Lynyrd skynyrd guitar12/22/2023 Amidst the rising tide of prog-/space-/corporate-rock, disco and AM pop hits, traditional rock and roll-or more specifically, Rock & Roll written in the Rolling Stone font-was no longer the sole formidable force in popular music. My Dad once told me that in the mid-70s, if you wanted “good old rock and roll” you could either turn to Tom Petty, Bob Seger or Bruce Springsteen. A cigarette dangles from King’s mouth, and the stout, pudge-faced guitarist looks totally bushed but doesn’t miss a note, even throwing in a few slight, clever deviations on “Sweet Home Alabama.” Ronnie can’t contain himself during solos, whooping and hollering “Guitar!” when his foot soldiers take off. Band members and tensions were high as fuck but Lynyrd Skynyrd sound as on point as ever. They were a few months into the Torture Tour at that point, and it was one of King’s last concerts. Rossington’s there, but like sulking in the back barely making himself known, leaving his partner out to dry.Ī few months prior, at the end of April, Skynyrd played for a sold out crowd at San Francisco’s Winterland, a show that was luckily taped for posterity. By the time of his exit, the band had spent three-and-a-half years playing those songs god knows how many times with that line-up so when Skynyrd took the stage at the BBC’s famed music show Old Grey Whistle Test in 1975 for a live performance that began with “I Ain’t The One” you can hear just how dismally sparse it sounds when Collins attempts to kick into high gear. “We kept experimenting, jamming until it felt right, then we wrote 'I Need You’ and 'Sweet Home Alabama’ with the three guitars and we were set.” King wasn’t just an additional creative spark when it came to writing, his presence also bolstered those older tracks on stage. It wasn’t something they understood at first, or knew how to work with, but it “had to happen,” as King pointed out to John Swenson. But that sound, that style so distinct to Skynyrd, the one they’d cultivated in the years since, was one built upon a three guitar line-up. “On The Hunt,” live at Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, ‘75Īfter over a decade of playing together, Collins and Rossington could certainly hold their own hell, they more than did so on (Pronounced), on which only they play guitar. Plus three guitarists going ape on a song specifically designed to showcase what you can do with three guitarists makes for one a hell of a show. A wallop of sound, a constant chatter between the three-Collins could screech and squeal away while King smooth talked his way around Rossington’s staunch swagger. The greater expanses of a live setting, though, was where those 18 strings flourished. On record, the triumvirate will converge for solos and the biggest blasts, but often it sensibly spreads itself out, each player finding their own place among each other and the rest of the band. Yeah, if one player was having an off night, the other two could carry the weight (like a, snooze, normal band), but Van Zant was such a stalwart and stickler for perfection-so much that everyone was supposed to play more or less the same solos they did on the album because that’s what the audience came to hear-that such a scenario was never supposed to arise (though it frequently did). It’s not an efficient line-up per se, requiring the band to not just lug around more crap, but also make sure everyone’s sound be accounted for. “Three Guitars Or A Life Of Crime”: Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Triple Guitar Attack and Maximum Rock & RollĮxtravagant begins to describe it obnoxious is the easy way to dismiss it nothing less than crucial is what Lynyrd Skynyrd’s three guitar attack truly was.
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