VIDEO HERE (1 hour, 14 minutes)
Workin' for MCA
I Ain't the One
You Got That Right
Saturday Night Special
That Smell
What's Your Name
Gimme Three Steps
Call Me the Breeze
T for Texas
Sweet Home Alabama
Free Bird
*****
I saw Lynyrd Skynyrd on 24 May 1977 at the Columbus (GA) Auditorium 5 months before the plane went down, and it cost me $6.50 to get in the door. I know this for a fact because I still have the ticket stub.
well, in the old days drugs where cheap and the girls free. the reason why it costs so much more now is because nurses and doctors are NOT cheap and the drugs from the drug store cost a hell of a lot more than the stuff you bought in the parking lot.
ReplyDeleteso, their costs go up , so do tickets sales. dave in pa.
I hauled many a log many a mile listening to Skynyrd on my Sony headphones. They helped to keep me awake.
ReplyDeleteSomewhere or other I've still got my cassette of Street Survivors with flames on the cover.
The sound quality on this YouTube video is pretty darn good considering it's a recording of a '77 live concert.
Wow, but $6.50 was...Normal. Fall 1970 tuition, Starksville was $108. Tuscaloosa MBA, Fall 74 was $344.
ReplyDeleteSweet Home Alabama and Freebird were their best cuts.
ReplyDeleteThe good old days for certain.
ReplyDeleteMay 1977 I was prolly finishing final exams, unaware of such festivities not that far away.
ReplyDeleteA few months before their last concert I met Artimus Pyle (drummer) at a local record shop in Spartanburg, S.C. and asked him for an autograph. All I had with me was a strawberry rolling paper. Later I wrapped in seran wrap for protection. At their last concert, Greenville, S.C. at the old Memorial Auditorium, being a smaller venue, I was able to make my way to the back hallway where the band would pass through on their way to the stage. Handing the autograph to Pyle I asked him if he remembered it. Being in a rush to take the stage he replied, "Yes", shoved it in his pocket dashing with the rest of the band to the stage. Well, I wasn't going to let that go. So expressing to the guard, who witnessed the event, I successfully talked him into letting me come back towards the end of the show to try and retrieve my souvenir. As they rushed past me I yelled out, "Hey my autograph", where upon Pyle stopped and handed it back to me, then followed after his band mates. Later, I realized he played the entire concert with it in his pocket. That is an incredible memory and souvenir.
ReplyDeleteI saw the later version of the band in the 90's at Lakewood Amphitheater in Atlanta. While we were lined up waiting for the gates to open, a guy who was already drunk was walking up the line saying, "I ain't seen a n***er yet." Well, he was right.
ReplyDeleteSimilar story....1968 Curtis Hixon Hall in Tampa, walked up to the ticket counter the day of the show and bought 2 tickets for 5 bucks each to see The Who and 5 local area bands....thought nothing of it....
ReplyDeleteLynyrd Skynyrd was my first concert, in early fall of 1976 on Long Island. A triple bill with Doobie Brothers and Firefall. Cost the lofty sum of $9 per ticket. My ears are still ringing.
ReplyDeleteI was at the Columbus Auditorium for that show. There were 6 of us that made the 3 hour drive in a VW Microbus. I was the youngest at 15. We spent the night in the parking lot.
ReplyDeleteI took the preacher's daughter to the show. That was the night she found out I was a pot head. That was also the night I found out she was too.
DeleteTheir plane crashed on the way to a show, wiping out the majority of the band and it was totally needless. The owner of the plane they chartered was also the pilot and he passes 3 airports where he could have landed and refueled the plane, but he was determined to make it all the way, ran out of fuel and crash-landed in the pines. Senseless.
ReplyDeleteThe album "Street Survivors" was released just before the tragic accident, and had a background of flames. The label withdrew the album with a different cover after the crash and re-issued it without the flames. Never got to see Skynard, but I did see Blackfoot, 38 Special, Whitesnake, Black Oak Arkansas, Charlie Daniels band, and others when I was a DJ in Panama City.
Skynryd was everything to me in 1975. Me and my best friend's favorite band by a mile. It was a sad day when the plane went down.
ReplyDeleteI keep hearing about them touring. I'm like WTF? Are there any original members left? Rossington, Collins, Gaines, Burns, Powell, and of course Van Zant are all dead I think...
Artimus Pyle is still going though... as far as I know.
I went to see them play in Portland, ME. that summer, it was the last concert I saw before heading to boot camp. I don't remember who opened for them. As far as the best concert I've attended that would be an outdoor show in Nuremberg, Germany 1978. Live music was a big part of my younger days.
ReplyDeleteYeah, bands I liked, I went to every show I could up until I was in my thirties.
DeleteThey played at Gretna Fest this past weekend, no original players left but they still sound pretty good....
ReplyDeleteJD