Posted on 10/19/2007 10:21:26 PM PDT by ConservativeStatement
Thirty years ago today, a rented plane took off from Greenville, S.C., headed for Baton Rouge, La. Just before dark, just before it reached the Louisiana line, the plane ran out of fuel and sank toward the Mississippi landscape below.
It first grazed the tops of the pine trees.
"It was like the sound of a billion baseball bats beating the side of the plane." Lynyrd Skynyrd bass player Leon Wilkeson described in an interview a decade ago.
The plane crashed down through the trees to the ground, breaking apart as it went. In the twisted, broken pieces of that 1947 Convair lay what was left of Jacksonville's greatest musical legacy.
Though there were 26 people on the plane, only six died that evening, Oct. 20, 1977. But killed along with the two pilots were three band members and the road manager for Lynyrd Skynyrd.
(Excerpt) Read more at jacksonville.com ...
I do enjoy going to see the old-timers. A few years ago I caught Peter Green (founder of Fleetwood Mac) at the Keswick. The opening act? John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. (Peter Green was the guitarist who took over when Eric Clapton left the Bluesbreakers c. 1967. It’s strange the way the wheel turns sometimes....)
Also saw Savoy Brown at the Sellersville Theater a couple of years ago. The only original was Kim Simmonds, but then, he essentially WAS Savoy Brown, especially after most of the original band broke off to form Foghat in the early ‘70s. All of these shows were excellent.
Regards,
LH
Is there already a music ping list? If not, I would be happy to start one. If there is, could someone let me know who owns it?
There is a Rock and Roll ping list. Maybe someone else has more info.
I don’t think anyone survived the Rhodes plane crash. They crashed into a barn and the plane burned.
70s ping
I saw them play their 2nd to last show in Miami a few days before the crash.
Years ago I read somewhere on Artimus Pyle’s site a narrative about his trek out of the swamp to get help after the crash and nearly getting shot as he approached a house because he looking like a crazed mad man swamp dweller.
Skynyrd was ~the~ band when I was in my teens. Wore a groove in the One More From the Road album.
I liked Rossington-Collins also. Saw them live in ‘80. Their encore song was Freebird. Gary Rossington put Ronnie’s hat on the microphone stand which was spotlighted and they did the entire song as an instrumental.
There’s only Gary and Billy left as originals in the band now. I don’t know what Bob Burns is doing, Artimus has his APB band and plays club gigs here and there, Ricky Meadlocke did studio work on the earliest album and is with the band in ver. 2.0 now. Hughie Thomason has left, I’ve heard he was wanting to resurrect The Outlaws. Haven’t heard anything about Ed King in years other than I think he re-united with a ‘59 Les Paul of his that had been stolen earlier.
What a band.
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