Posted on 07/20/2019 5:30:46 PM PDT by LeoWindhorse
Nearly fifty years after it was written, “Free Bird” is still the signature concert closer for the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, whose final farewell tour wraps up in October in Manchester, Tennessee. Founding members Ronnie Van Zant and Allen Collins wrote the song in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1970, and it wasn’t long before “Free Bird” and its extended guitar solo near the end became one of the band’s most well-known tunes and a live-show favorite.
(Excerpt) Read more at gardenandgun.com ...
Pyle lives about 30 miles from where I am now. His post Skynyrd career (which wasn’t much) derailed when he had to register as a sex offender.
Haha — yeah, I hear you. That’s something I’ve thought about. How to maintain your composure when plinking on a quarter million dollar guitar. I get ticked when I bump my Martin on my desk or something. Now multiply that times a thousand...
I love “Sweet Home.” It is unapologetic regionalism, proud Southern heritage. It tells Neil Young and all his elitist Jacobins to fuck off, and says “southern man don’t need you around anyhow.” Bold statement and steadfast defiance. What the South is known for.
We you even born when Sweet Home came out on the radio?
Yeah no you’re exactly right. I got snotty because I thought you were saying Sweet Home was a Gibson not a strat, when obviously this thread is about Free Bird.
My mixup and my apologies, sir!
In the early days of Youtube I watched every Skynyrd video I could find. Ran across one with Gary and Billy talking in a boathouse, Alan might have been there but can’t recall. Pyle’s name came up and Billy and Gary had nothing good to say about him at all which IMO is the reason he didn’t make it to the reincarnation of the band.
I guess they had their fill of him in Rossington Collins.
Tried to find that video last year but it’s gone down the memory hole.
My Skynard favorites
Simple Man
Swamp Music
Four Walls of Raiford
Yep, that’s true. This one is a great sounding HD-28V from the mid 1990s. It has herringbone binding and a V profile neck like a vintage “bone” but updated with an adjustable truss rod. I bought it because the spruce top had unusually clear grain.
Except that it came out on Zeppelin IV in 1971.
Oh yeah - best piece they ever did, and that particular version is their pinnacle. Duane’s tone is just beautiful.
Ballad of Curtis Loew.
Simple Man is definitely one of my favorites.
I’ve always liked Green Grass and High Tides better.
LOL!
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