Lynyrd Skynyrd
Remembering the Free Birds of Southern Rock
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The first complete, unvarnished history of Southern rock’s legendary and most popular band, from its members’ hardscrabble boyhoods in Jacksonville, Florida and their rise to worldwide fame to the tragic plane crash that killed the founder and the band’s rise again from the ashes.
In the summer of 1964 Jacksonville, Florida teenager Ronnie Van Zant and some of his friends hatched the idea of forming a band to play covers of the Rolling Stones, Beatles, Yardbirds and the country and blues-rock music they had grown to love. Naming their band after Leonard Skinner, the gym teacher at Robert E. Lee Senior High School who constantly badgered the long-haired aspiring musicians to get haircuts, they were soon playing gigs at parties, and bars throughout the South. During the next decade Lynyrd Skynyrd grew into the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful of the rock bands to emerge from the South since the Allman Brothers. Their hits “Free Bird” and “Sweet Home Alabama” became classics. Then, at the height of its popularlity in 1977, the band was struck with tragedy --a plane crash that killed Ronnie Van Zant and two other band members.
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Remembering the Free Birds of Southern Rock is an intimate chronicle of the band from its earliest days through the plane crash and its aftermath, to its rebirth and current status as an enduring cult favorite. From his behind-the-scenes perspective as Ronnie Van Zant’s lifelong friend and frequent member of the band’s entourage who was also aboard the plane on that fateful flight, Gene Odom reveals the unique synthesis of blues/country rock and songwriting talent, relentless drive, rebellious Southern swagger and down-to-earth sensibility that brought the band together and made it a defining and hugely popular Southern rock band -- as well as the destructive forces that tore it apart. Illustrated throughout with rare photos, Odom traces the band’s rise to fame and shares personal stories that bring to life the band’s journey.
For the fans who have purchased a cumulative 35 million copies of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s albums and continue to pack concerts today, Lynyrd Skynyrd is a celebration of an immortal American band.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This faithful bio of the Southern rock superstars by Odom, bodyguard and childhood friend, and journalist Dorman, starts with the plane crash that killed three band members, including charismatic singer Ronnie Van Zant. Before and after takeoff, Odom details how he repeatedly approached the cockpit and warned the pilots that the plane was malfunctioning, once even telling them, "I care an awful lot about these people," only to be told to return to his seat. Following that chapter, Odom wisely takes a backseat, and in turn offers up an earnest and informative look at the band, from their childhood days hunting squirrels in Jacksonville, Fla., to forming the group in high school and becoming one of the biggest rock bands in America. A later chapter describes the crash in sobering detail, while examining what went wrong. Much more entertaining are Skynyrd's Spinal Tap esque problems finding the right bassist, and the genesis of the band name, which was based on a no-nonsense high school gym teacher named Leonard Skinner, who constantly apprehended the boys for smoking marijuana. Van Zant dominates the book, and the authors effectively show both his hard-drinking, brawling side, and his softer touches. The authors at times slip into overly floral prose, such as a description of the original version of the anthemic "Free Bird": "this comparative sparrow of a song was surely a hit in the making, but not yet the eagle to come." When the authors simply tell the story, they do it just fine.
