youtu.be/SM3jgkChV6M For Lisa Ann Ollis Newsom Peak years (1973–1977) In 1972 the band (now Van Zant, Collins, Rossington, Burns, Wilkeson, and Powell) was discovered by musician, songwriter, and producer Al Kooper of Blood, Sweat & Tears, who had attended one of their shows at Funocchios in Atlanta. They changed the spelling of their name to Lynyrd Skynyrd and Kooper signed them to his Sounds of the South label that was to be distributed and supported by MCA Records, producing their first album. Leon Wilkeson temporarily left the band during the early recording sessions for the album, only playing on two tracks. Wilkeson rejoined the band shortly after the albums release at Van Zants invitation[citation needed] and is pictured on the album cover. Strawberry Alarm Clock guitarist Ed King joined the band and played bass on the album (the only part, which Wilkeson had not already written being the solo section in Simple Man), along with some guitar work. King stayed in the band and switched solely to guitar after the albums release, allowing the band to replicate the three-guitar mix used in the studio for their live performances. Released August 13, 1973, the self-titled album with the subtitle Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd featured the hit song Free Bird, which received national airplay, eventually reaching No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Lynyrd Skynyrds fan base continued to grow rapidly throughout 1973, largely due to their opening slot on The Whos Quadrophenia tour in the United States. On their 1974 follow-up, Second Helping, the band successfully avoided any sophomore slump, with King, Collins and Rossington all collaborating with Van Zant on the songwriting. The album was the bands breakthrough hit, and featured their most popular single, Sweet Home Alabama (#8 on the charts in August 1974), a response to Neil Youngs Southern Man, and featuring some outstanding guitar work by King (Young and Van Zant were not rivals, but fans of each others music and good friends; Young even wrote the song Powderfinger for the band, but they never recorded it. Van Zant, meanwhile, can be seen on the cover of Street Survivors and in concert wearing a Neil Young Tonights the Night t-shirt. The album reached No. 12 in 1974, eventually going multi-platinum. In July of that year, Lynyrd Skynyrd was one of the headline acts at The Ozark Music Festival at the Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia, Missouri. In January 1975, Burns left the band and was replaced by Kentucky native Artimus Pyle on drums. Lynyrd Skynyrds third album, Nuthin Fancy, was released the same year. The album had lower sales than its predecessor. Kooper and the band parted by mutual agreement after the raucous recording of the LP. Kooper was left with the tapes to complete the mix before release. Midway through the tour, Ed King left the band, citing tour exhaustion. In January 1976, backup singers Leslie Hawkins, Cassie Gaines and JoJo Billingsley (collectively known as The Honkettes) were added to the band, although they were not considered official members. Lynyrd Skynyrds fourth album Gimme Back My Bullets was released in the new year, but did not achieve the same success as the previous two albums. Van Zant and Collins both felt that the band was seriously missing the three-guitar attack that had been one of its early hallmarks. Although Skynyrd auditioned several guitarists, including such high-profile names as Leslie West, the solution was closer than they realized. Soon after joining Skynyrd, Cassie Gaines began touting the guitar and songwriting prowess of her younger brother, Steve. The junior Gaines, who led his own band, Crawdad (which occasionally would perform Skynyrds Saturday Night Special in their set), was invited to audition onstage with Skynyrd at a concert in Kansas City on May 11, 1976. Liking what they heard, the group also jammed informally with the Oklahoma native several times, then invited him into the group in June. With Gaines on board, the newly reconstituted band recorded the double-live album One More from the Road at the Fox Theatre (Atlanta, Georgia) in Atlanta, and performed at the Knebworth festival, which also featured The Rolling Stones. Both Collins and Rossington had serious car accidents over Labor Day weekend in 1976, which slowed the recording of the follow-up album and forced the band to cancel some concert dates. Rossingtons accident inspired the ominous That Smell – a cautionary tale about drug abuse that was clearly aimed towards him and at least one other band member. Rossington has admitted repeatedly that he was the Prince Charming of the song who crashed his car into an oak tree while drunk and stoned on Quaaludes. Van Zant, at least, was making a serious attempt to clean up his act and curtail the cycle of boozed-up brawling that was part of Skynyrds reputation. 1977s Street Survivors turned out to be a showcase for guitarist/vocalist Steve Gaines, who had joined the band just a year earlier and was making his studio debut with them. Publicly and privately, Ronnie Van Zant marveled at the multiple talents of Skynyrds newest member, claiming that the band would all be in his shadow one day.[citation needed] Gaines contributions included his co-lead vocal with Van Zant on the co-written You Got That Right and the rousing guitar boogie I Know a Little, which he had written before he joined Skynyrd. So confident was Skynyrds leader of Gaines abilities that the album (and some concerts) featured Gaines delivering his self-penned bluesy Aint No Good Life – the only song in the pre-crash Skynyrd catalog to feature a lead vocalist other than Ronnie Van Zant. The album also included the hit singles Whats Your Name and That Smell. The band was poised for their biggest tour yet, with shows always highlighted by the iconic rock anthem Free Bird. In November, the band was scheduled to fulfill Van Zants lifelong dream of headlining New Yorks Madison Square Garden. The song Freebird in the movie Freebird the Movie was actually filmed on July 2, 1977 at the Oakland Coliseum and not on July 4 as stated by Bill Graham and in the credits.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 17:57:09 +0000