Remembering Lynyrd Skynyrd

Posted on 20th Oct 09 by Paddy Murphy | 1

Thirty-two years ago today, a plane went down in Gillsburg, Mississippi. It had departed from South Carolina a few hours previously and unfortunately ran out of fuel not too far from it’s supposed destination of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The pilots tried desperately to land on a smaller runway but could not. In vain they tried again to find a landing spot but it wasn’t to be.

Ronnie Van Zant & Steve Gaines. Illustration by Paddy Lynch

The plane landed in a forest in Gillsburg. Those killed included Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and his sister Cassie Gaines, all members of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray were also killed. The surviving members of the band suffered terrible injuries, some never got over the trauma of the accident.

The first time I’d come across Lynyrd Skynyrd was while in secondary school. Yes, everyone knows Sweet Home Alabama, I presume it’s still the number one song in Copper’s or Flannery’s, or then again that “da-da-da-dah” one from The Proclaimers, anyway I digress. One of my fellow “crusty” friends, you were a “crusty” if you didn’t listen to Scooter, Shaggy or those God-awful Counting Crowes, borrowed me a copy of Skynyrd’s All Time Greatest Hits. I went to a very strange school, we had two types of people, losers and dickheads, there wasn’t an ounce of cool where I went to school.

It was a terrible time for rock music, we were too young for grunge and too angry for britpop. We weren’t good at sports, we weren’t much better at school either. Too poor to get hooked on drink or drugs, so we didn’t appreciate the magical world of dance music that was happening. So we were left with only one option, we did the only thing that we could do, we all picked up guitars. We dreamed of groupies and world domination but first we needed to learn how to play.

My friend said to listen to the whole cd without skipping ahead to the last song. Easier said than done. Skynyrd weren’t really my cup of tea on first listen. Even at that tender age, Sweet Home Alabama was overplayed to death. But, track three Simple Man, now there was a wonderful song. A tale of woe and love and loss, a grandmother telling her grandchild to be a good, honest hardworking man. Saturday Night Special and Swamp Music kept the tempo up and kept things interesting.

That Smell was an indicator that Skynyrd weren’t just hard-drinking, fighting Southern hellraisers. That Smell was directed at founding member Gary Rossington after he had been involved in a car accident while under the inflence of various substances.

But the masterpiece of the record was Free Bird. I must have listened to that song at least thirty times that night, well, just the solo part anyway. I couldn’t believe it. Blew me away. Yes, I guess now it’s a bit cheesy but the first time hearing that solo all I wanted to do was learn how to play like that. God, I struggled trying to master Kurt Cobain solos and he was no Hendrix. But it was really fantastic, the energy, the power and the sheer awesome-ness.

It was beginning to dawn on me that we’d have never had a song like November Rain if it hadn’t been for Skynyrd. But who else had they influenced? Well, would we have had The Kings of Leon’s first two albums without Skynyrd, let’s not mention the more recent ones. We would have never heard the confident Southern tinged boogie of The Black Crowes, the fierceness of Black Label Society, the riff-tastic Rebel Meets Rebel, the all out metal thrash of Pantera or the cheese-tastic ZZ Top.

There’s no need for a history lesson here today folks. Whether you’re a fan or not, Lynyrd Skynyrd have definitely left their mark on rock and roll. The fact that kids all over the world will pick up their first six stringer and attempt that solo is testament to their influence.

In the years after the plane crash they have reunited with singer Ronnie Van Zant’s brother Johnny Van Zant taking over the vocal responsibilities, but there’s been more line-up changes that a Mexican soup opera and it’s fair comment to say that Skynyrd died with Ronnie. The following years since the “band” got back together look like a pantomime and their releases and gigs cannot be compared to the pre-crash band.

Ronnie Van Zant had been Skynyrd’s main driving force and was their chief songwriter. Steve Gaines was one of their three lead guitarists, he was, without doubt, the most talented in the band after Van Zant. He came from the same school of blues as Rory Gallagher and Duane Allman and his contributions to rock and roll have been ghastly overlooked. His sister Cassie Gaines was the bands leading back-up singer and had enjoyed success in her own band The Honkettes before they became Lynyrd Skynrd’s backing singers.

Cassie Gaines was just 29, her brother Steve Gaines was 28 and Ronnie Van Zant was also 29 years old. Next time you hear someone attempting a difficult solo on his guitar just think of what a lasting tribute that is, to have a song held in such high esteem that people all around the world are still attempting to replicate it years after you’ve long been gone.

Illustration by Paddy Lynch

Tags: Cassie Gaines, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines