The South's Gonna Do It

"The South's Gonna Do It", is a song written and performed by the Charlie Daniels Band and released on their 1974 album Fire on the Mountain.

"The South's Gonna Do It"
Single by Charlie Daniels
from the album Fire on the Mountain
B-side"New York City, King Size Rosewood Bed"
ReleasedJanuary 1975
GenreRock and roll, country, blues rock, Southern rock
Length4:00
LabelSony
Songwriter(s)Charlie Daniels
Producer(s)Paul Hornsby
Charlie Daniels singles chronology
"Land of Opportunity"
(1974)		 "The South's Gonna Do It"
(1975)		 "Long Haired Country Boy"
(1975)

Content

The song talks about Southern pride and discusses how the South is "gonna do it again". The lyrics refer to several Southern rock bands and musicians:

The first line in the song is also a play on Grinder's Switch, Tennessee, the fictional hometown of Grand Ole Opry star Minnie Pearl.

The song uses a clever play on words to promote Southern rock music. The notion that "the South shall rise again" was a familiar sentiment and rallying cry for disaffected Southern whites after the American Civil War. The song co-opts that sentiment, but uses the statement to celebrate Southern rock acts contemporary to the song itself. The "it" that the South is going to do again, it is implied, is that the South would produce further popular Southern rock bands.

Daniels in fact bristled at more nefarious interpretations of what the "it" was. When the Ku Klux Klan used the song as background music for radio commercials for a 1975 rally in Louisiana, Daniels told Billboard magazine, "I'm damn proud of the South, but I sure as hell am not proud of the Ku Klux Klan. ... I wrote the song about the land I love and my brothers."[1][2]

Chart performance
Chart (1975) Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 29
Canadian Singles Chart 68
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References
  1. "KKK Lashed by Daniels on Song Use," Billboard magazine, 20 December 1975, p. 4
  2. "The South's Gonna Do It (Again): Charlie Daniels, the Confederacy and the Rise of the New South in the '70s". October 25, 2017. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
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