Ten Favorite Southern Rock Songs: The South's Gonna Do It (#9)

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Although this series of my ten favorite southern rock songs was inspired by a post by @Dena91 we are not in cahoots on this. I say this because today she's talking about Charlie Daniels....and lookie who shows up on my list at number nine. #9: The South's Gonna Do It - Charlie Daniels Band Charlie Daniels was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame last year. I vehemently object to his induction because his popular career and "mark" in music was as a southern rocker, not a country singer. (I said I thought that was setting us up for Bob Dylan's induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame as songwriter this year [given all the country acts that have done Dylan songs], but a friend who's a voting member of the CMA assured me it wasn't.) I love Charlie's music (listen to his veteran anthem "Still in Saigon" sometime), and I think he had one of the best GEICO commercials ever, but there are too many country singers who belong in that hall, and I'll never believe anything but that Charlie was put in to keep someone else out. Enough of that. Let's talk about this song. Despite the fact that everybody in the world calls this "The South's Gonna Do It Again," the listing on the album doesn't have again in the title. Aw, it doesn't matter. This is a fun song that celebrates southern rock before it was cool to do so. And you can tell it's about southern rock, because every band mentioned is "down in" some state or city. My favorite line in the song is the ode to Elvin Bishop: "Elvin Bishop sittin' on a bale of hay, he ain't good-lookin' but he sure can play." Remember, this song pre-dates Bishop's 1975 breakthrough hit "Fooled Around and Fell in Love" (quick aside for trivia: the lead singer on that song wasn't Bishop, it was Mickey Thomas, who'd later be lead singer for Starship). In fact, most of the people mentioned in this song -- with the exception of Dickey Betts, ZZ Top, Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker, and ol' Charlie himself (he sneaks a little self-promotion in at the end: "all the good people down in Tennessee are diggin' Barefoot Jerry and the CDB") -- weren't ever that well-known outside of the southern rock circles of the 70s. Most who did get a moment in the national spotlight did so with one hit ("Keep On Smilin'" by Wet Willie or the aforementioned Elvin Bishop song). Be proud that you're a rebel, y'hear? The South's Gonna Do It Written by Charlie Daniels Recorded by the Charlie Daniels Band From Fire on the Mountain, 1974 You can get down, hear?