THIS REVIEW IS INFO ON LYNYRD SKYNYRD AND NOT ON THAT SPECIFIC ALBUM
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After seven years of being turned away at the door, Lynyrd Skynyrd can finally call the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame sweet home. Artists are eligible for the Hall only 25 years after their first record is released.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation announced Monday that its 21st class of inductees will include the Jacksonville-born Southern rockers, who'd been shut out in each of their six previous years of eligibility. Most believe two things have conspired to keep them out: the band pressing on without its original members, and Skynyrd's ''Southernness''.
They will be inducted on March 13, 2006at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. Other inductees in the class of 2006 are Black Sabbath (who had themselves been nominated eight times), the S*x Pistols (five times), Blondie and Miles Davis, a jazz trumpeter.
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The Story
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Lynyrd Skynyrd first took flight on Jacksonville's Westside in the mid-'60s. That was when Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Gary Rossington, both students at Lee High School, hooked up with guitarist Allen Collins, who attended Forrest High. Bassist Leon Wilkeson, keyboardist Billy Powell, drummer Bob Burns and guitarist Ed King made up the rest.
Their first CD, Pronounced leh-nerd skin-nerd (yes, that was the name of the album), was released in 1973 and features one of their greatest hits Free Bird. The following year's Second Helping featured the band's second definitive track, Sweet Home Alabama.
Despite the long-held legend that Sweet Home Alabama, with lines like ''I hope Neil-Young will remember/A Southern man don't need him around anyhow,'' represented a feud between the two, Ronnie Van Zant and Young were mutual fans who were discussing a potential collaboration when tragedy struck in October 1977.
Three days after the release of Skynyrd's 1977 Street Survivors album and at the peak of its influence, a plane crash in rural Mississippi killed Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines and his sister, back-up singer Cassie Gaines. The crash also killed the band's assistant road manager and the plane's two pilots. Broken, the band ceased performing.
In 1987, Rossington, Powell, King and Wilkeson recruited Van Zant's younger brother, Johnny, to take over as singer. The reunion was initially intended as a one-off, but fan demand made it permanent.
Today, the band continues to tour and record with Johnny Van Zant and original members Rossington and Powell, along with bassist Ean Evans, guitarist Rickey Medlocke and drummer Michael Cartellone. Last summer, Johnny Van Zant said that Skynyrd had been in the studio readying new material for a 2006 release.
The Van Zant family has been big in country this year as well. Johnny and a third Van Zant brother, Donnie, released the country album Get Right With The Man this spring under the moniker Van Zant.
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Free Bird & the Rock 'N Roll Cliché
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''Free Bird'' is considered one of the greatest rock songs of all time, included in such lists as The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll, and the List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song, one-half ballad, one-half up-tempo guitar boogie, quickly became a staple for Lynyrd Skynyrd at their live performances. It is perhaps most recognized for its nearly five-minute triple guitar solo section that closes it out, often turning into an extended jam session at concerts. The band would consistently play it as the last song of every show, as it was arguably their biggest crowd pleaser. While the live version as played by the original band would include soloing by Gary Rossington and third guitarist Ed King as well as Allen Collins, the recorded version is triple-tracked by Collins alone. Gary Rossington plays the slide-guitar part in the song's first half.
It meant that fans often started shouting (it still happens) ''FREE BIRD'' in the midst of any concert. They urged the performers to sing that song. It was originally meant to be a way to embarass that band but it grew to a worldwide phenomenon later and it was done at concerts of just about anyone regardless of the genere of music he/she performed.
The popular culture cliché of ''Free Bird'', which is the shouting of a request to hear the song by audience members at almost any concert, regardless of the performer or style of music, can be traced back to Skynyrd's first live album, 1976's One More From The Road. On the record, Van Zant can be heard asking the crowd which song they would like to hear, immediately followed by several shouts of ''Free Bird'', at which time the band responds with a 14-minute version.
In the mid-1980s, Chicago DJ Kevin Matthews encouraged his listeners to reenact this request at an upcoming Florence Henderson concert. He disliked her music and thought it would be a humorous thing to do to break up the monotony. His suggestion was a success, and the idea was so popular with his listeners that it soon became a routine of his to poll their opinion as to which performers coming into town deserved the same treatment.
Since that time, the phenomena has become so widespread that it is now considered a cliché. Matthews has claimed that ''It was never meant to be yelled at a cool concert -- it was meant to be yelled at someone really lame''.Some artists have actually played the song or a version of it if it's shouted at them.
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So what do the members of Skynyrd think of the tradition? Johnny Van Zant, Ronnie's brother and the band's singer since 1987, says ''it's not an insult at all -- I think it's kind of cool. It's fun, and people are doing it in a fun way. That's what music's supposed to be about.''
Besides, Mr. Van Zant has a confession: His wife persuaded him to see Cher in Jacksonville a couple of years ago, and he couldn't resist yelling ''Freebird!'' himself. ''My wife is going, 'Stop! Stop!' '' he recalls, laughing. ''I embarrassed the hell out of her.''
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Read their entire story about how almost all the band members died, most in a plane crash in 1977.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynyrd_Skynyrd
https://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB111102511477881964-ZkAKwALO87RaHLbFJrS
JSA_i9xg_20050415.html?mod=blogs
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listen to FREE BIRD here
https://bbc.co.uk/radio2/soldonsong/songlibrary/yourviews/freebird.shtml
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Check what happens when a guy puts FREE BIRD in a list of worst solos and gets his you-know-what whipped by ALL the readers. Some of the abuses are totally hilarious !!
https://steelwhitetable.org/blog/2004/07/28/50-worst-guitar-solos-of-all-time/
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