Lynyrd Skynyrd Live At The Fox - 1976

Lynyrd Skynyrd Keeps It Alive
they’ve recently released their fifth album, the first live, “One More
From The Road,” record in Atlanta. (AP Photo)
Is Southern Rock Dying Away?
November 21, 1976
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) —
With the breakup of the Allman Brothers band, Lynyrd Skynyrd would seem to be the Number One exponent of rock’s Southern Sound. Skynyrd’s aggressive, guitar-dominated music may be as close to the very un-Southern British rockers as it is to the Allman’s more lyrical blues-rock hybrid, but its most famous single, “Sweet Home Alabama,” defends Dixie’s honor.

And “One More From The Road,” the band’s new two record album, has won a gold record, although it was released only in September. That’s five consecutive golds, more than the total for Marshall Tucker, Charlie Daniels and the Outlaws combined. Nevertheless, just before a fall show at the 8,000-seat Pavilion, Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington remarked that the Southern Sound is just a fad. “Southern rock is dying away,” Rossington explained. “A while ago, David Bowie and Alice Cooper were doing their crazy thing and music was secondary to what the show was. Then the Southern thing came out and it was all music. Nobody did a show or got dressed up. “Now it doesn’t matter where you’re from. It’s how good you are.” Skynyrd has folded its Confederate flag backdrop in favor of the winding rod on the cover of its latest album.

But the group still salutes its roots by encoring with “Free Bird,” its tribute to the founder of the Allman Brothers, Duane Allman. “They were the Beatles of the South,” Rossington said of the Allmans, adding that it was the release “At Fillmore East” in 1971 that made the country take notice of Southern music. “They came out and everybody noticed ‘em.” Actually, it was strange to talk with Rossington about the Allmans. After all, Gregg Allman, the last of the Allman brothers, is in disfavor in the world of rock for testifying against his former road manager, Scooter Herring,
in a cocaine case. Herring was sentenced to 75 years’ imprisonment for a narcotics conviction, and angry Allman band members decided that they no longer wanted to play with Gregg. So the band broke up this past summer. “It’s weird. It’s chaos,” was all Rossington had to say about the situation.

The band’s “From The Road” was recorded over three nights in early July at the Fox Theater in Atlanta. The album plays like a Skynyrd show, containing songs like “Saturday Night Special” and “Free Bird.” “From The Road” also marked the first time in three albums that the band has had the seven-man, three-guitar lineup it enjoyed before Ed King quit in mid-1974. “We used a session guitarist named Barry Harwood on ‘Nuthin’ Fancy’ and ‘Gimmie Back My Bullets,’” noted Leon Wilkeson. “When we were in Europe last fall, he sat in with us. That’s when the search for a third
guitarist began.” Skynyrd eventually chose Steve Gaines. whose sister Cassie is one of the group’s three backup singers.

“Skynyrd came to Kansas City for a concert,” said Gaines, an amiable Oklahoman whose claim to fame at the time was his role in a local band called Crawdaddy. “I sat in for a number and they liked it. They flew me down to Jacksonville, and Allen and Gary and I would sit in Leon’s living room all night and rehearse. Two weeks after I joined the band, we recorded the album.” Rossington was candid about Gaines’ role on the album. “We just played all the songs we could teach him. There’s a couple of songs he didn’t play on — Tuesday’s Gone’ and ‘Gimmie Three Steps.’” He also admitted that “From The Road” was not exactly a great creative leap forward. “We only did three songs we’d never recorded: ‘T For Texas.’ ‘Travelin’ Man’ and ‘Crossroads.’ It’s just us live.” Rossington’s remark about Skynyrd “live” brought to mind the band’s rowdy reputation.

On its early recognition-building “torture tours” (250 concerts during 300 days on the road), the Skynyrd players let off steam with such niceties as throwing a table out of a London hotel window. Once a guitar launched into a New York theater audience cut the face of a girl seated in the first row.
LYNYRD SKYNYRD DOCUMENTARY