It’s Turntable Tuesday because life is too short not to listen to great music! Turn that TV off! Has the snow and ice got you down? Crank up the heat, throw a log on the fire and twist the volume knob up on some great music!
The cover of the Turntable Tuesday subject for the week on one of the piano stools in my studio. This 1977 release was unopened until today and was a recent gift from my music brother Jeff Boehlert. Scroll on down to check out the vintage items included in this time capsule from 1977! I’ll will talk in more detail about these items from the interior of the album on the companion podcast this week. Note the flames on the cover. Many versions of this album had the flames removed after the plane crash which happened three days after the release of this album.
If you would like to listen to my companion podcast you can listen here or subscribe for free on any of the streaming services you use. My podcast is easily searchable on any streaming service where you get your podcasts by searching “Andrew Talbert.” Look for the World Wide Music Media logo.
On Thursday, October 20, 1977 I remember where I was standing when I heard the word that the plane carrying the Lynyrd Skynyrd band had crashed. I was on the campus of East Central Community College in Decatur, Mississippi standing in a parking lot after dark when the news came over a Pioneer Supertuner FM radio in my car from WZZQ Jackson.
This is a photo of a KP-500 Pioneer FM Supertuner exactly like the one I had self-mounted under the dash of my 1968 Ford Mustang in 1977. Note the screws on the side of the exterior case. This unit fastened to a metal bracket that was similar to citizen band radios that were popular at the time. In the late 1970’s most everyone used 6 x 9 inch speakers in the rear deck and over time the better systems used co-axial or tri-axial speakers. I had the co-axial variants attached to this radio.
The report I heard that night mentioned McComb, Mississippi which is nearby and a place where I had spent weekends visiting my parent’s friends. In fact my first home stereo amplifier came from McComb on one of those visits and yes I still have that amp in my attic. The plane had crashed in Gillsburg, Mississippi which was only 170 miles from where I was in my first of many years of college and barely 60 miles from what could have been a safe landing had the plane had enough fuel to make it to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It also did not help that the pilot of the chartered flight had recently quit and the former co-pilot was now flying the plane. The co-pilot was the former engineer of the plane. I was in disbelief that night as I was a huge fan of this band having discovered their music even before they took off as a successful band. You can watch the eyewitness vintage 1977 footage of the crash on this You Tube link if you are interested. There is also a new movie about this crash that has recently released although survivors of the crash say the movie is full of fiction so I will not likely watch it. The link below is blurry footage from 1977.
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s fifth and final studio album as a band consisting of the original players called “Street Survivors” had just released three days earlier on October 17th. I was never able to see them take a live stage as a band but I had all the music and I listened to every song on my cassettes recorded from my vinyl albums constantly in my car on my travels.
This is one of several pieces inside the album from 1977. You can see the tour schedule listed with Wednesday, October 19th being Greenville, South Carolina where the band boarded the plane headed to LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana which is shown as scheduled for Friday, October 21st. The plane crashed on Thursday, October 20, 1977.This album was recorded twice. The first recordings came from Criteria Studios in Miami as you can see in this insert from the album. Five months later the second recordings took place in Doraville, Georgia at Studio One. Later copies pressed in 2008 as a re-issue included alternative versions of many of these songs. There are also cd versions of these recordings that have been released in 2001 and as a special 30th anniversary cd release. More cool stuff in the album package…Skynyrd wants to hear from you in 1977. Do you have the cassette or 8 track version? The album? For the uninitiated this was a survey monkey during the dinosaur days of classic rock. Back then there were three TV networks and country cable using a rotary antenna. The internet wasn’t even a dream and a cell phone would have been something from “Star Trek.”Check out those 1977 prices! $5.00 was a lot of money back then for even a college student. I remember having a budget of $25 that year to cover weekly expenses even having a meal card to eat everyday on campus. Twenty-five cent pinball was expensive unless you could play most of the night on one coin drop which I could do. The machine was called the “Wizard” and later in life I owned a restored Bally Wizard machine until I decided to use the room space for new toys. The machine featured likenesses of Ann Margret and Roger Daltrey from the Who…It was an awesome game to play built in 1975. The band photo from the album cover. Ronnie Van Zant is in the center with his Neil Young “Tonight’s the Night” t-shirt on for this album cover. I told the story about this shirt last week on my podcast covering Neil Young’s “After the Gold Rush.” This is a small peek into the inside of the album sleeve that has black and white photos of the band on the inside of the cover. You would have to cut the album sleeve open to even see these. There is so much content and attention to detail in this album package. This band was way ahead of it’s time doing all of this marketing with an album release. Be sure to download the companion podcast this week as Andrew tells some stories from 1977 and covers the album track by track with production details included. Get the podcast anywhere you can download a podcast. Free podcasts in 2021? You bet.
There are many stories about this band and versions of the remaining band members toured as Lynyrd Skynyrd for many years performing the hits for aging fans. “Street Survivors” is full of great music and captures a top shelf band in it’s prime poised for even greater success. It is a shame to lose such talent before more amazing music could be created for millions of fans. More details will be on the podcast. Listen in! Stay safe, stay warm, and take care of your neighbor.
Until next time I’ll see you, down the road.
"On October 20, 1977 I remember where I was standing when I heard the word that the plane carrying the Lynyrd Skynyrd band had crashed."
