9 Famous Songs That Are Actually Responses To Other Famous Songs

7. Green Day - American Idiot

What is it a response to? Lynyrd Skynyrd - That's How I Like It

Here's a story that proves the old adage that if you're going to dish it out, you'd better be able to take it. Decades after Lynyrd Skynyrd lambasted Neil Young on Sweet Home Alabama for his marginalisation of Southern pride, Green Day stepped in to reinvigorate the simmering musical feud between liberals and conservatives with an anthemic takedown of bigotry and blind patriotism.

You know, the types of things a good ol' boy from Alabama might participate in.

American Idiot, both the album and its title track, express the typical angst that Green Day is known for, but with the kind of bombast usually reserved for Queen cover bands. Released in 2004, it's typically regarded as a commentary on the George W. Bush presidency, as well as a slam against the Iraq War. But it turns out Skynyrd was also a target, specifically the "redneck agenda" Billie Joe Armstrong felt they were pushing on their 2003 song That's How I Like It.

It's a curious song to rage against since it doesn't say anything that hasn't been sung about in country songs a million times over. Lyrics such as "Like my women hot and my beer cold" may come off as simple-minded, sure, but there's no particular malice or aggression on display, either. Skynyrd isn't singing about the South rising again or any similarly extreme agenda.

Still, it was enough to light a proverbial fire under Armstrong and it became at least partially responsible for spawning one of the finest rock albums of the decade.