Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird (Live August 21st, 1976) Its hard to believe that its been 37 years since we lost Ronnie VanZant, and Cassie and Steve Gaines. That first week in October, 1977 was incredible. Fall in Denver is beautiful and Street Survivors had just come out with the band on the front engulfed in flames and once you slapped the record onto a turntable the flames made sense. Hotter than Georgia asphalt and then some. It was clear that whatever personal and professional problems Skynyrd had been struggling with were behind them. The playing and the arranging and the writing were better than ever thanks in large part to Steve Gaines. He was the new guy and he cowrote a lot of the songs and blistered on guitar. The one cover tune , Merle Haggards Honky Tonk Night Time Man was a tour de force. I was a senior in high school and I was wearing that record out. On the day the plane went down my mom got me up for school and said that guy you like so much, Lenard Skinner, he died in a plane crash. Moms...So I went to school and made it through two periods, long enough for the liquor stores to open then I ditched school, bought a twelve pack of Coors beer and went to a park and cried. Its been thirty seven years but Ill still tear up occasionally when I hear Freebird. They werent perfect guys and tragedy followed most of them out of that swamp, leaving only one original member still playing but back in the day...they were something.
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 02:49:20 +0000