Sweet Home Alabama | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
||: D5 Csus2 | G (fill) :|| (guitar)
One, two, three. Turn it up.
||: D5 Csus2 | G (fill) :|| (band)
Verse 1
||: D5 Csus2 | G (fill) :||
Big wheels keep on turnin’.
Carry me home to see my kin.
Singin’ songs about the south-land.
I miss Alabamy once again and I think it’s a sin, yes.
Instrumental 1
||: D/F# C/E | G/B :||
Verse 2
Well, I heard Mister Young sing about her.
Well, I heard ol’ Neil put her down.
Well, I hope Neil Young will remember.
A southern man don’t need him around anyhow.
Chorus 1
||: D5 Csus2 | G (fill) :||
Sweet home Alabama.
Where the skies are so blue.
Sweet home Alabama.
Lord, I’m comin’ home to you.
Solo 1
||: D5 Csus2 | G (fill) :||
Verse 3
| D5 Csus2 | G5 F C/E |
In Birmingham, they love the governor (boo-hoo-hoo).
||: D5 Csus2 | G (fill) :||
Now we all did what we could do.
Now Watergate does not bother me.
Does your conscience bother you? Tell the truth.
Chorus 2
Sweet home Alabama.
Where the skies are blue.
Sweet home Alabama (oh yeah).
Lord, I’m comin’ home to you. Here I come, Alabama.
Solo 2
||: D5 Csus2 | G (fill) :|| x8
Instrumental 2
||: D/F# C/E | G/B :||
Verse 4
Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers.
And they’ve been known to pick a song or two (yes they do).
Lord, they get me off so much.
They pick me up when I’m feelin’ blue, now how about you?
Chorus 3
Sweet home Alabama.
Where the skies are so blue.
Sweet home Alabama.
| D5 Csus2 | G F C/E |
Lord, I’m comin’ home to you.
Chorus 4
Sweet home Alabama (oh, sweet home).
Where the skies are so blue.
And the governor’s true.
Sweet home Alabama (lordy).
Lord, I’m comin’ home to you, yeah, yeah.
Solo 3 (piano)
||: D5 Csus2 | G (fill) :|| to fade
Montgomery’s got the answer.
Sweet Home Alabama Chords: Learn the progressions
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s classic Sweet Home Alabama is every covers band’s secret weapon, what they turn to if nothing else works!
Let’s look at the key, the chords, progressions, and a few selected licks you simply must know to play this classic.
First of all, this tune is in the key of G. The D is V, C is IV and G is I. Over the G chord, you play G major blues licks, that’s a Major Pentatonic with a m3rd.
The chords are simple for, all we do is move V – IV – I in the key of G, like this:
||: D5 (V) Csus2 (IV) | G (I) :||
There’s an instrumental section that puts the 3rd of each chord in the bass, like this:
||: D/F# (V/3) C/E (IV/3) | G/B (I/3) :||
And finally, there’s an F chord (bVIIx) in there twice, first in the beginning of verse 3 and then at the end of chorus 3, like this:
| D5 (V) Csus2 (IV) | G5 (I) F (bVIIx) C/E (IV/3) |
But as you probably know, you need to play the legendary chord riff, not just strum each chord. For that, you need TAB; there is simply no other way.
Here’s a link to the TAB lesson: Sweet Home Alabama – Guitar Lesson with TAB.
To make it fun, you must maintain an element of improvisation. I’m still experimenting with my Sweet Home Alabama licks, decades after I first played it. Lately, I’ve even started looking forward to playing it!
Here’s a chord chart for Sweet Home Alabama, this will serve as a reminder of the chords and perhaps more importantly, the structure.
Sweet Home Alabama Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Sweet Home Alabama Chord Chart PDF.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: Sweet Home Alabama iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.
Sweet Home Alabama is one of the most obvious covers for the working band!
Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s classic Sweet Home Alabama was released in 1974 on the band’s second album.
Considering how popular this tune has become it’s perhaps surprising that it wasn’t a big chart success back in the day. Sales were modest with just over a million copies in the U.S.
For most tunes, these are good numbers but for Sweet Home Alabama, perhaps the most common covers band’s tune of all time, it’s slightly odd.
You can only compare this to Mustang Sally, I Feel Good, and (in the U.K.) Valerie as tunes you can’t show up to a gig without knowing.
Sweet Home Alabama Chords | Related Pages
Sweet Home Alabama | Guitar Lesson + TAB
With this guitar lesson, you can learn to play Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd using TAB and chord analysis.
| D5 Csus2 | G (fill) |
Big wheels keep on turnin’…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
- (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction The Rolling Stones
- Bad Moon Rising chords by Creedence Clearwater Revival
- Honky Tonk Women chords by The Rolling Stone
- Mary Jane’s Last Dance chords by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
- Mustang Sally chords by Wilson Pickett
Lynyrd Skynyrd tunes
After spending almost a decade honing their craft, Lynyrd Skynyrd released their debut album in 1973.
Their two best-known tunes are the epic Free Bird and the party band classic Sweet Home Alabama.
Lynyrd Skynyrd on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about Sweet Home Alabama chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.