This Lynyrd Skynyrd Track Has Darker Origins Than You’d Guess From the Title

Historically speaking, one wouldn’t necessarily associate Lynyrd Skynyrd with terms like “liberalism,” “the Democratic party,” or “leftism.” They didn’t position themselves as a particularly political band, and if they had, their Confederate flag imagery might have suggested a different ideological leaning. But there was more to this band and its members than often met the eye, and few songs exemplify this duality quite like “Saturday Night Special”.

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The lead single off Lynyrd Skynyrd’s third album, Nuthin’ Fancy, has all the makings for a bluesy, violent-adjacent number à la “Gimme Three Steps”. “Mister Saturday Night Special / got a barrel that’s blue and cold.” Anyone who wasn’t aware of what a “Saturday night special” was before they listened to the song would likely pick up on the fact that Ronnie Van Zant is talking about the slang term for a cheap handgun, not a weekend restaurant deal.

With driving guitar riffs and Van Zant’s thick Southern drawl, the song offers three different scenarios in which someone might use a Saturday night special: catching their lover with someone else, during a poker game gone wrong, and getting so drunk that you “might even shoot yourself.”

Lynyrd Skynyrd Wasn’t Promoting the Use of Saturday Night Specials

If anything, they were doing the exact opposite. Indeed, amid all the rough-and-tumble imagery that went along with their Southern rock sound, Lynyrd Skynyrd had some surprisingly liberal ideas baked into their lyrics. “Saturday Night Special” is a prime example of this, as Ronnie Van Zant uses the third verse to denounce the use of these inexpensive and poorly made guns. After he presents the last scenario where this gun might go off (drinking too much whiskey and shooting oneself), Van Zant continues:

“So, why don’t we dump ‘em, people / to the bottom of the sea / Before some old fool come around here / wanna shoot either you or me?”

Stricter gun control isn’t exactly a policy associated with the South—especially the South of 1975, which is when the band released Nuthin’ Fancy. Yet, there they were, warning about the dangers of gun violence and calling out these weapons for being “good for nothin’ but puttin’ men six feet in a hole.” 

“Saturday Night Special” isn’t Lynyrd Skynyrd’s most successful track by any means. Although it did break into the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, it was at a relatively modest No. 27 placement. Still, the song remains a unique standout in Lynyrd Skynyrd’s discography. And considering that other bluesy, violent-adjacent track we mentioned earlier, “Gimme Three Steps”, also ends with a plea for peace, maybe these Southern rockers were more pacifistic than people realized back in the 1970s.

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