Posted on 10/20/2020 6:20:24 PM PDT by Texas Eagle
The day the music really died. Miracle that so many people survived. Drummer Artemis Pyle and piano player Billy Powell were able to walk out of the woods to seek help despite severe injuries. Artemus Pyle actually had ribs sticking out of his chest. It must have been pure shock that allowed him to walk out of the woods.
I was a sophomore in High School in Tacoma, WA when I heard this devastating news. Seemed like a bunch of good ol' boys.
Interesting the Freebird was not a favorite among honky tonk patrons. It was written as a 3 minute slow love song and the crowd would boo and heckle the band as they played it. The guitarists added a few seconds here and a few seconds there night after night to give Ronnie Van Zant a chance to rest his voice until it ultimately became a ten to fifteen minute song long song that concert-goers came to appreciate.
I got two. The Needle and the Spoon and Saturday Night Special.
I've always aspired to live the life of a Simple Man. Can't say I've always succeeded but I try.
Great band. I don’t know how many albums they released before their tragic accident, but lots of great tunes on them. I’ll still crank the radio whenever they come on, except for Freebird. I just got burned out on that tune
Saw a documentary (think it was on CNN, believe or not) about the band. Pretty wild bunch who loved to get drunk and rowd especially Ronnie. Even if he wasn’t killed in the plane crash, he still may have had an early demise.
I thought Ronnie was starting to clean up his act when the crash happened.
'Course, songs like That Smell are anti-drug anti-alcohol but you got to know that those boys indulged.
Yeah.
I love that Ed King from the classic hippie band Strawberry Alarm Clock was in Skynyrd. Always struck me as funny.
Ooo Ooo that smell
Can’t ya smell that smell
Ooo Ooo that smell
The smell of death around youuuuu
Love Street Survivors album Stevie Gaines was a great guitarist and just joined them on that album.
Would have been great to hear what would have come after.
A couple off that album are my faves...
I Never Dreamed
One More Time
Any of us who ever picked up an electric guitar learned Freebird before anything else. (Well, except maybe Smoke On The Water.) The chords and the rhythm were simple. Even if your notation and phrasing were somewhat incorrect, as long as you found the right key, you were jammin’.
Call Me the Breeze
They call me the Breeze. Was my theme song and handle when I was a DJ in the late 70’s radio.
I was at that Oakland show in July 77. That and Led Zep a few weeks later. I was gong to college and finaly left school to go into the Army a couple of years later. Those were the days...
Dec 06, 1973 Quadrophenia The Who / Lynyrd Skynyrd Capital Centre Landover, MD
Went to the record store the next morning to buy their album, and the owner had no clue who I was talking about.
I told him he needed to get plenty of copies of their album, because people are going to be coming in in droves to buy it. 8>)
“During their three-decade span, the Grateful Dead played 2,314 shows.[5]”
“On the Hunt” is one of my all time favorites, and it isn’t played nearly enough, IMO. I LOVE the guitar in that song, and the kind of general badass attitude of the lyrics.
I saw them in their next to last show in Lakeland, FL.
At my high school the bullies listened to George Straight or Tejano crap.
Maybe he was. Sounds familiar, now that you mention it. It has been a while since I saw it, so I’m fuzzy on a lot of the details.
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