October 20, 1977. Remembering Lynyrd Skynyrd's crash

I liked the hits, but never got into the albums until I heard the live album. Instant conversion. I had tickets to see them at Cobo hall when it all ended. I sat and stared at the cover of Street Survivors with the flames licking around Ronnie and new boy Steve Gaines and just cried. Never did return the tickets, though what ever happened to them I have no idea. Later incarnations, even with Ronnie's brother fronting were not the same.

 

It is interesting this thread. About a week ago I watched an LS performance from The Old Grey Whistle Test from 1975. Good, very good. Then I watched a 1976 performance now with Steve Gaines. Huge difference, he really was in the process of taking the band to a new level. That said it was interesting to watch Ronnie's command of that band, and how it would appear physically he would reel in Allen Collins in an almost brotherly way.

Fast forward to now, and this is a question I am curious about. How does LS still continue to use that as a band name? I had heard that there had to be at least three members of the original line up in the band to carry on under the name. It seems the only one is Gary Rossington. Likewise, doesn't Ronnie's widow have some kind of fiduciary interest in the band whereby she makes a reasonable income off the current band?

 

Just yesterday I was in a record store that had a framed Street Survivors LP with a ticket stub from the final show they played here in Greenville. The former site of Memorial Auditorium remains empty after it was torn down in the mid-'90s. It's only one mile from where I live.
I later saw Lynyrd Skynyrd play an outdoor show in Greenville in '92.

 

RIP Free Bird.