#403 - Lynyrd Skynyrd - (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd) (1973)
MUSIC HISTORY WRITTEN BY HEAD WRITER DJ MORTY COYLE:
Released on August 13th, 1973 on MCA Records and produced by Al Kooper this is the debut album by the Jackson, Florida, American, Southern, Blues, Rock, band.
In 1964 teenaged vocalist Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Gary Rossington, and drummer Bob Burns were rival baseball team players who started jamming together after Burns got hurt by a ball hit by Van Zant. Then Ronnie intimidated Allen Collins, another local guitar player into joining them.
They were influenced by Country standards, classic Southern Blues, and the new sounds of the British Invasion.
From there they spent several years playing with different bass and drummer combinations under various names like My Backyard, The Noble Five, and The One Percent, until in 1970 they settled on Bob Burns’ suggestion of Lynyrd Skynyrd.
You see, some of the band had gone to Robert E. Lee High School and had a hard ass P.E. teacher who would kick them off the field for having long hair. That coach’s name was Leonard Skinner.
They became a popular local act in Jacksonville and stayed super tight by consistently practicing at a swamp-adjacent, swelteringly-hot, rehearsal space they called “Hell House.”
In the early ‘70s they did two sessions at famed Alabama studio Muscle Shoals and acquired bassist Leon Wilkeson.
At a gig in Atlanta in 1972 they were discovered and signed by musician, producer, and founding member of Blood, Sweat, and Tears and The Blues Project, Al Kooper.
After two songs into recording bassist Leon Wilkeson got cold feet so he was replaced by ex-Strawberry Alarm Clock guitarist Ed King who originally wanted to play guitar with the band.
After they finished recording Ronnie Van Zant decided that King, who had added some guitar to the record, would be better on lead guitar so he asked Wilkeson to rejoin.
With Wilkeson back the now seven-man band was captured on the back cover of their debut.
And that move of Ed King to lead guitar established Lynyrd Skynyrd's trademark "Three Guitar Army" and has influenced countless bands.
This album went double platinum and reached #27 on the charts.
Its success and the strength of their concerts grew their popularity for the next four studio albums and one live record but tragedy struck on October 20th of 1977.
Just three days after the release of their fifth album, “Street Survivors” the band was flying after a concert in South Carolina to the next one in Louisiana when their plane ran out of fuel and crashed in rural Mississippi.
The pilots, a road manager, and several band members including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, were killed and the rest of the band and crew sustained serious injuries.
Lynyrd Skynyrd decided to break up indefinitely with several members forming offshoot projects.
That break lasted ten years until 1987 when the five core members and Ronnie’s younger brother Johnny on vocals reformed Lynyrd Skynyrd for what was intended to be a one time reunion.
Lawsuits with widows and next-of-kin, legal agreements, and several settlements later and there have been many line ups of Lynyrd Skynyrd with various original and long-time members recording and touring over the last several decades.
To date Skynyrd and has sold 28 million records and in 2005 they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In 2018 the band announced they would be having their last tour and in 2019 they said they would be recording a final album.
This year guitarist Gary Rossington, the only surviving original member of the band from this album confirmed they would play some live shows but would no longer tour.
Although originally influenced by the Allman Brothers Lynyrd Skynyrd overtook their popularity while joining them as one of the pioneers of Southern Rock and their influence has been immeasurable on artists like Band of Horses, Uncle Tupelo, Steve Earle, Metallica, Blues Traveler, and Kid Rock.