Posted on 10/20/2012 9:51:00 AM PDT by Kid Shelleen
This Saturday marks the anniversary of one of the greatest tragedies in rock and roll; it’s been 35 years since the plane carrying Lynyrd Skynyrd on its 1977 ill-named “Tour of the Survivors” went down in the Louisiana swamps, taking the lives of singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines and his sister, backup singer Cassie.
To this day, the fault of the crash is still unknown, wrapped in rumor and conjecture. Whether it was pilot error or plane malfunction, the undisputable fact remains that one of the most talented bands to come out of the United States was snuffed out when it was entering its prime.
(Excerpt) Read more at delcotimes.com ...
Artumus Pyle, monster drummer. Hard to emulate live.
I tell my wife I want Freebird played at my funeral. She just rolls her eyes.
It’s interesting how many great musicians died tragically and especially in plane crashes.
I was at the Hollywood Sportatorium to see their last concert....and to us locals then it was no secret what happened
Jim Croce’s plane went down here in Louisiana as well, but the biggest musical tragedy to occur in Louisiana remains, by far, the birth of Brittany Spears.
“I tell my wife I want Freebird played at my funeral. She just rolls her eyes.”
Hell I don’t even know you and I’m rolling my eyes.....
Stalled due to fuel exhaustion, destroyed on impact during emergency landing attempt.
Story has it the Convair 330 was having fuel problems earlier dumping fuel in flight.
I saw Lynyrd Skynyrd at the Spectrum in Philly in 1976 about a year-and-a-half before they crashed. I wasn’t real familiar with their music and only went because a friend had tickets. Some people were yelling “Freebird” almost from the start of the show and my friend explained it was the band’s biggest hit. I also remember Ronnie Van Zant getting annoyed about it and basically telling people, “Okay, you know we’ll be doing that one at the end.”
It was an enjoyable concert but in retrospect I wish I was as familiar with their songs as I am now.
This revives a strange memory for me.
I had a good friend back then, Duke Baugher, who I had recently introduced to aviation. He went all in, and decided to get his commercial pilot’s license and become an airline pilot. This entailed accumulating a lot of air hours, so he would fly anything, anywhere to further his quest. He called me late one night from Greenville, SC airport, as he sometimes checked in randomly. He said, “You’re not going to believe this.I just walked around the tour plane for Lynyrd Skynyrd while they were refueling my plane! It’s parked right next to me on the ramp!”
We agreed that it was about the coolest thing in the world, talked some more, and said goodbye. I drifted off to sleep with WMMR-FM on my radio in the Philly suburbs. Good to hear from my buddy!
I awoke to a loud version of Free Bird playing on the radio in the wee hours, with the DJ sadly announcing the fatal crash of that same plane just hours after my buddy had called me about it. How sad and weird was that? I remember it like it was last week.
LOL!
Harvey In the Morning? I grew up in Newtown Square, MN High class of 77. Just the mention of MMR took me back to my youth, listening to Ed Sciaky, Michael Tearson, Harvey,and so many others. I saw alot of shows in the Spectrum-The Who, The Dead, Dylan, Clapton with Muddy Waters, Rush, Neil Young, and many others. Never got to see Skynyrd, but certainly a tragic loss. On election night, maybe Mitt can have the band play Tuesday’s Gone and dedicate it to Obama.
The link doesn’t work.
My kinda music. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker Band, Outlaws, ZZ Top, Charlie Daniels, Yee Hah.
Well, the line “But, if I stayed here with you, girl,
things just couldn’t be the same.” is pretty relevant, considering how much you’d stink in a week or so.
:)
*If* I were going to even have a funeral, I’m torn between something by Type O Negative and Alice Cooper.
[Maybe “Love You To Death” or “Killed By Love”]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ6faHNsJw4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o_YolVZn0w
Hell, I could put together a playlist and have a pretty morbid concert going on.
;D
Johnny endorsing Mitt *almost* makes up for wimping out to the PC crowd and dropping the Confederate flag.
Almost.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/click/2012/08/lynyrd-skynyrd-frontman-backs-romney-132352.html
How about Killed by Death from Motorhead?
I’ve got the original “Street Survivors” album.
[before they changed the cover]
Never played it.
Still in the plastic.
When they came on people were talking, until they started playing, then the crowd let out a big roar of approval. We almost didn't even want to see The Who by the end of Lynyrd Skynyrd's performance. Of course The Who put on a great performance as well. All in all an awesome concert.
I went to the record store the next morning to get their album. The guy at the store had no clue who I was talking about, and he was no slouch when it came to music. I think it took him about a week to get the album to me.
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