6. Lynyrd SkynyrdStreet Survivors
I love Lynyrd Skynyrd. It’s my favourite Lynyrd Skynyrd record because it’s the first and only, not including the live record, from when Steve Gaines joined the band. Steve Gaines is one of my favourite guitar players of all time. He’s got the precision of Chet Atkins and the emotion of Jimi Hendrix. Clean, powerful, super-melodic, like an assassin of a guitar player. Gary Rossington and Allen Collins, two of the great guitar players too. When all three of them trade solos at the end of ‘That Smell’, it’s just a sublime moment of rock & roll. And I can pick out who’s playing what. It’s dope. It’s fantastic. I still love it.
Steve Gaines also shared a lot of the vocals with Ronnie Van Zant. He has the biggest creative input on the record. I think because of that Collins and Rossington, who were previously the big co-writers with Ronnie Van Zant, rose up and wrote two of the biggest hits the band ever had. Gary Rossington wrote ‘What’s Your Name’ with Ronnie and Allen Collins wrote ‘That Smell’ with Ronnie. They also include a song from their early days called ‘One More Time’ that is beautiful. They do a cover of ‘Honky Tonk Night Time Man’ by Merle Haggard that is fucking phenomenal. And the record ends with ‘Ain’t No Good Life’ which is Steve Gaines singing lead and that had never happened.
One of my absolute favourite rock & roll bands ever. One of my favourite lyricists and vocalists of all-time, Ronnie Van Zant. And I really do think Street Survivors, their final album, is their finest hour, and who knows what they would have gone on to do. But what a great way to go out. I’ve heard this album a million times. I’ll listen to it a million more times. Never get sick of Street Survivors ever. It’s just a perfect record, it’s perfect.
