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The Southern/Lynyrd Skynyrd Thread


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I haven't used the words "selling out" at all but to my ears there was a very noticeable change in their sound circa Eliminator and it's one that they've pretty much adhered to ever since. Whether that was a conscious decision on their part or a natural evolution (or a combination of the two), I don't know. They've done some stuff since then that I really like (including some tunes from Eliminator, no matter how overplayed it is) but my preferences lie with the records they did up to and including El Loco. Same thing with Aerosmith except the cut off point for me would be Rocks. I liked Draw the Line and Night In the Ruts but there was clearly some sort of artistic decline taking place. Once they regrouped I liked a few songs here and there but stuff like "I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing" was the sound of a once great rock n' roll band scraping bottom. While ZZ Top never sunk to such depths I can't help but think they must have been affected somehow by their rise to popularity via MTV as well. They found a sound that sold well and they stuck with it. Every band has to make bank but I'll take "Have You Heard?" any day of the week over "Gimme All Your Lovin'" and I actually like that song. I just prefer the early material but then again, that's pretty much true of every artist I'm a fan of, it's not unique to just ZZ Top and Aerosmith.

Agreed. The few popular groups who improved from their earlier material would be Pink Floyd and the Beatles. Aerosmith definitely sunk way lower than ZZ Topp, and the shit Steven Tyler is up to on TV is embarrassing.

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To Tyler's credit he's no longer on American Idol. Surprising, given the friction that obviously created in Aerosmith, even Joe Perry came around. So much so that Aerosmith actually performed on the show. Hell, even I didn't see that coming and I strongly suspect none of them did either. Goes to show that Tyler was effectively able to juggle two very high profile careers at once. How this will parlay into their next album remains to be seen. The one song I've heard sounds like a step in the right direction but it's still a far cry from how they sounded in their prime. Then again, can any band that's been around as long as they have and have somehow managed to maintain the same line up for so long truly go home again? Both Aerosmith and ZZ Top have been threatening to do so for years but don't always succeed in hitting the mark.

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This article by A.V Club author Jason Heller is a nice enough read but I do have to take issue with a few items. The first is how he counters the bands' anti-gun stance of "Saturday Night Special" with a reference to "Gimme Back My Bullets". Any Skynyrd fan worth their salt knows that song isn't a reference to guns at all but is about "bullets" on the Billboard chart. Skynyrd have no shortage of other songs where gunplay is mentioned such as "Cheatin' Woman" where Van Zant sings, "I'm gonna shoot you and end your world" so I'm not sure why he felt "Gimme Back My Bullets" warranted a mention. I also can't agree with him that the post-crash Skynyrd "isn't bad at all" and that the title track to their new album Last of A Dyin' Breed is how Skynyrd would have sounded had the plane crash never occurred. However, I do agree with how underrated the Rossington-Collins Band is. If only they could have continued. They were still a far cry from pre-crash Skynyrd but I'll take the two albums they did together over anything the post-crash Skynyrd has done.

Every Mother's Son: Why Lynyrd Skynyrd Has Survived

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Edited by Jahfin
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Johnny Van Zant Band in concert circa 1983. I saw them just a couple of years prior to this when they were on tour with Def Leppard (who went on first) and Blackfoot (who headlined) when they played Minges Coliseum on the campus of East Carolina University in Greenville, NC.

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