First off, I like the band. They're one of my favorites. Obviously the old line-up, first albums until they died, not the post-crash bullcrap masquerading as them.
But something that's always struck me is how, unless I missed ever hearing it be talked about, the song Saturday Night Special wasn't considered a sticking point with their fans.
Modern country bands wouldn't dare write a song that's vaguely anti-second amendment.
Yet this song, which is from a Southern 70s band, literally has the lyric in it
"Hand guns are made for killin' They ain't no good for nothin' else....
So why don't we dump 'em, people To the bottom of the sea"
It's the "no one needs an AR-15" of the 70s.
Yeah a lot of murders happened with "Saturday Night Specials" and other handguns and revolvers, but also many lives were saved in self defense or otherwise with those very same guns.
Just pretty crazy that in the 1970s a band that would have a confederate flag on stage, would sing this to adoring crowds and it wasn't a big fuss. Maybe it was, and we're just not privy to it anymore. Someone who was alive back then' perspective would be greatly appreciated.
Back before the internet with its catalogued lyrics and better recording technology it was pretty easy to just not know half the words in a song outside the chorus. You might learn it if you bought the album, but most people are just hearing it on the radio.
I actually balked at the actual words to a few of my favorite childhood songs once I learned them, instead of whatever my brain filled in there. I'd probably hate them if I had and am now in a begrudging "art from artist" state about it.