dime in the gutter wrote:
you returned this thread to where it should be. Bravo
Moderators: Jonicont, mark lynn, Maluca3, Tequila Cowboy, BigTom, CooleyGirl, olwiggum
dime in the gutter wrote:
Swamp wrote:
Swamp wrote:Ronnie, Gary, Allen, Bob Burns and Larry Junstrum (bassist for 38 special)
The park they're playing in is on our (unofficial) tour
Swamp wrote:For a very short time around 70 or 71 they had 2 drummers.
Bob Burns and Rickey Medlocke. (But that doesn't look like Rickey...to me anyways)
Also around 71, Greg T Walker replaced Larry on bass for a short time.
Larry and Ronnie had been roommates for a while but after
Larry's cat pissed on something of Ronnie's, Ronnie beat the
crap outta him. (straight from the horse's mouth) Larry who's
almost a foot taller than Ronnie left the band but later joined
38 Special lead buy Ronnie's brother Donnie, who once shot
Ronnie with a 22. These were tough boys!
Kudzu Guillotine wrote:
I haven't searched for it in forever but one bit of treasured Skynyrd footage was the short tribute film to the them that was shown prior to Grease, Quadrophenia, The Song Remains the Same, etc. at late night weekend showings across the U.S. shortly after the plane crash.
Swamp wrote:Thanks KG! I haven't seen that in over 30 years
The Drive-By Truckers' Patterson Hood On Lynyrd Skynyrd's Induction into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame
By Patterson Hood, Special to MSN Music
The danger of becoming a mythological musical artist is that people spend more time talking about the mythology than listening to the music. Truly, few bands have ever been as beloved and successful -- and mythological -- as Lynyrd Skynyrd, yet here it is, 2006, and they're only now being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame -- nearly a decade after their eligibility.
Before they were martyred by plane crashes and car crashes and heart attacks and more tragedy than a Tennessee Williams play, Lynyrd Skynyrd were a bunch of poor Florida boys who grew up in a tough part of town, practiced their music relentlessly and hit the road with the kind of vengeance reserved for those who felt the desperation of poverty bearing down upon them. These were boys whose best-case scenarios tended to be getting a job at the Ford plant. They played 300 nights a year. They were street kids who beat the s*** out of each other, with the last one standing getting his way. Ronnie Van Zant was not a big man, but he was a force to be reckoned with. He drove his band hard and took them to unbelievable heights.
Of course, it took me a long time to notice or care.
Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane crashed into a southern Mississippi swamp in October 1977, about a month before the American release of the Sex Pistols' first album, Never Mind the Bollocks. By the time I entered high school the following year, my taste was running more toward the Clash and Elvis Costello than anything remotely "Southern rock," and so it was for the next couple of decades or so. I rediscovered Lynyrd Skynyrd in my mid-30s, a time when all I listened to was old country and soul records. Hearing Skynyrd in the context of Merle Haggard, Hank Williams and Loretta Lynn, I was awestruck by how well they compared, especially the songwriting.
My rediscovery of this music followed an 18-year period of trying to avoid it. I grew up in a town where no one was being ironic when they yelled for your band to play "Free Bird" -- and they often beat the s*** out of you if you didn't. I was fired once for refusing to play "Sweet Home Alabama," a song that mentions my dad in its fourth verse. "In Muscle Shoals they've got the Swampers" refers to my father's years in the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section playing on R&B records in the '60s. Lynyrd Skynyrd did their very first recording sessions in the same studio as my father. I grew up hearing their music and hearing stories about them -- tall tales of wild men who drank hard and fought harder, a band of mythological dimensions, except they were "from around here." They returned to my dad's studio, shortly before the plane crash that ended their incredible run, to prepare those old demos for what was to be their next release. The album in question, finally released after the accident, was called Skynyrd's First and Last.
Jimmy Johnson, who'd recorded Wilson Pickett and the Rolling Stones among others before co-producing Skynyrd's First and Last, said that he never saw a band come as prepared and rehearsed as Lynyrd Skynyrd. Though their parts were meticulously planned, they were played with fierce abandon. Ronnie's wasn't a blessed voice, but he worked it until he became quite a forceful, soulful singer. Best of all, the songs were beautifully simple in structure and wording, yet solid as a rock in their construction and effect.
1977 found the band moving forward and getting stronger than ever before. The Southern-rock movement was waning, and Ronnie seemed to be positioning the band to be viewed more as an American rock and roll band to distinguish Skynyrd from the explosion of punk ignited by the U.K.'s Sex Pistols. Their live 1976 album, One More from the Road, had been a multiplatinum seller, and the new one, Street Survivors, was their strongest yet. On the personal front, with a new daughter to think about, Ronnie seemed to be cleaning up his act from the drinking, drugging and fighting that had been his legend. The plane crashed less than a week into the new tour, killing Van Zant, new guitarist Steve Gaines, his sister (and back-up singer) Cassie and their long-time road manager. The surviving members were torn apart by critical injuries as well as the loss of their driving force.
The story after that is something time and good manners will keep me from addressing here. The world has changed from those Jimmy Carter days, and Skynyrd's legacy has become clouded by death, tragedy and folklore. The mythology has at times threatened to overshadow the band's music, which is a real shame.
I began writing Southern Rock Opera nearly 11 years ago, shortly after rediscovering Lynyrd Skynyrd. In doing so, I'm afraid I helped highlight their mythology. As a writer, you can't ask for better story elements than Skynyrd's brilliant rise and tragic fall. My original idea was to write Southern Rock Opera as a screenplay, but alas, the thought of a Hollywood version of this story seemed worse than a nightmare (Leonardo DiCaprio as Ronnie? AGGGGH!). In approaching the story in song, I hoped to at least give equal time to the music and its many political implications. By addressing the contradictions that exist in their music and the phenomenon it spawned, I hoped that perhaps people like me would be able to better appreciate the vast differences between what the songs say and how they've been interpreted through the years by both their fans and detractors.
I applaud the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for finally doing the right thing and inducting Lynyrd Skynyrd into its ranks. Better late than never, I guess.
Patterson Hood is a songwriter and musician. His band, the Drive-By Truckers, have released six albums of acclaimed rock and roll, including Southern Rock Opera, Decoration Day and The Dirty South. Their seventh LP, A Blessing and a Curse, comes out April 18. Hood also has a fine solo record, Killers and Stars
Swamp wrote:Rather than go on that other thread and blast the shit outta someone.
Kudzu Guillotine wrote:Swamp wrote:Rather than go on that other thread and blast the shit outta someone.
Can't say I understand the reasoning (or lack thereof) of moving a DBTs-related thread to the "Everything Else" section, nor moving this one from the DBTs section to here just because it led to a discussion of Lynyrd Skynyrd (which someone obviously doesn't know how to spell).
Kudzu Guillotine wrote:Swamp wrote:Rather than go on that other thread and blast the shit outta someone.
Can't say I understand the reasoning (or lack thereof) of moving a DBTs-related thread to the "Everything Else" section, nor moving this one from the DBTs section to here just because it led to a discussion of Lynyrd Skynyrd (which someone obviously doesn't know how to spell).
suntzu wrote:Duane Allman really did not get the accalades that he should have for years after he passed on. Does anybody remember when even after the Anthology albums were compiled and after the remaining brothers broke up (Late 70's, later on 80's) that everybody was still talking Clapton, Hendrix etc. Then Rolling Stone ranks him the 2nd best guitarist of all time right behind Hendrix and boom, he is a star again! Maybe one day the same will happen to Allen Collins and people will wake up and realize that he was a classic rock God that could have out jammed probably anyone except Duane!!! But he was kept in a box by Ronnie, then later by Gary Rossington. Allen Collins gets my number 2 spot behind Duane, damnit!
RevMatt wrote:As far as the Allman Brothers Band versus Lynyrd Skynyrd debate goes? Come on, guys. It isn't like we have to choose one over the other. This isn't communism! We can have both!