Album Review #85: Street Survivors (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
LYNYRD SKYNYRD
STREET SURVIVORS
1977-MCA
Produced By TOM DOWD, JIMMY JOHNSON & TIM SMITH
- What's Your Name
- That Smell
- One More Time
- I Know A Little
- You Got That Right
- I Never Dreamed
- Honky Tonk Night Time Man
- Ain't No Good Life
The 5th album by Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the last before the plane crash. The band was moving into a new direction with the addition of new guitarist Steve Gaines. The album starts with the 2 big hits, "What's Your Name" and "That Smell". "One More Time" was recorded previously before Gaines joined...but after that, it's Gaines' album. All of the remaining tracks were written by Gaines except for the Merle Haggard cover "Honky Tonk Night Time Man", with Gaines sharing the lead vocal with Ronnie Van Zant on "You Got That Right". He also sings lead on the last song, "Ain't No Good Life", the only pre crash song to not have a Van Zant vocal on it. The band loved Gaines, and Van Zant said that they'd all be in his shadow one day. Bottom line...this is a great album. Great songs, great guitars.
The original album cover with the flames has been restored after many years. Later versions have bonus tracks, including "Jacksonville Kid", Van Zant's last vocal recording. Skynyrd has endured many tragedies over the years, and continues to play with only one remaining original member (Guitarist Gary Rossington). It would have been interesting to see where they would have gone from Street Survivors, but we'll never know.
This is album #85 in an ongoing series.
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