Lynyrd Skynyrd

Three members and one road crew member died in an airplane crash in 1977; the band reformed in 1987 for a reunion tour with lead singer Ronnie Van Zant's younger brother Johnny as the frontman. Lynyrd Skynyrd continues to tour and record. Of its original members, only Gary Rossington remains. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 13, 2006

In the summer of 1964, teenage friends Ronnie Van Zant, Allen Collins, and Gary Rossington formed the band "The Noble Five" in Jacksonville, Florida. The band changed in 1965 to "My Backyard", when Larry Junstrom and Bob Burns joined. In 1968, the group won a local Battle of the Bands contest and the opening slot on several Southeast shows for the California-based psychedelic rock band Strawberry Alarm Clock.

In 1970, Van Zant sought a new name. "One Percent" and "The Noble Five" were each considered before the group settled on "Leonard Skinnerd", a mocking tribute to a physical-education teacher at Robert E. Lee High School, Leonard Skinner, who was notorious for strictly enforcing the school's policy against boys having long hair. The more distinctive spelling was adopted before they released their first album.

In 1972 the band was discovered by musician, songwriter, and producer Al Kooper of Blood, Sweat, and Tears, who had attended one of their shows at a club in Atlanta, GA. They changed the spelling of their name to "Lynyrd Skynyrd", and Kooper signed them to his Sounds of the South label that was to be distributed and supported by MCA Records, producing their first album (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd).

In January 1976, backup singers Leslie Hawkins, Cassie Gaines and JoJo Billingsley (collectively known as The Honkettes) were added to the band, although they were not considered official members. Lynyrd Skynyrd's fourth album Gimme Back My Bullets was released in the new year.

Both Collins and Rossington had serious car accidents over Labor Day weekend in 1976 which slowed the recording of the follow-up album and forced the band to cancel some concert dates. Rossington's accident inspired the ominous "That Smell" – a cautionary tale about drug abuse that was clearly aimed towards him and at least one other band member. Rossington has admitted repeatedly that he was the "Prince Charming" of the song who crashed his car into an oak tree while drunk and stoned on Quaaludes. Van Zant, at least, was making a serious attempt to clean up his act and curtail the cycle of boozed-up brawling that was part of Skynyrd's reputation.

1977's Street Survivors turned out to be a showcase for guitarist/vocalist Steve Gaines, who had joined the band just a year earlier and was making his studio debut with them. Publicly and privately, Ronnie Van Zant marveled at the multiple talents of Skynyrd's newest member, claiming that the band would "all be in his shadow one day."

Plane crash (1977)
In October 20, 1977, just three days after the release of Street Survivors, and five shows into their most successful headlining tour to date, Lynyrd Skynyrd's chartered Convair CV-300 ran out of fuel near the end of their flight from Greenville, South Carolina, where they had just performed at the Greenville Memorial Auditorium, to LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Though the pilots attempted an emergency landing on a small airstrip, the plane crashed in a forest in Gillsburg, Mississippi. Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray were killed on impact; the other band members suffered serious injuries.

Following the crash and the ensuing press, Street Survivors became the band's second platinum album and reached #5 on the U.S. album chart. The single "What's Your Name" reached #13 on the single airplay charts in January 1978. The original cover sleeve for Street Survivors had featured a photograph of the band, particularly Steve Gaines, engulfed in flames. Out of respect for the deceased (and at the request of Teresa Gaines, Steve's widow), MCA Records withdrew the original cover and replaced it with a similar image of the band against a simple black background Thirty years later, for the deluxe CD version of Street Survivors, the original "flames" cover was restored.

Lynyrd Skynyrd disbanded after the tragedy, reuniting just once to perform an instrumental version of "Free Bird" at Charlie Daniels' Volunteer Jam V in January 1979. Collins, Rossington, Powell and Pyle performed the song with Charlie Daniels and members of his band. Leon Wilkeson, who was still undergoing physical therapy for his badly broken left arm, was in attendance, along with Judy Van Zant, Teresa Gaines, JoJo Billingsley and Leslie Hawkins.

Return (1987–present)
In 1987, Lynyrd Skynyrd reunited for a full-scale tour with five major members of the pre-crash band: crash survivors Gary Rossington, Billy Powell, Leon Wilkeson and Artimus Pyle, along with guitarist Ed King, who had left the band two years before the crash. Ronnie Van Zant's younger brother, Johnny, took over as the new lead singer and primary songwriter. Due to Collins' paralysis from the 1986 car accident, he was only able to participate as the musical director, choosing Randall Hall, his former bandmate in the Allen Collins Band, as his stand-in. As part of his plea deal, Collins would be wheeled out onstage each night to explain to the audience why he could no longer perform (usually before the performance of "That Smell", which had been partially directed at him). Collins was stricken with pneumonia in 1989 and died on January 23, 1990.


The fact that the band chose to continue after the 1987 tribute tour caused legal problems for the survivors, as Judy Van Zant Jenness and Teresa Gaines Rapp (widows of Ronnie and Steve, respectively) sued the others for violating an agreement made shortly after the plane crash, stating that they would not "exploit" the Skynyrd name for profit. As part of the settlement, Jenness and Rapp collect nearly 30% of the band's touring revenues (representing the shares their husbands would have earned had they lived), and hold a proviso which forces any band touring as "Lynyrd Skynyrd" to include at least two from the pre-crash era.

The reconstituted Lynyrd Skynyrd has gone through a large number of lineup changes and continues to record and tour today. One by one, the members of the pre-crash band have left, been forced out, or have died. Artimus Pyle left the band in 1991 and his place has been taken by a variety of drummers since, with Michael Cartellone finally becoming his permanent replacement. Randall Hall was replaced by Mike Estes in 1993.

On January 28, 2009, keyboardist Billy Powell died at age 56 at his home near Jacksonville, Florida. Powell called 911 at 12:55 a.m., complaining of shortness of breath. He had previously missed his doctor's appointment on the day before his death; the appointment was for a checkup on his heart.

The EMS responders found Powell unconscious and unresponsive, with the telephone still in his hand. Rescue crews performed CPR, but he was pronounced dead at 1:52 a.m. Although a heart attack was suspected, and it was originally reported that an autopsy was to be performed, none in fact was ever done. Powell's death left Gary Rossington as the sole pre-crash member of the band, unless Rickey Medlocke's brief stint with the band in the early 1970s is counted.

Present Day
On March 17, 2009, it was announced that Skynyrd had signed a worldwide deal with Roadrunner Records, in association with their label, Loud & Proud Records, and released their new album God & Guns on September 29 of that year. They toured Europe and the United States in 2009 with Peter Keys of the 420 Funk Mob on keyboards and Robert Kearns of The Bottle Rockets on bass (in place of Ean Evans, who died of cancer at age 48 on May 6, 2009, at his home in Columbus, Mississippi).Scottish rock band Gun performed as special guests for the UK leg of Skynyrd's tour in 2010.

In addition to the tour, Skynyrd appeared at the Sean Hannity Freedom Concert series in late 2010. Hannity had been actively promoting the God & Guns album, frequently playing portions of the track "That Ain't My America" on his radio show. The band will continue to tour throughout 2011, in a tour known as "Rebels and Bandoleros" playing alongside ZZ Top and The Doobie Brothers. Currently the band is active, and continues to do shows.

The Lovin' Spoonful

The Lovin' Spoonful
An American pop rock band of the 1960s, named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. When asked about his band, leader John Sebastian said it sounded like a combination of "Mississippi John Hurt and Chuck Berry," prompting his friend, Fritz Richmond, to suggest the name "Lovin' Spoonful" from a line in Hurt's song, "Coffee Blues".

Formed:

1965 (New York, NY)

Genres:

Pop, Folk-pop, Pop-rock, Folk, Country

Members:

John Sebastian (b. Match 17, 1944, Greenwich Village, New York, NY): lead vocals, guitar, autoharp
Zalman "Zal" Yanovsky (b. December 19, 1944, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; d. December 13, 2002, Kingston, Ontario, Canada): guitar
Steve Boone (b. September 23, 1943, Camp Lejeune, NC): bass
Joe Butler (b. Joseph Campbell Butler, January 9, 1943, Long Island, New York, NY): drums

Contributions to music:

• Instrumental in popularizing "folk-rock" music
• Helped provide an American response to the "British Invasion" of the Sixties
• Brought a jug-band sense of instrumentation and arangement into the folk-rock genre
• Leader John Sebastian is considered one of the era's most accomplished and uniquely individual songwriters
• One of the first rock acts to revisit straight country music
• The first rock band to record on a 16-track console
• One of the first rock bands to perform on college campuses

Early years:

The Lovin' Spoonful had its genesis in the Greenwich Village folk scene of the early Sixties; indeed, leader John Sebastian had already played with several of the genre's leading lights before he and Zal Yanovsky met in 1964. Mutual friend Cass Elliot -- later of the Mamas and Papas -- invited both to her house to watch the Beatles' historic first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, and the two decided to form a rock band on the spot. By 1965, the Spoonful were a fulltime endeavor.

Success:

After landing a steady gig at New York's Night Owl cafe, the Spoonful were signed to the fledgling Kama Sutra label in 1965, scoring an immediate hit with "Do You Believe In Magic?" It epitomized the openhearted Spoonful style, specifically the songwriting of Sebastian; more influenced by jug-band and blues music than pure folk, the group epitomized the radio-friendly face of folk-rock. (The exception was their biggest hit, the uncharacteristically gritty and urban "Summer In The City.")

Later years:

In 1967, Yanovsky was busted for marijuana, however, and when he gave up the name of his dealer, his name became mud in the counterculture, forcing him to leave the group. Not sure what to do with psychedelia and the acid-rock of the late '60s, the group disbanded a few years later. Sebastian played Woodstock and enjoyed a somewhat successful solo career, scoring a #1 hit with the theme to the television show Welcome Back, Kotter (titled simply "Welcome Back"). Zal died of heart disease in 2002.

Other facts:

• Also included Jerry Yester (b. November 24, 1939, Birmingham, AL): guitar (1967-1968)
• An early performance of the Spoonful inspired future members of the Grateful Dead to "go electric"
• Wrote and performed the soundtracks for Woody Allen's What's Up, Tiger Lily? and Francis Ford Coppola's You're a Big Boy Now
• The band's name is taken from the lyrics to Mississippi John Hurt's "Coffee Blues"; supposedly a reference to the amount of ejaculate produced by one male orgasm

Awards/Honors:

• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2000)
• GRAMMY Hall of Fame (1999, 2002)

Recorded work:

#1 hits:
Pop:

• "Summer In The City" (1966)

Top 10 hits:
Pop:

• "Do You Believe In Magic?" (1965)
• "Daydream" (1966)
• "Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind?" (1966)
• "Rain On The Roof" (1966)
• "You Didn't Have To Be So Nice" (1966)
• "Nashville Cats" (1967)

Top 10 albums:
Pop:

• Daydream (1966)
• The Best Of The Lovin' Spoonful (1967)

Other important recordings: "On The Road Again," "Didn't Want To Have To Do It," "Jug Band Music," "Pow!" "Lovin' You," "Darlin' Companion," "Coconut Grove," "Full Measure," "Darling Be Home Soon," "Lonely (Amy's Theme)," "You're A Big Boy Now," "Younger Girl," "She Is Still A Mystery," "Six O'Clock," "Money," "Younger Generation," "Never Going Back"

Appears on: "They're On The Outside", Sonny and Cher

Covered by: David Lee Roth, Joe Cocker, Slade, Bobby Darin, Joe Jackson, Butthole Surfers, The Beau Brummels, Tim Curry, David Cassidy, Right Said Fred

Appears in the movies: "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" (1966), "One Trick Pony" (1980)

Paul Revere and The Raiders

Paul Revere & the Raiders
An American rock band that saw considerable U.S. mainstream success
in the second half of the 1960s and early 1970s with hits such as "Kicks"

Formed:

1960 (Portland, OR)

Genres:

Rock and Roll, Garage Rock, Pop-Rock, Psychedelia

Original Members:

Paul Revere (b. Paul Revere Dick, January 7, 1938, Harvard, NE): organ
Mark Lindsay (b. March 9, 1942, Eugene, OR): lead vocals
Drake Levin (b. Drake Maxwell Levinshefski, August 17, 1946, Chicago, IL): lead guitar
Phil "Fang" Volk (b. October 25, 1945, Nampa, ID): bass guitar
Mike "Smitty" Smith" (b. Michael LeRoy Smith, March 27, 1942, Beaverton, OR; d. March 5th, 2001, Kona, HI): drums

Contributions to music:

• Instrumental in helping popularize the Pacific Northwest garage rock scene of the mid-Sixties
• With their Revolutionary War outfits, styled as America's answer to the British Invasion
• The most consistently popular garage-rock band of the decade
• Notable for a hilarious and convoluted stage show unlike anything else at the time
• A major influence on mod British bands of the era and their later punk brethren
• The first rock band to be given a weekly gig as a "house band" on a major television series (Dick Clark's Where The Action Is, 1965-1967 and also Happening '68, both on ABC)

Early years:

Although a big fan of both Spike Jones and Jerry Lee Lewis, the young Paul Dick was a 19-year-old who made most of his money with the barber shop and drive-in he owned in his hometown of Caldwell, Idaho. (Yes, owned; the young Dick was also a master barber!) He'd formed an instrumental rock band called the Downbeats in order to promote the restaurant; while gigging one night, a 16-year-old saxophonist named Mark Lindsay asked to sing on stage with them, and the two founding fathers of the Raiders struck up a fast friendship. By the early Sixties the newly-rechristened band had scored a few hits in Boise.

Success:

In 1961, the group -- still instrumentalists, primarily -- finally struck gold with "Like, Long Hair," a novelty which melded classical and boogie-woogie in the style of B. Bumble and the Stingers' "Nut Rocker." Revere's draft notice soon put an end to that success, but after serving his two-year stint, he and Lindsay reconvened in Portland, Oregon, taking the band in a new direction by covering an old Richard Perry R&B hit called "Louie, Louie." They attracted so much attention in their new garage-rock guise that Columbia soon signed them; they soon became the pre-eminent American rock band of the era (1965-1967).

Later years:

Using the name, Lindsay scored what was essentially a solo hit in 1971 with the massive smash "Indian Reservation," but the Raiders' brand of goodtime garage had faded by the early Seventies, although the group continued to hone its stage act and tour the oldies circuit. Lindsay -- who'd scored a solo hit for real in 1971 with "Arizona" -- left for his own career in 1975. Revere continues to tour with an updated version of the Raiders to this day, and still dabbles in the restaurant business; original drummer Mike Smith died in 2001.

Other facts:

• Other Raiders members have included: Jim "Harpo" Valley (guitar, 1966-1967), Charlie Coe (bass, guitar, 1963, 1967-1968), Freddy Weller (guitar), Joe Correrro (drums), Keith Allison (bass)
• Paul found Mark the day after his first stage appearance, working in a bakery Revere was picking up hamburger buns from
• Leon Russell played piano in an early version of the Raiders
• Revere was a Conscientious Objector during his Army stint, due to his Mennonite upbringing
• Recorded "Louie Louie" at the same studio the Kingsmen cut their hit version, at around the same time
• Producer Terry Melcher was a member of the Rip Chords

Awards/Honors:

• Oregon Music Hall of Fame (2007)

Recorded work:

#1 hits:
Pop:

• "Indian Reservation (The Lament Of The Cherokee Reservation Indian)" (1971)

Top 10 hits:
Pop:

• "Hungry" (1966)
• "Kicks" (1966)
• "Good Thing" (1967)
• "Him Or Me - What's It Gonna Be?" (1967)

Top 10 albums:
Pop:

• Just Like Us! (1966)
• Midnight Ride (1966)
• Greatest Hits (1967)
• Revolution! (1967)
• A Christmas Present...And Past (1967)
• The Spirit Of '67 (1967)

Other popular recordings: "Like, Long Hair," "Steppin' Out," "Just Like Me," "The Great Airplane Strike," "I Had A Dream," "Ups And Downs," "Don't Take It So Hard," "Too Much Talk," "Let Me!" "Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon," "Birds Of A Feather," "Louie, Louie," "Louie, Go Home," "Action," "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone," "Ballad Of A Useless Man," "Why? Why? Why? (Is It So Hard)," "Louise," "Mo'reen," "Gone - Movin' On," "Tighter," "Peace Of Mind," "Too Much Talk," "Cinderella Sunshine," "Just Seventeen," "Country Wine," "Powder Blue Mercedes Queen"

Covered by: The Who, Pat Benatar, John Cougar Mellencamp, The Monkees, The Flamin' Groovies, Sammy Hagar, Leif Garrett, The Nazz, Del Shannon

Appears in the movies: Paul Revere: "Operation Thanksgiving" (2005)