Gary Rossington, Lynyrd Skynyrd's Last Original Member, Dead at 71
Gary Rossington, Lynyrd Skynyrd's last original member, has died at age 71.
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OT: Gary Rossington dead
- Thread starter Tango Two
- Start date
RIP Gary. Skynyrd had a lot of good songs.
I don't believe they ever wrote a bad song. They should always be in the conversation for best American rock band ever.
RIP Gary.
The last surviving member of that star crossed band. Very good guitar player along with Allan Collins and Ed King. The last guitar player who was added to replace King, Steve Gaines was probably their best player. Gaines was killed in the 1977 plane crash. RIP.
Top American R&R*:
Aerosmith
VanHalen
Springsteen
Tom Petty
Pearl Jam
The Cars
Lynyrd Skynyrd
*imho
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I've always felt like Metallica is a popular sentiment but not really my cup of tea. But yeah, they're solid and deserve a mention.
First two songs released off the new album are solid.
But this is a thing- name an artist whose current ouput (last 3-5 albums) holds up to anything close to their peak popularity.
Can't think of one.
Other than their well-known power rock hits like Sweet Child of Mine, Paradise City and Welcome to the Jungle I'm not a big fan, but I will say those 3 songs are freakin' great. Axl's voice gets a bit screechy to me, but Slash is super.
I have a very vague familiarity with his work and have wanted to catch him live for some time.
Did not realize he was part of Black Country Communion with Glen Hughes.
Metallica diehards will argue it was really the black album, but I can accept it. The load and reload era is when it all started going downhill
Then Lars went after Napster and it all got weird and they really stopped being so cool and I stopped caring
Slash in person is like watching Picasso paint. I'm mesmerized, my fingers simply cannot do that. He and the other rock God guitarists are like aliens from another world
Funny, I walked into my instructor's house this morning and he said, "Today we're going to do 'Sweet Child of Mine'." The point of the lesson was to show the relationship between the riff and its chord progression (D / Cadd9 / G).
There are many very good/great American rock bands and some often are overlooked when some of those “greatest ever bands” lists are done. For me in no particular order:
Jimi Hendrix Experience (Hendrix was American)
Steely Dan
The Doors
Creedence Clearwater Revival
The Eagles
The Allman Bros Band
Bruce Springsteen/ E Street Band
Santana
Little Feat
Tom Petty / Heartbreakers
Grateful Dead
Journey
Bob Seger/ Silver Bullet Band
The Black Crowes
Crosby, Stills & Nash
Stevie Ray Vaughan / Double Trouble
Some more recent bands:
The Black Keys
Tedeschi Trucks Band
Black Pumas
Lars aside, the black album was the beginning of downward spiral despite it's mega popularity. I liken it to Springsteen's Born in the USA, although Tunnel of Love was a really solid effort, so not quite parallel. I thought Hardwired was a pretty solid album, but they will never match any of the first 4 albums. While opinions will vary, IMO, not a single weak song on the first 4.
Born in the USA sucked.
I've been a Bruce fan since "Born to Run" was my first album purchase on the day of release. But I stop at "The River" and consider "Darkness" to be his finest work.
Agree on Darkness. There was talk on the Springsteen boards for years that he had another Darkness album that would come out. His most solid efforts post Tunnel of Love are The Rising and Letter to You. That soul cover album that just came out will never make my downloads or playlist.
I was going to mention The Band but 3 of the 4 members were Canadian . However, they were based out of Woodstock NY, so I guess they were American.. I didn’t mention The Doobie Brothers who I meant to include..
Dobbie’s were good, so was Leslie West and Mountain.
Chicago?
Blood Sweat and Tears?
ZZ Top
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The Doors
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Cheap Trick
Heart
Grateful Dead
The Allman Brothers Band
Steely Dan
Sly and the Family Stone
R.E.M.
Talking Heads
Beach Boys
What about Grand Funk Railroad- I mean they wrote the song "We're an American Band" Grand Funk has had 19 charted singles, 8 Top 40 hits and two Number One singles (We're An American Band and Locomotion, both selling more than one million each). The group has now accumulated 13 gold and 10 platinum records with record sales exceeding 25 million copies sold worldwide.
Lynyrd Skynyrd is one of my favorite bands of all time. That original group was so original, unique and incredible. Sad day.
L
i liked some of Grand Funk’s music. Not a huge fan of that particular tune but “I’m Your Captain/Closer To Home” is actually one of my favorite rock songs. It really became an anti Vietnam War anthem and I always liked the vibe and metaphorical aspects of the song. It was very much reflective of 1970 and that era.
I was surprised Creedence was not listed. Beach Boys are on another list, but I never got them, but they should be on the list Another underappreciated and overlooked American band is Kansas. They are labeled as progressive rock by some, but their integration of violin, organ and guitar driven work was unique, IMO.
