Southern Rock at it's Best!

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Freebird - 7/2/1977 - Oakland Coliseum Stadium (Official)

Just three and a half months before the fateful plane crash that killed Skynyrd members Steve Gaines, his sister, backing vocalist Cassie Gaines (of the Honkettes), and lead vocalist Ronnie Van Zandt, Lynyrd Skynyrd played this 4th of July weekend program in Oakland. 

While this is only a partial recording of the show, two of the three songs are probably the ones you would skip to anyway: "Sweet Home Alabama" and the legendary closing track that has inspired legions of concert-going yokels to make millions of ironic requests over the years, "Free Bird." The first track is an excerpt of a standard Skynyrd live show cover, Jimmie Rodgers' "T for Texas" The guys take six minutes to stretch their legs on this version of "Sweet Home Alabama." The song had been released three years prior as a response song to the Neil Young numbers "Southern Man" and "Alabama," which were both critical of southern politics. Ironically, by some reports, Van Zant was wearing a Neil Young t-shirt at the time of this performance. 

The show is closed with "Free Bird," which by many fans' estimations is only rivaled by Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" as the most epic closing song in rock history. Allen Collins handles most of the five-minute solo, while Gary Rossington plays the "bird-chirp" guitar parts, which are not on the original recording, as well as the slide work on the opening riffs. Billy Powell also plays a masterful piano solo that is unique to the live show. 

While Lynyrd Skynyrd would release the multi-platinum Street Survivors in October of 1977, the band's structure would be fundamentally devastated by the crash of their private Convair 240 that took the lives of three members, as well as the pilots and assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, and terribly injured every other member, except for Honkette, JoJo Billingsley, who was at home with her children and had reportedly begged the band to quit using the plane after dreaming of such a crash. 

From the ashes of this Skynyrd incarnation, Van Zant's younger brother, Johnny, stepped in and made Lynyrd Skynyrd a popular band once more when they reformed in 1987. Lynyrd Skynyrd is planning to release an unearthed recording of pre-plane crash Skynyrd in 2009.

 

 

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Sweet Home Alabama - 7/2/1977 - Oakland Coliseum Stadium (Official)

Bob Seger

 

Seger
captures the American Spirit. Open road, free spirited, free loving,
and that rasp in his voice is pure muscle. Much like Mellancamp his
music is the anthem of growing up in America in a time long past

I've grown old listening to music like this, but this music has not gotten
old as the years passed. It has, like me, matured it has gained meaning
in my life and in some cases, changed my perspective concerning certain
events in my life. It is like a fine wine that each time I taste it has
gained new nuances and flavor. These songs will never be obsolete
because they touch a part of me that doesn't change. Seger & his
compatriots bring me peace & remind me of my Navy years, a time
when I had enough courage that nobody would ever break me. As I grow old I find that I need these songs as reminders of a life well-lived, like
a rock.

 

I'm retired now, I admit, sometimes I start feeling down on myself, like
I'm all "washed-up" after a long working life full of things that had to
be done "NOW!" Lots of travel, last minute stuff, planes mostly, here
on Monday, there on Tuesday, somewhere else on Wednesday. I listen to
Bob and understand that tho my life is a bit slower and my memory is
fading, I have nothing to regret and a whole lot to pass on to the next generation.

 

Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band - Roll Me Away

 

 

About halfway through his nearly two-hour Friday night set at Los Angeles' Forum, Bob Seger wheeled out his 1986 hit "Like a Rock" with a preamble: It's been "about 20 years since we've played this," he said. "I hope you remember it." To use one of his own song titles, "Rock and Roll Never Forgets," especially when said song was hammered into our brain repeatedly in a Chevy Truck commercial through the '90s. While some purists may be upset by the convergence of rock 'n' roll and Madison Avenue, even they have to admit that the ad exec who put that association together scored a knockout. Outside of Bruce Springsteen and perhaps John Mellencamp, there isn't another veteran rocker who speaks to the blue collar American everyman better than Seger. 

 

Read more:http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/revi...

 

Bob Seger Austin concert 3/7/2019 

 

My Favorites:

 

Like a Rock! 

When you're young and in your 20's, this song means nothing to you. Then one day you wake up and your in your 70's and all of a sudden this song makes sense...

 

Against the Wind!

What a fantastic song. Unfortunately for many of us, we are too old once we understand the meaning. Some of us run against the wind all our lives. ... I'm in my 70's now. Bob played at my Prom (a big Thank You to my "big sister" for talking my parents into letting me go). Amazing to think of that now! Where did the time go?

Night Moves!

 

"She was a black-haired beauty with big dark eyes." - My prom date.

We weren't in love, oh no, far from it
We weren't searchin' for some pie in the sky summit
We were just young and restless and bored
Livin' by the sword
And we'd steal away every chance we could
To the backroom, to the alley or the trusty woods
I used her, she used me
But neither one cared
We were gettin' our share
Workin' on our night moves
Tryin' to lose the awkward teenage blues
Workin' on our night moves
And it was summertime
Sweet summertime summertime...

 

Ain't it funny how the night moves
When you just don't seem to have as much to lose
Strange how the night moves
With autumn closing in

 

Bob Seger 2019 Roll Me Away: The Final Tour live at Tacoma Dome, Tacoma Washington 2019-09-21