381. Lynyrd Skynyrd, "(Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd)"

 


This album fucking whips ass.  After yesterday's somnambulant drone, this set of razor-sharp feathered hair Camaro rock really hits the spot.  If you're a Gen X like me, you probably grew up hearing a lot of these songs on your local megawatt AOR fucking ROCK station, the one that did the Top 500 songs of all time countdown over Memorial Day weekend (your AOR station did do that, didn't they?).  Do you know "Gimme Three Steps," a rollicking tale of a blonde man being threatened with a firearm?  It's good.  Maybe you know "Tuesday's Gone," if only from the movie "Dazed and Confused."  It's really a lovely, plaintive song!

Barring all of those, OF COURSE you know, or know of, "Free Bird," the closing song on the album.  As a song, "Free Bird" (two words, please make a note of it) is just ok; it's not that interesting, but has a nice jam at the end that kinda serves as a capsule summary of Southern rock.  But as a cultural icon, "Free Bird" has no equal, because it is, of course, the thing that knuckleheads yell at concerts.  This is not funny any more in any way, but it still happens, and will continue to happen after we return from the Plague Year.  There's an article that appeared in noted rock publication The Wall Street Journal that explained the phenomenon but The Wall Street Journal is square and behind a paywall so I won't link it; instead, here's a summary on Ultimate Classic Rock.  Short version: a Chicago DJ named Kevin Matthews takes credit for the phenomenon, claiming that he urged his audience of "KevHeads" to yell the name of the song at bad performers.  Who knows, really.  I have occasionally heard tales of bands playing the entire nine-minute song to troll audiences who yell it but these may be apocryphal.  If you have a true story about this, please share.

Lynyrd Skynyrd, who really invented Southern rock, a blend of heavy metal, blues, and country, had a tragic story.  They formed in the late 60's in Jacksonville, Florida, and released this album in 1973, which promptly went gold.  Things were going great until lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and others were killed in a plane crash in 1977.  The rest of the band was grievously injured and disbanded until reforming in 1987.  I find it kind of fascinating that they embraced the full South-will-rise-again, Confederate flag thing, but their music owes a huge and obvious debt to black music, especially Delta blues.  Just listen to "I Ain't the One," the album opener; it could have been sung by a black blues artist and you wouldn't have thought twice.  Oldest story in rock music, I guess.


Comments

  1. GGApril 9, 2021 at 11:08 AM

    Whoa, I had no idea about the plane crash! You learn something new every day.

    ReplyDelete
  2. TKApril 9, 2021 at 12:48 PM

    The plane ran out of gas! What a terrible way to die.

    ReplyDelete

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