Lynyrd Skynyrd: Remembering The
Free Birds Of
Southern Rock
by
Gene Odom, with
Frank Dorman
On Nov. 28, 1976, Lynyrd Skynyrd rocked Austin’s Armadillo World
Headquarters as few bands
ever did. Storming the sold-out
hall like redneck rebels, the
South rose again with anthems like “
Sweet Home Alabama,” “Tuesday’s Gone,” and naturally, “Freebird.” Less than a year later,
the band was history,
four of its members and crew
dead, and the rest injured in a
plane crash in the
Mississippi swamps.
Lynyrd Skynyrd opens with
Gene Odom’s harrowing, first-person account of the hellish
accident. He then recalls
growing up with founder/vocalist
Ronnie Van Zant and working for the
band as they chased
fame. He paints
Van Zant as a rooster of a frontman,
short and stocky with a cock-of-the-walk
attitude that swelled when he took the microphone. The band’s prodigious drug and alcohol consumption, and Van Zant’s propensity for rowdiness?
Products of the
era. The
Jacksonville, Fla.,
swampers were
unique, however, melding Allman
Brothers’ bluesy
soul with a metal whammy, and blue-collar choruses of faithless
women,
bad luck, and
hard livin’. Odom’s strength as a
storyteller lies in having been there, so it’s hardly an unbiased account. But his
insight into the relationships between band members and the
sad fate of the survivors (two have died since) is told with empathy and humor (including interviewing the
real Leonard Skinner).
; "Gene Odom")
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