One Liner: Southern rock kings (or at least their name)
Thoughts: Yes, I had to double-check the spelling of the band name. I unapologetically love me some Skynyrd. I know that is not a hot take - they are a pillar of the classic rock radio rotation for a reason, but I really dig it. Like everyone else in the world, I had Skynyrd's Innyrds, the 1989 greatest hits compilation that went five times Platinum in the U.S. And I know every song on there back and forth. I was trying to think of what my actual favorite song is as well. For a long time, it was "Simple Man," which is not even on that compilation that I owned. That song still rules. But, I think if I am being perfectly honest and not trying to bring it down a peg for being so popular and a punchline, "Free Bird" is still the best one. But they have a murderer's row of classics - "Call Me the Breeze" jams. "Tuesday's Gone" is in every seventies-centered movie ever. Obviously, "Sweet Home Alabama."
Let's back up, because one of the reasons this show will be interesting to me is that there are ZERO original members still in the band. How weird is that? So, some background. The band formed, as My Backyard, in 1964 in Jacksonville, FL. They were later called Conquer the Worm, The Noble Five, and The One Percent, before settling on the current iconic name. The band name, as has been long mythologized, is after a gym teacher at their high school named Leonard Skinner, who was notorious for hassling the boys about long hair. They became synonymous with Southern Rock by the mid-70's, but the whole shebang came to a quick end when their chartered airplane crashed in 1977, killing Ronnie Van Zant (vocals), Steve Gaines (drums), and a backup singer, and seriously injuring the remaining members. They reunited for a reunion tour with Ronnie's brother on vocals in 1987, but by 2023, every founding member of the band was dead.
So, now we have some other sort of thing coming to Austin - their photo on Spotify shows nine people who have an average age of about 97. Wikipedia claims "There had previously been agreements about how many pre-crash members had to be in the band in order for it to be active and "legal", but this appears to be no longer applicable since Rossington's [the guitarist] death." The lead singer is still Ronnie Van Zandt's little brother. I wonder if he has the same pipes? Of note, at least to me, is that their other brother Donnie was the founder of .38 Special. That's a talented damn family!
Let's do a couple tunes. They have a big pile of albums, but the real deal stuff is on the first four. The first album is actually super impressive - 1973's (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd) - boasts five of their biggest hits with only 8 songs on the whole album. I'm going to give you three of those (as if you need to hear these songs when they are still on the radio and in movies all the time.
"Free Bird," their second-biggest streamer with 736.7 million.
"Tuesday's Gone," 147 million streams, and a slow burn that reminds me of Dazed and Confused.
Kind of funny to me, this is sort of a jam band! I never thought of that before, but now that my wife has become staunchly anti-jam, I have a stronger radar for such things. And these guys absolutely fire off into extended jams where they feature their different instruments for long periods of time. That is funny!
I found a live version from 2015, just to see what we can expect in 2025. Pretty damn good, even if the voice isn't quite right.
The next album, 1974's Second Helping, has the true juggernaut of their catalog, which likely gets played at every Bama sorority house as the morning wakeup song. "Sweet Home Alabama" has 1.4 billion streams.
I think that is probably enough of the songs, honestly. You know this stuff. "Gimme Three Steps" is another classic - "you could hear me screamin' a mile away, as I was headin' out towards the door." Even if it is not the original band members making up the current iteration, I won't be able to resist the chance to sing along to these classics.
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