Over a dozen years, Lynyrd Skynyrd evolved from a high school band in Jacksonville, Florida to the top dogs of Southern rock. By 1977, they’d released four studio albums, including the multiplatinum Second Helping and Nuthin’ Fancy, and the live classic One More from the Road, which made their epic rendition of “Freebird” an FM radio staple and eventual rock-culture punchline.
Enjoying more chart success than the Allman Brothers, with the Top 40 hits “Sweet Home Alabama,” “Saturday Night Special,” and “Freebird,” Lynyrd Skynyrd even scored twice with the latter: as a studio track in ’73, and as the famed ’76 in-concert performance.
But on October 20, 1977, it all came literally crashing down. On a flight from Greenville, South Carolina, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the band’s chartered Convair 240 aircraft began having troubles. Pilots attempted an emergency landing, but the plane fell short of the airstrip, into a forest in McComb, Mississippi. Frontman and songwriter Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, singer Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, and the pilots were killed. Guitarists Allen Collins, Gary Rossington, drummer Artimus Pyle, and bassist Leon Wilkeson survived the crash. National Transportation Safety Board inspectors concluded the plane had run out of fuel due to a combination of mechanical failure and crew neglect.
The tragedy destroyed the original group at their artistic pinnacle. Just three days before the crash Lynyrd Skynyrd released Street Survivors, their creative masterpiece and a testament to the sonic authority of Les Pauls, SGs, Firebirds, and Explorers mated with cranked-up, high-gain amps. The departure of six-stringer Ed King in 1975 and the addition of Steve Gaines, Cassie’s brother, the next year made the group’s unique triple guitar instrumental frontline all Gibson men.
Co-founder Rossington employed both SGs and Les Pauls for his lead and rhythm playing and put his Goldtop Les Paul to good use for the slide lines of “Freebird.” He was also the inspiration for one of the band’s most powerful essays in classic, fluid Gibson tone: Street Survivors’ “That Smell.” Collins wrote the cautionary tale of drug and alcohol abuse with Van Zant after Rossington was injured in a car wreck while under the influence. It starts with the bark of Collins’ Natural-finished Korina Explorer, a replacement for the Firebird he used earlier in Skynyrd. From there, he and Rossington twine their fat, elegant rhythm and lead lines, at their most evocative creating storm clouds of smoky feedback and squealing overtones.
Shortly before the plane crash, Collins also began using a Les Paul Junior on stage, but for Street Survivors, it was the blend of Rossington’s and Gaines’ Les Pauls and Collins’ Explorer that gave the album its distinctive low-end six-string honk.
Gaines came to the fore by penning the hit “I Know a Little” and co-writing “You Got That Right” with Van Zant, then leading the songs through their muscular, quick-picked unison passages and solos. Rossington and Van Zant wrote the album’s most popular tune “What’s Your Name” and the sad, soulful ballad “One More Time.” The former is all riff; the latter displays the group’s sweetest, most finessed guitar architecture.
Careful arrangements and impeccable guitar tones make Street Survivors still sound spectacular. Although Lynyrd Skynyrd were notorious for long jams on stage and in the studio, the album’s eight songs are immaculately tailored. At 5:48, the longest number, “That Smell,” is a mini-epic, especially compared to “Freebird,” and half the songs clock in at less than four minutes—all without sacrificing the graceful, powerful guitar solos that were a cornerstone of the band. The six-strings are carefully textured for maximum nuance and punch on Street Survivors, and there’s plenty of space for Billy Powell’s keyboards and Van Zant’s most sophisticated vocal performances.
Street Survivors sold more than two million copies in the wake of the tragic plane crash. After the first pressing, the album’s original cover—a doctored photo of the group standing in flames—was replaced by a picture of the band before a black background. The original was reinstated for the 2001 CD reissue.
A new version of Lynyrd Skynyrd emerged in 1987, drafting Van Zant’s younger brother Johnnie as frontman. Collins, however, could not participate due to crippling injuries from a 1986 auto crash. He died from pneumonia in 1990. Rossington and Powell continue to soldier on successfully under the Skynyrd banner as the only two original members in the line-up.