In September 1976, Lynyrd Skynyrd had one of the worst reputations in rock 'n' roll. During the previous "five years of alcoholism" Ronnie Van Zant had single-handedly left a trail of trashed hotel rooms, whiskey-soaked gigs and fistfights over mistakes in the shows. On Labor Day weekend, 1976, just before the release of Skynyrd's new double-live LP "One More From The Road", founding guitarists Gary Rossington and Allen Collins were involved in separate alcohol and drug related auto accidents. While DUI, Collins hit a parked car, knocking it across an empty parking lot. Fortunately, he emerged unscathed. Rossington was not so lucky. Passing out at the wheel of his brand new Ford Torino, with his foot on the gas, his car went out of control and knocked down a telephone pole, split an oak tree, and did $7,000 worth of damage to a house. It was Rossington's accident that was Ronnie Van Zant's inspiration to write "Whiskey bottles, and brand new cars; Oak tree you're in my way" for the song "That Smell".
During April, 1977 recording sessions, the band laid down tracks for a pair of new Van Zant-Rossington songs, the catchy "What's Your Name", which was inspired by a bar fight involving roadie Craig Reed, and a churning blues number called "Sweet Little Missy", that featured Billy Powell on keyboards and a searing Steve Gaines guitar solo. The later was dropped from the new album prior to it's release, and appears as a bonus track on the new expanded edition CD. Steve Gaines was one of the souths most promising young guitarists and sadly, the world never got to hear the full potential of what this musician would have had to offer. The band also recorded two new Gaines-Van Zant songs, "You Got That Right", a rocking celebration of the band's exhurberant touring lifestyle and "I Never Dreamed", an introspective ballad that addressed the fundamental shift in Ronnie Van Zant's priorities since the birth of his daughter, Melody, on September 19, 1976.
After all the turmoil Skynyrd had endured, they decided to call their new record "Street Survivors". The original album cover pictured the band standing tall, while flames engulfed them. The flames would be removed from the cover art just weeks later, deemed in poor taste. I myself am happy to see it return, as it holds a message that the band intended to convey. "More went into Street Survivors than any other album we have ever done," said Ronnie Van Zant. "Maybe there's not a big hit single on it like 'Sweet Home Alabama,' but it's the best we've ever done." Ronnie was wrong about the hit single though, because "What's Your Name" cracked the Top 10 singles charts.
"Street Survivors", released October 17, 1977 was the most anticipated Skynyrd album yet, shipping over 500,000 units, automatically making it a gold record. It eventually went to multi-platinum status. Sadly, just three days after the album's release, on the first week of the new tour, the band's tour plane ran out of gas and crashed into a Mississippi forrest, killing Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, sister Cassie Gaines, and road manager Dean Kilpatrick.
"Street Survivors" marks a time of change for Lynyrd Skynyrd, as it is unlike any prior Skynyrd studio album. This is the one that features the triple-guitar assualt of Rossington-Collins-Gaines that was intoduced live on "One More From The Road", and that is most prominently featured on "That Smell". Highlights In addition to "That Smell", the top 10 "What's Your Name" and "You Got That Right", include a Steve Gaines song from his pre-Skynyrd days, "I Know A Little", a six year old Skynyrd song repolished that even pre-dates "Free Bird", "One More Time", and a brothelesque rocking little number that is one of my favorites, "Ain't No Good Life." Another key note is their cover of Merle Haggard's "Honkey Tonk Night Time Man". The world will never know where Skynyrd would have taken us musically, had the tragic events of October, 1977 not occured. "Street Survivors" was only the beginning of a new brand of Lynyrd Skynyrd.
ALAS, IT'S TIME TO BRING "STREET SURVIVORS" OUT OF THE CLOSET & CRANK UP THE SPEAKERS.
