Word: skynyrd
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ROCK MUSICIANS WHO die in the service of the faith have a way of becoming idolized and canonized by the legions of the rock and roll faithful. Lynyrd Skynyrd, thanks to the auspices of a chartered plane (the same tool of fate used to glorify Jim Croce and Buddy Holly), is now a certified rock and roll legend--martyr, if you will. Last winter, the leader of the group, Ronnie Van Zant, and several band members died in a plane crash which terminated Skynyrd's ascent to the forefront of Southern and probably American rock. Left behind, broken...
These tapes have now been released as Skynyrd's First and Last Album. Despite the advertising hype that accompanies the reviewer's copy, the immediate response from anyone who has suffered through any one of the execrable "roots" albums that sprang up in the aftermath of Jimi Hendrix's death runs along these lines: "Here is a half-assed first album being released now to pay the bills for the next few years ...Forget...
...certainly not a forgotten masterpiece. In general, it is an adequate collection of derivative hard rock with a couple of ringers thrown in. The band which recorded this album bears only a family resemblance to the group that recorded in the late 70's as Lynyrd Skynyrd...
...Skynyrd's roots in British rock are obvious and there is little pretension in the album's music or the P.R. about the extent of their debt. Numbers like "Down South Jukin," "Preacher's Daughter" and "Lend a Helpin' Hand" would not have been written if the Rolling Stones and Cream had never recorded. "Comin' Home" owes its existence in part to the early Allman Brothers, the group that Skynyrd always played second Les Paul to until just before the end. And thrown in for filler are two songs by then drummer and vocalist Rickey Medlocke which...
DIED. Three members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, raucous rock group that called its music "Southern raunchy roll"; when their chartered airplane crashed in a swamp near McComb, Miss. Among the six people killed were Lead Singer Ronnie Van Zant, Guitarist Steve Gaines and his sister Cassie, a vocalist with the group. All three were 28. Their latest album, Street Survivors, had just been released...