Southern Rock Opera (Dig) | 
 enlarge | Artist: Drive-by Truckers
Label: Lost Highway
Category: Music
List Price: $13.98
Buy New: $9.46
You Save: $4.52 (32%)
New (38) Used (11) from $7.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  57 reviews
Sales Rank: 5742
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 4.9 x 4.7 x 0.5
MPN: 170308
UPC: 008817030821
EAN: 0008817030821
ASIN: B000068FUS
Release Date: July 16, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new. Shipped from the UK by Airmail direct to 5 airports in the United States. Delivery takes approximately 5 working days from posting - we're frequently faster than a lot of US based sellers.
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | Days Of Graduation | | • | Ronnie and Neil | | • | 72 (this highway's mean) | | • | Dead, Drunk, And Naked | | • | Guitar Man Upstairs | | • | Birmingham | | • | The Southern Thing | | • | The Three Great Alabama Icons | | • | Wallace | | • | Zip City | | • | Moved |
Disc 2
| • | Let There Be Rock | | • | Road Cases | | • | Women Without Whiskey | | • | Plastic Flowers On The Highway | | • | Cassie's Brother | | • | Life In The Factory | | • | Shut Up And Get On The Plane | | • | Greenville To Baton Rouge | | • | Angels And Fuselage |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
You don't need a bottle of Jack or even a trace of Southern lineage to appreciate the genius of Drive-By Truckers' Southern Rock Opera. Without a hint of irony, the Athens, Georgia, quintet creates a fast-driving, hard-living tribute to the indelible music and legacy of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Like any good concept album, there's a modicum of plot and a theme to these 20 songs (loosely based around the rise and fall of fictitious Southern rock band Betamax Guillotine), but the best tracks make you forget the story line altogether: "Birmingham," "Zip City," and "Let There Be Rock." The "opera" aspects bog things down a bit--you probably only need to hear the spoken-word track "The Three Great Alabama Icons" once--but the overall concept still comes off without a hitch. The lyrics are great, the trio of electric guitars is blessed with raw production, and the tunes--though lacking the pop sensibility of, say, "Gimme Three Steps"--will have you cranking up the album for your friends. And, after a few spins of Southern Rock Opera, you might even find yourself digging out those old Skynyrd LPs to hear the real thing again. --Jason Verlinde
Album Description
A southern rock opera about growing up in the south in the 70's, the rise and fall of arena rock, the mythology surrounding the band Lynyrd Skynyrd, and common misconceptions about the south.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 52 more reviews...
 Southern Rock is Dead/Long Live Southern Rock! October 17, 2008
The Drive-By Truckers are a still-thriving, though much-altered band as of this writing (October 2008). They recorded albums before and after "Southern Rock Opera" (SRO was intially released in 2001), but this release represents their creative peak and probably their ultimate artistic statement...at least, so far.
Like many so-called "concept" albums, there's not always a straight-line, A-to-B narrative path here, although there is an overall similar vibe to many songs and there are clearly reoccurring subjects and themes. Some of the many, wide-ranging topics addressed (or at least touched upon) during these 94 minutes (spread over two discs) include: Alabama politics and cultural touchstones, dead-end small town life, Southern manhood, racism, heavy drinking and drug use as youthful escapism or as a coping mechanism, swamps, fatal car crashes (and the subsequent void left in the lives of the loved ones of the departed), Arena Rock of the 70's, and above all, Lynyrd Skynyrd. Skynyrd's story is mentioned or recounted in quite a few of the songs, especially during the Act 2 portion; the band serves as the ultimate symbol of Southern nobodies headed for nowhere who came from nothing to rise to near the top of the Rock world, but who plummeted to tragedy at their peak 31 years ago. Skynyrd's trajectory and the album's essentially follow one another, so that the tragic end of Lynyrd Skynyrd (The Ronnie Van Zandt-lead, "real" version of the band, that is) coincides with the end of the album.
Lynyrd Skynyrd's three-guitar attack is the blueprint for the music of this album as well, although this is not a Skynyrd impersonation and there are no Skynyrd cover versions. This is definitely Southern Rock but with a an edgy, modern vibe to it. The sound manages to be highly evocative of Skynyrd (and some of their imitators) while still mining a fairly original hard-driving vein. In SRO, a veritible stack of great songs is skillfully fleshed out with a definite Southern swagger and attack. It's surprising to find such a strong tribute to Skynyrd that doesn't resort to blind hero worship, maudlin sappiness or blatant imitation. The mightily rocking performances here are able to hold their own against any of the touchstone bands of the Southern Rock genre, including Skynyrd.
For those new to the DBT or the SRO album: the primary songwriting and thus lead singing is done by Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley. Cooley's smooth baritone coats songs like "72 (This Highway's Mean)" or "Zip City" in a gooey layer of southern-accented, easy-to-digest tones, which nicely offsets Hood's crackly, high tenor, gargle-with-Drano, Alabama-bred croak. That voice is definitely an acquired taste, but there's no escaping the emotional resonance of Hood's vocals on songs like "Angels and Fuselage" (the last song, yet reportedly one of the first songs written for this album) or "Plastic Flowers on the Highway". Adding a third voice to the proceedings is former DBT guitarist Rob Malone, whose "Moved" and "Cassie's Brother" (which also features a vocal cameo from Kelly Hogan) are great additions. Malone also supplies the lead vocals to the Hood-penned "Wallace", which is sung gleefully from the Devil's point of view as he anticipates the imminent arrival of former-segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace's soul into Hell.
Though a song or two can get a bit tedious (two spoken word songs, "Days of Graduation" and "The Three Great Alabama Icons", is about 1 spoken word songs too many), this album bears up to many repeated listenings and delivers the gamut of emotions and moods for over an hour and half. Hope and despair vie for your attention, as they often do in subsequent DBT releases. The "rags to riches" cycle of the rock band, whether it's Skynyrd or the fictional "Betamax Guillotine" mentioned in the liner notes, occupies a fair share of the narrative. The whole package flows together quite well through different phases of blistering uptempo scorchers (such as "Guitar Man Upstairs" or "Shut Up and Get on the Plane") and slower, quieter numbers ("Birmingham" or the desolately lonely "Moved"). It's hard not to get choked up by the time the slow-motion ending of "Angels and Fuselage" crawls around---by then you'll realize that these guys have delivered one hell of a moving piece of work here. Though this music stands quite ably on its own merits, it'll also have a strange side-effect: it'll make you want to dig out your old Skynyrd stuff---and for all of the right reasons. If you weren't a Skynryd fan before this, falling in love with this DBT disc can serve as a perfect incentive to discover what all of the fuss was about with that band of Florida misfits back between '73 and '77.
This 2 disc set is a must for those looking for modern-sounding, guitar-based, gut-bucket-yet-intelligent Rock and Roll with a Southern twist. SRO has one boot firmly planted in the Southern Rock past and the other one wedged into the unfriendly, post-millennium music landscape where sounds such as these are an endangered species. They certainly show no fear about devoting a two disc set to a nearly outmoded style of Rock. Do yourself a favor and let this free bird of a concept album fly out of your speakers or headphones regularly.
Album is more than the sum of its parts July 8, 2008
Having bought up all of the available Drive-By Truckers music from eMusic, I had to get this one too. Good album, my faves are Zip City and Plastic Flowers. There are plenty of other good tracks too and of course, a few clunkers. It's a concept album, what do you want? The Wall has its share of clunkers too. But it's nice to listen to the whole thing all the way through every once and a while.
This is a great band. Some call them alt country, some call them southern rock. I am not sure what they are, and I like that they don't fit into a box. In fact, this is probably one of my favorite bands that I have discovered in the last five years. If you don't know about them, a good place to begin would be any of the later albums. Don't miss this one, but maybe it's not an ideal starting point. Once you have listened to The Dirty South, A Blessing and a Curse, or Decoration Day, you'll want to snag Southern Rock Opera.
Southern Rock is not dead May 15, 2008
As much as radio -- and really most of the general public -- would like to think, Southern Rock did not die along with Ronnie Van Zant.
The Drive-By Truckers' ode to the music they grew up on is a brilliant piece of songwriting. Utilizing nostalgia, culture and masterful storytelling, the Truckers take the listener on a journey to their youth and tell tales of personal tragedy, coming of age, musical discovery, and cultural acceptance.
But what makes this album truly great is that it doesn't alienate the listener if they aren't Southern. While it is geared towards those from below the Mason-Dixon, it is written in a way that invites others to try and understand and share in DBT's upbringing.
Any fan of rock n roll should give this a listen -- especially people who like dirty, fast, crank-it-up-to-11 rock.
Great Songwriters March 3, 2008
This, like all good music takes a few listenin's before you get it. I love the way they turn a phrase. Lyrics are always topnotch. Great Album.
I like all of their stuff.
 Good CD March 3, 2008
Good concept double disc. Personally dont think it is as good as some of their other stuff, which is great.
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