Page 14 - aruba-today-20230309

A14 PEOPLE & ARTS
Thursday 9 March 2023
Skynyrd member’s death signals end of era for Southern rock

By BEN FINLEY audiences ... it all becomes
Associated Press sort of like a certain kind of
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Southern music.”
Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist He added: “Certain imag-
Gary Rossington, who died es, certain sounds, certain
Sunday, made it big when ideas were set in place.
rock ‘n’ roll was still a de- And it’s easier to keep play-
fining cultural force on par ing to that stuff, because
with today’s TikTok trends that’s where the audience
and superhero movies. is.”
The iconic band’s last sur- The still touring Lynyrd Sky-
viving co-founder was also nyrd regularly used the
perhaps the last flagpole Confederate battle flag
in a once-powerful part of in their live shows for de-
American music: Southern cades. Rossington told
rock. Or at least a rebellious CNN in 2012 that the band
version of it that later be- would stop using the flag
came loosely tied to con- because of its association
servative politics and didn’t with hate groups, but then
shy away from some of the walked back the comment
problematic symbols of the to say they would contin-
South. ue to use it, alongside the
“They’re the band that sort state flag of Alabama and
of codified a lot of what we The band Lynyrd Skynyrd, from left, Gary Rossington, Billy Powell, Artimus Pyle, Ed King and Bob the American flag.
think of as Southern rock,” Burns appear backstage after being inducted at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York on These days, musicians who
said Stephen Thomas Er- March 13, 2006. Associated Press could be seen as honor-
lewine, a music critic who ing the cultural and musi-
writes for AllMusic, Pitchfork that praised Florida Gov. The Georgia-based Allman guns. cal ideas of 1970s Southern
and Rolling Stone. Ron DeSantis, a potential Brothers Band hated the “There was definitely a re- rock and building upon
Lynyrd Skynyrd sang about Republican presidential term, Paul said, because actionary conservatism in them tend to be more pro-
Southern life while playing a candidate in 2024. Erlew- it was too reductive. But parts of Skynyrd, but they gressive politically, Erlewine
form of muscular and gritty ine said the band’s sound Lynyrd Skynyrd embraced could not be seen strictly said. They include Jason

blues rock. The music could and that of Southern rock the Southern rock label “to in terms of what you would Isbell and groups such as
be raw or bloom into an ex- in general eventually be- the point of making people think of as conservative the Tedeschi Trucks Band
tended guitar solo, like on came “a sort of Red State, uncomfortable,” Paul said. politics,” Erlewine said of and the Drive-By Truckers
their anthem “Free Bird.” old-fashioned rock.” The Florida band’s per- their first incarnation. who’ve also sung about life
But the Lynyrd Skynyrd of The original members of vasive “Sweet Home Ala- A 1977 plane crash killed in the South.
2023 bears little resem- Lynyrd Skynyrd, which re- bama” was a response to Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist The Truckers’ 2001 album
blance to the one of nearly leased its first album in Neil Young’s “Alabama” Steve Gaines and back- “Southern Rock Opera”
50 years prior, when the 1973, had an intense mu- and “Southern Man,” ing vocalist Cassie Gaines examined misconceptions
original incarnation fea- sical chemistry and were which rebuked slavery in and injured Rossington. about the South, Lynyrd
tured a group of long- harder and grittier than the South. The song name- The band reformed a de- Skynyrd’s legend and Wal-
haired musicians who fit other groups lumped under checks Young and oblique- cade later with Johnny lace’s legacy, among oth-
into the American counter- the Southern rock banner, ly references Alabama Van Zant taking his older er things.
culture and were certainly such as The Allman Broth- Gov. George Wallace, a brother’s role. Rossington “I was a (Skynyrd) fan in
not embraced by Nixon- ers Band and The Marshall staunch segregationist who was among the returning elementary school, which
era Republicans, Erlewine Tucker Band. later softened his views. members and, as the line- is when they were actu-
said. They came to have three The band’s original lead up continued to change, ally making records,” the
The band’s use of the Con- guitarists, whose layers singer and songwriter, Ron- would remain. band’s Patterson Hood
federate flag back then produced a thick, brawny nie Van Zant, claimed the It was this reconstituted ver- told The Associated Press
was seen as “part of their sound that could become reference wasn’t support- sion of Lynyrd Skynyrd that in 2002, saying he rediscov-
rebellious streak,” Erlewine “a locomotive for solos,” Er- ing Wallace. seemed to really embrace ered a love for their music
said. They didn’t really view lewine said. “A lot of people believed a more conservative im- after buying a vinyl copy
the battle flag “as insurrec- But the label “Southern in segregation and all that. age, Erlewine and Paul of the pre-crash double
tionist or pro-slavery, but rock” was nebulous at best, We didn’t. We put the ‘boo, each said. live set “One More for the
more as garden variety re- said Alan Paul, a music boo, boo’ there saying, In the 1990s, the group’s Road” years later.
bellion,” he said. journalist who interviewed ‘We don’t like Wallace,’” audiences began to over- “After the crash, I didn’t
In more recent decades, Rossington several times Rossington concurred, in a lap with those of Hank Wil- really care for the other
though, the band came to for Guitar World and for his documentary interview. liams Jr. and Charlie Dan- Southern rock being made
represent a more specific upcoming book, “Broth- But Paul said he doesn’t re- iels, a Southern rock pio- at that time,” Hood said. “A
brand of politics, especially ers and Sisters: The Allman ally believe that “I don’t neer whose sound became lot of Southern rock took a
after the distinctions be- Brothers Band and the In- think most people do.” Paul more country. right-wing direction after
tween Southern rock and side Story of the Album That cites a memoir written by “A lot of the sounds that the plane crash.”
country blurred and their Defined the ‘70s.” the band’s original manag- were progressive in the ‘70s In the span of half a centu-
audiences mixed. The most accurate way to er, Alan Walden, who said and rock-based became ry, Lynyrd Skynyrd morphed
Some of the band’s cur- describe the genre shaped Ronnie Van Zant was “a incorporated into country from playing pivotal rock
rent members have been by wide-ranging influences Wallace man all the way.” music, and became the ‘n’ roll into a near tribute
openly political. Last year, “would be rock bands who And yet Erlewine also points sound of country music,” band to itself. They were re-

current lead vocalist John- sounded distinctly Southern out that Van Zant wrote a Erlewine said. “Lynyrd Sky- bellious longhairs who be-
ny Van Zant penned a they didn’t hide anything 1975 song, “Saturday Night nyrd doesn’t really play came entrenched in a cul-
song with his brother Don- about their Southernness,” Special,” that subtly ques- country music but there’s ture aligned with the con-
nie apart from the band Paul said. tioned the uses of hand- an overlap between the servative establishment.q