How to drop a column named 'column'?
You are correct to conclude that "column" is a keyword. Fortunately, you can escape the name so that, keyword or not, it is accepted:

mysql&gt; ALTER TABLE table_name DROP COLUMN `column`;


Notice the backticks around the column name. This is always the safest way to qualify MySQL object names (for example, did you realize it is possible to use a space in a column name? Not that I encourage this; but it is possible).

If you're curious to look at more craziness, take a look at my post `;`.`*`.`.` is a valid column name, which discusses the over-flexibility in object names in MySQL.