On this day, 40 years ago...

Bob Womack · #1 10-20-2017, 05:26 AM

The Convair CV-240 airliner containing the members of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd went down in a swamp in Mississippi.

Please allow a rephrased repost of one of my recent posts:

Skynyrd's album, Street Survivors, were released on October 17, 1977. By that time I had been listening to them and following their careers four years. As a latent rock n' roller living in the South I considered them to be the second generation of trail blazers - very few in the South made it in the biz. I had played their hits in cover bands and had begun to really respect the amount of discipline it took to do their thing. This song was written by Ronnie Van Zant as he began to dry out from all the boozing and drugs and became alarmed by the realization that his band buddies were still living a very fast and dangerous life and might not survive it. Three days after it was released, at 6:52pm cst on October the 20th, the band's Convair CV-240 ran out of fuel in flight and crashed into a wooded swamp near Gillsburg, Mississippi.

The times and technology being what they were (we had no 24-hour news cycle) and the area being as remote as it was, word didn't get out to the nation until the next morning. The next morning, 470 miles away at my remote college in Georgia, I got up and went to breakfast, blissfully unaware of what had happened. After breakfast as I prepared for classes I switched on the radio to a rock station and immediately heard the headline, though there were nearly no details available.

I immediately commenced my own little vigil, cutting classes, sitting by the window of my mountaintop dorm room with the radio, waiting for word, and praying for the band member's safety. Of course, as the day rolled on the terrible and good news eventually came out to the country: three members of the band as well as three crew members were killed and all twenty survivors were badly injured.

Street Survivors had hit the stands with a picture of the band members facing the camera with tongues of fire coming out of their heads. All copies still in the stores were quickly recalled by MCA and the album was reissued with a new, milder cover. Of the seven band members on the album cover only two survive today. "That Smell," indeed.

RIP to the six who died that day and five others who have died since. Who knows what the band could have turned out to be like if they hadn't had the crash and had survived their terminal lifestyles?

Bob

Acousticado · #2 10-20-2017, 08:29 AM

Amen. I remember it well too, including the change in album covers. I still have the original. That Smell” is one of my favorite songs...not difficult to play rhythmically, but I just love the lead work. I listen to it often, including watching early video footage of it. Although LS continues to forge ahead and are close to bein g a cover band of themselves, I’m glad that they carry on.

bmoney · #3 10-20-2017, 08:44 AM

its really uncanny the number of musicians who have died in plane crashes

not to mention the few professional athletes as well

Nyghthawk · #4 10-20-2017, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmoney

its really uncanny the number of musicians who have died in plane crashes

not to mention the few professional athletes as well

Plane crashes (mostly small prop jobs), helicopter crashes, OD's, assassination, suicide, etc. It is not a lifestyle prone to longevity.

Old rock stars are the exception.

Riverwolf · #5 10-20-2017, 02:44 PM

While trying to learn Freebird with two shortened solo's I have also just about finished reading "Whiskey Bottles and Brand New Cars" by Mark Ribowsky.

I had tickets for the Long Beach show in 1977 and never went.
I am not much for large concerts but do miss the band.

buddyhu · #6 10-20-2017, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riverwolf

While trying to learn Freebird with two shortened solo's I have also just about finished reading "Whiskey Bottles and Brand New Cars" by Mark Ribowsky.

I had tickets for the Long Beach show in 1977 and never went.
I am not much for large concerts but do miss the band.

I was at that show. Memorably LOUD. A good show, as well, IIRC. Was not a big fan, but enjoyed much of the stuff they put out before the plane crash.

It can be strangely shattering when people we admire or deeply appreciate leave this earth, especially when it is sudden and/or entirely unexpected.

Pitar · #7 10-22-2017, 08:24 AM

It's good that people are remembering, honoring and bringing their nostalgia here. I was on a remote Pacific island with no means for outside contact with the "world" and got the news a week later from a transient aircrew. No one on the island had heard of the band so there was no commiserating their loss. OTOH, on the previous island I was working on in August at least everyone there had heard of or were familiar with Elvis. The news of his death was a big deal. Three years later after arriving at another even more remote island I got news of Lennon's murder and then Reagan's attempted assassination just before I left. These bits of news also arrived via transient aircrew but nearly 2 weeks after the fact. When you're a traveling single man remotely located from your home and the only news you get is the preceding your now-fading memories of the period are kind of haunting.