ballad of Curtis Loew" reveals the truths of racism in the south circa the late 50's, and how a young boy overcame his prejudices because of the great healing power of music. It is so beautifully told, without exploitation or overstatement.

Some things are too easily forgotten ...

@Dan Hafstrom:

Let me start by saying that in the past I have resisted the temptation to respond to "Skynyrd Bashers" on this board. I've always felt that their sole purpose in posting was to evoke anger and frustration from other members. Why else would someone waste their time posting negative comments about a band in the band's own fan forum? You would NEVER find a posting by me in any Ellen Degeneres, Kayne West, Jane Fonda or Barack Hussein Obama fan site! I have voiced my opinions about all of the above (and many others) in public forums but never their own fan sites. I have a lot of better things to do in my spare time than to go to the website of someone that I loathe and bad mouth that person to their biggest fans. It's just a completely classless act.

Dan, let's hypothetically say that you are divorced and have since re-married. I am giving you the benefit of the doubt that you are heterosexual and that you have been able to find two women with whom to marry. Let's also say that you and your current wife are having a huge party and have been gracious enough to invite me. There are hundreds of guests at your place and they adore you and your wife. So I get there and do nothing but talk shit about your wife to everyone at the party. I tell them all how great your first wife was and how much better looking she was than your current wife.....etc. Even if I personally thought that to be true, it would be completely disrespectful to you and all of your friends. It would also be a completely classless act which I would never do. I can also tell you that 99.9% of the people that post on these boards would not go to your party and belittle your wife.

I do firmly believe that everyone has the right to their own opinion(s). I was raised to believe that there is an appropriate time and place to voice those opinions. There are certainly other websites that cater to people with similar beliefs as you. I won't give them the publicity of naming them on here, but you can find them if you search.

Just my opinion.

@Wickey: Great story--I thought that I was reading a parable. Maybe that is what was needed to get the point across to some "fans". Thanks for being insightful!