I don’t do anniversaries very much but some things I try to keep up with and this is one of them. I’ve posted this in the past few years on October 20.
It’s been 46 years since Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane crashed in a swamp in Gillsburg, Mississippi. The band had just released the album “Street Survivors” and it was probably their best well-rounded album. With new guitarist Steve Gaines, they were primed for commercial success but on October 20, 1977, they lost singer-songwriter Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, backup singer Cassie Gaines, and road manager Dean Kilpatrick. The plane crash also claimed the lives of pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray Jr.
I believe that if the crash had not happened they would have moved into the most successful stretch of their career. They were leaving the “southern rock” label behind and into one of the top rock bands in the world.
A year earlier Steve Gaines joined the band and he was pushing them in directions they never had gone. Listening to “Street Survivors” you can hear his influence with the songs I Never Dreamed and I Know A Little. Steve was a super-talented guitarist, songwriter, and singer and I have to wonder where his career would have gone.
On this tour, they were headlining and moving up in status after years of touring as mostly an opening band.
Below is a good Rolling Stone article on the crash. The song below that is “I Never Dreamed,” a song heavily influenced by Gaines.
When my times up, I’ll hold my own You won’t find me in an old folks home
A great duet between Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines on the album Street Survivors. The album peaked at #5 on the Billboard Album Charts, #3 in Canada, #13 in the UK, and #36 in New Zealand in 1977-78.
In 1975 Ed King quit the band in Pittsburgh after he couldn’t take the madness anymore. That tour was called the Torture Tour because they hardly had any breaks at all. In that band alcohol and drugs were very prevalent. It’s difficult to tell what Lynyrd Skynyrd enjoyed more… consuming dangerous amounts of alcohol and drugs… or writing rock songs warning about consuming dangerous amounts of alcohol and drugs. This song isn’t about drugs but many were.
Gaines replaced Ed King as the band’s guitarist in 1976 but died in the 1977 plane crash that also claimed the lives of lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and Gaines’ sister Cassie, who was a backup singer for the group. This song provides a glimpse of songwriting and guitar talent.
Steve Gaines was a special talent. He wasn’t into drinking, drugs, or fighting like the other guys were. I personally believe he would have gone far in music outside of that band. There is guitar playing on Street Survivors which you never heard with that band before. Very sophisticated chord patterns and riffs with songs like “I Never Dreamed.”
Steve joined the band as a guitarist in 1976. Gaines had an immediate impact, writing or co-writing four of the eight songs on Street Survivors, which was released three days before the group’s plane crashed in Mississippi, killing Gaines, his sister Cassie (a backup singer with the group), and Van Zant.
On Street Survivors two songs had another person singing lead vocals…and that would be Steve Gaines. Van Zant let him sing one by himself (Ain’t No Good Life) and he shared vocals with this song for a duet. It would be the only album during the classic period that Van Zant didn’t sing lead.
You Got That Right peaked at #63 on the Billboard 100 and #69 in Canada after the crash. What’s Your Name was the first single and reached the top twenty in America and #6 in Canada.
You Got That Right
Well I’ve heard lots of people say
They’re gonna settle down
You don’t see their faces
And they don’t come around
Well I’m not that way
I got to move along
I like to drink and to dance all night
Comes to a fix not afraid to fight
You got that right
Said, you got that right
Sure got that right
Seems so long I been out on my own
Travel light and I’m always alone
Guess I was born with a travelin’ bone
When my times up, I’ll hold my own
You won’t find me in an old folks home
You got that right
Well you got that right
Said, you got that right
Sure got that right
I tried everything in my life
Things I like I try ’em twice
You got that right
Sure got that right
Travelin’ around the world, just singing my song
I got to go, Lord I can’t stay long
Here comes that ol’ travelin’ jones once again
I like to drink and to dance all night
Comes to a fix not afraid to fight
You got that right
Said, you got that right
Well you got that right
Sure got that right
This band was known mostly for Sweet Home Alabama, Gimme Three Steps, Simple Man, and Free Bird for the most part. It’s a shame really because they have some outstanding album cuts.
I’ve had love-hate feelings with them because people automatically think you have to like them…if you are from the south. Our band would refuse to play their music for the longest time. Now I’m embarrassed we thought that way.
After a little time, I started to realize how great of a rock band they were…southern or not. Their influences were The Stones, Yardbirds, and most of all Cream…and it showed. At the time of their crash in 1977, Street Survivors had just been released 3 days and it was moving fast up the charts. This was going to be their big breakthrough album…and it was. They were a double-threat band…they could hit with singles and make superb rock albums. If not for the crash they would have been up in the stardom league of Aerosmith at least.
Ronnie Van Zant was a fantastic songwriter and a good singer. He is a singer who knew his limits and stayed within them. He would never write any words down…he would walk around the band during rehearsal and start to make up verses while hearing riffs and he would have a finished song.
I was really surprised by this song. I always liked it but…it sounded different from the other songs and I never knew why. I assumed that this song was recorded in 1977 but I was wrong. One More Time was recorded back in 1970 – 1971 when they were making demos and just starting their recording career. That was 2 years before they released their first album.
It was written by Van Zant and guitarist Gary Rossington. They worked on this album for a long time…they re-recorded every song on Street Survivors twice except this one. They dropped some other songs they worked on and pulled out this demo from the vaults and used it. The band re-mixed it and it blended in with the other new songs but I can hear now while listening to What’s Her Name and others on the album.
Street Survivors peaked at #5 in the Billboard Album Charts and #3 in Canada in 1977. The band has sold 28 million albums in the US since 1991 when Nielsen SoundScan started tracking sales, not including album sales for the band’s first 17 years.
His voice sounds a little different in this song because it was so early in their career and he was learning. Van Zant sings this song in a controlled cool while delivering this line.
So I’ll take the word of a liar One more time, one more time
One More Time
How can you stand there smilin’ After all you’ve done You know it seems to make you happy When you’ve hurt someone Twice before you fooled me With your deceivin’ and lyin’ Come in and close the door One more time, one more time
Yeah you’ve been gone so long No one knows where And you say that you still love me Then show me you care ‘Cause you got what it takes sweet mama To make a man feel fine So I’ll take the word of a liar One more time, one more time
Girl you’ve got me hungry Losin’ my mind I know I’m playin’ with fire Get burned every time Yes I’m a fool for you baby I can’t deny But I got to have your sweet love One more time, one more time
Girl you’ve got me hungry Losin’ my mind I know I’m playin’ with fire I get burned every time Yes I’m a fool for you mama I can’t deny But I got to have your sweet love One more time, one more time
Yes I’m her fool once more I can read her brown eyes But when the rooster crows tomorrow Well its her turn to cry I’m headed down that old road She lost her free ride So tonight I’ll take what I paid for One more time, one more time One more time
On Sundays, I am going to start posting a good album cut.
When I think of forgotten great album cuts…this one is one of the first songs that come to mind. If you haven’t heard it give it a try. The song has a good riff starting out and the arrangement of the melody is a little different than some of their previous songs. I credit that to new guitarist Steve Gaines… Gaines and Van Zant wrote this song.
Give this song a try…The song takes a while to get going but the melody, guitar work, and the bass are great in this one.
Steve joined the band as a guitarist in 1976. Gaines had an immediate impact, writing or co-writing four of the eight songs on Street Survivors, which was released three days before the group’s plane crashed in Mississippi, killing Gaines, his sister Cassie (a backup singer with the group) and Van Zant.
It is my favorite Lynyrd Skynyrd song hands down. The band never played this live…the original or the new edition.
Street Survivors peaked at #5 in the Billboard Album Charts in 1977.
I Never Dreamed
My daddy told me always be strong son Don’t you ever cry You find the pretty girls, and then you love them And then you say goodbye I never dreamed that you would leave me But now you’re gone I never dreamed that I would miss you Woman won’t you come back home
I never dreamed that you could hurt me And leave me blue I’ve had a thousand, maybe more But never one like you I never dreamed I could feel so empty But now I’m down I never dreamed that I would beg you But woman I need you now
It seems to me, I took your love for granted It feels to me, this time I was wrong, so wrong Oh Lord, how I feel so lonely I said woman, won’t you come back home
I tried to do what my daddy taught me, But I think he knew Someday I would find One woman like you I never dreamed it could feel so good Lord That two could be one I never knew about sweet love So woman won’t you come back home Oh baby won’t you come back home
I always thought this was one of the most commercial songs they ever released. It is a fun tight song but yes it has been played to death.
Ronnie Van Zant and Gary Rossington wrote this one night when they were in Miami with Steve Cropper and producer Tom Dowd. Cropper, the guitarist for the Stax Records band Booker T. & the MG’s, gave them some ideas.
They had a well-deserved reputation for being a hard-partying band. This song is based on a true story. One night while they were on tour, the band was drinking at their hotel bar when one of the roadies got in a fight. They all got kicked out, went to a room, ordered champagne, and continued the party.
The incident also really didn’t happen in Boise, Idaho. The first line was originally, “It’s 8 o’clock and boys it’s time to go,” but Ronnie Van Zant changed it when he found out his brother, Donnie, was opening his first national tour with his band .38 Special in Boise. The first line became It’s 8 o’clock in Boise, Idaho.
The song was on the album Street Survivors…their last studio album with the original band. They were in a plane crash just days after the release of the album.
The song peaked at #13 in the Billboard 100 and #6 in Canada in 1978.
Street Survivors peaked at #5 in the Billboard Album Charts in 1977.
From Songfacts
Three members of Lynyrd Skynyrd died in a plane crash just three days after this album was released. The album had to be given a new cover because the original one portrayed the group surrounded by flames.
This was released as a single in January 1978, a few months after the plane crash that killed Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, and Cassie Gaines.
The B-52s reached #74 in 1980 with “Private Idaho,” but “What’s Your Name” is the biggest hit song to mention the state in the lyric.
What’s Your Name
Well, its eight o’clock in Boise, Idaho I’ll find my limo driver Mister, take us to the show I done made some plans for later on tonight I’ll find a little queen And I know I can treat her right
What’s your name, little girl? What’s your name? Shootin’ you straight, little girl? Won’t you do the same?
Back at the hotel Lord we got such a mess It seems that one of the crew Had a go with one of the guests, oh yes Well, the police said we can’t drink in the bar, what a shame Won’t you come upstairs girl And have a drink of champagne
What’s your name, little girl? What’s your name? Shootin’ you straight, little girl? For there ain’t no shame
What’s your name, little girl? What’s your name? Shootin’ you straight, little girl? Won’t you do the same? Awh yeah
What’s your name, little girl? What’s your name? Shootin’ you straight, little girl? Won’t you do the same?
Nine o’clock the next day And I’m ready to go I got six hundred miles to ride To do one more show, oh no Can I get you a taxi home It sure was grand When I come back here next year I want to see you again
What was your name, little girl? What’s your name? Shootin’ you straight, little girl? Well there ain’t no shame What was your name, little girl? What’s your name? Shootin’ you straight, little girl? Won’t you do the same? Woo
The reason I like this song is caught in the intro. The guitar in this is a lot of fun. Unlike most Lynyrd Skynyrd songs this one was not partly written by Ronnie Van Zant. The new guitar player Steve Gaines wrote this before he joined them.
Gaines replaced Ed King as the band’s guitarist in 1976, but died in the 1977 plane crash that also claimed the lives of lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and Gaines’ sister Cassie, who was a backup singer for the group. This song provides a glimpse of songwriting and guitar talent.
Steve Gaines was a special talent. I personally believe he would have gone far in music outside of that band. There is guitar playing on Street Survivors that you never heard with that band before. Very sophisticated chord patterns and riffs with songs like “I Never Dreamed.”
This song was the B side to What’s Your Name.
From Songfacts
You won’t find diatribes on the complexities of interpersonal relationships in the Skynyrd catalog, but you will find simple explanations. This song is a great example.
Why do people get the blues? From digging what they can’t use. And if you want to hold on to a man, a good way to do it is through commitment. You only need to know a little about love – the rest you can guess.
This is a great example of Skynyrd guitarist Steve Gaines’ contributions to the band. He wrote the song himself, and also wrote or co-wrote three other songs on the album. as Van Zant sings about a guy who has a strong feeling that his girl is cheating on him.
Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington told Guitar School magazine, July 1993, that he’d never heard anybody, including the current guitarists in the band, play the picking on this song quite right – the way Steve Gaines did.
This is one of many Skynyrd songs that was never released as a single but endured as a classic track in their catalog. It earned lots of airplay on Classic Rock radio and became one of their most popular live songs, performed at most of their shows when they re-grouped after the plane crash.
Steve Gaines recorded this before he joined Lynyrd Skynyrd.
I Know A Little
Yes sir
Well the bigger the city, well the brighter the lights The bigger the dog, well the harder the bite I don’t know where you been last night But I think mama, you ain’t doin’ right
Say I know a little I know a little about it I know a little I know a little ’bout it I know a little ’bout love And baby I can guess the rest
Well now I don’t read that daily news ‘Cause it ain’t hard to figure Where people get the blues They can’t dig what they can’t use If they stick to themselves They’d be much less abused
Say I know a little Lord I do know a little about it I know a little I know a little ’bout it I know a little ’bout love Baby I can guess the rest Play me a little, oh yeah Yeah
Well if you want me to be your only man Said listen up mama, teach you all I can Do right baby, by your man Don’t worry mama, teach you all I can
Say I know a little Lord I do know a little about it I know a little I know a little ’bout it I know a little ’bout love Baby I can guess the rest Well I know a little ’bout love Baby I want your best
Now they call you Prince Charming, Can’t speak a word when you’re full of ‘ludes
If you see ludes…you know you are in the seventies or in that vicinity.
This song is about Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington, who bought a new car (a Ford Torino), got drunk, and took some Quaaludes, and crashed it into a tree, and then into a house. The band was supposed to start a tour in a few days but had to postpone it because of Rossington’s injuries. I always wonder what Gary thinks when he plays this song. He is the only original member left in the touring band.
Lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Allen Collins wrote this song. They were not pleased with Rossington, whose drug and alcohol problems were affecting the band.
A couple of years ago I read a book by their tour manager and this band was a handful on the road. They were tutored by the master… Keith Moon on the fine art of destruction but Lynryd Skynrd loved to fight…mostly each other. Ronnie Van Zant was said to be a nice guy until drunk…after that, the band members would tend to go the opposite way from their tough lead singer and undisputed leader.
The song didn’t chart but remains a classic rock staple and a good song of that era. It was on their last album Street Survivors released in 1977…3 days before the plane they were in crashed killing Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and backup singer Cassie Gaines.
That Smell
Whiskey bottles, and brand new cars Oak tree you’re in my way There’s too much coke and too much smoke Look what’s going on inside you Ooooh that smell Can’t you smell that smell Ooooh that smell The smell of death surrounds you
Angel of darkness is upon you Stuck a needle in your arm So take another toke, have a blow for your nose One more drink fool, will drown you Ooooh that smell Can’t you smell that smell Ooooh that smell The smell of death surrounds you
Now they call you Prince Charming Can’t speak a word when you’re full of ‘ludes Say you’ll be all right come tomorrow But tomorrow might not be here for you Ooooh that smell Can’t you smell that smell Ooooh that smell The smell of death surrounds you
Hey, you’re a fool you Stick them needles in your arm I know I been there before
One little problem that confronts you Got a monkey on your back Just one more fix, Lord might do the trick One hell of a price for you to get your kicks Ooooh that smell Can’t you smell that smell Ooooh that smell The smell of death surrounds you Ooooh that smell Can’t you smell that smell Ooooh that smell The smell of death surrounds you
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 