Street Survivors [Expanded Edition] [Remaster]

Performer: Lynyrd Skynyrd
Engineer: Dennis Hetzendorfer; Tad Bush; Kevin Elson; Rodney Mills; Barry Rudolph
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Lynyrd Skynyrd: Ronnie Van Zant (vocals); Steve Gaines (guitar, background vocals); Allen Collins, Gary Rossington (guitar); Billy Powell (keyboards); Leon Wilkeson (bass); Artimus Pyle (drums). Producers: Tom Dowd, Jimmy Johnson, Tim Smith. Reissue producer: Ron O'Brien. Recorded at Criteria Studios, Miami, Florida and Studio One, Doraville, Georgia. Includes liner notes by Ron O'Brien. Digitally remastered by Doug Schwartz (Mulholland Music, Hollywood, California). Producers: Tom Dowd, Jimmy Johnson, Tim Smith. Personnel: Steve Gaines (vocals, guitar); Ronnie Van Zant (vocals); Gary Rossington, Allen Collins, Ed King (guitar); Barry Lee Harwood (dobro); Billy Powell (keyboards); Rick Medlocke (drums, background vocals); Artimus Pyle (drums); Cassie Gaines, Leslie Hawkins, Jo Jo Billingsley, Tim Smith (background vocals). Audio Mixers: Kevin Elson; Rodney Mills. Liner Note Author: Ron O'Brien. Recording information: Criteria Studios, Miami, FL (??/1971-08/1977); Muscle Shoals Sound, Muscle Shoals, AL (??/1971-08/1977); Riverside Studios (??/1971-08/1977); Studio One, Doraville, GA (??/1971-08/1977). Author: Ronnie Van Zant. Photographer: David Alexander . Sadly, STREET SURVIVORS would prove to be the final Lynryd Skynyrd album of the Ronnie Van Zant-era. Only three days after this, the band's fifth studio album (sixth overall) was released in 1977, the band boarded the tragic plane flight that killed singer Ronnie Van Zant and new members guitarist Steve Gaines and background vocalist Cassie Gaines. The fact that STREET SURVIVORS was one of Skynyrd's best albums only intensified the tragedy--it appeared as though the band was peaking artistically. "What's Your Name" caught the band at its most fun and playful, the grim "That Smell" warned against the dangers of drug and alcohol addiction, and "I Know A Little" showed off its country roots. Lynyrd Skynyrd's fifth studio release should have been the band's well-deserved entr�e into the upper echelons of international rock & roll stardom. Fate would intervene and for some very non-musical reasons, Lynyrd Skynyrd's best-selling release also became the band's final studio recording. In addition to the thoroughly remastered album, this expanded edition adds several alternate versions of tracks from the disc, as well as a few songs left over from the Street Survivors sessions. The success of "What's Your Name" as well as "That Smell" and "You Got That Right" was practically guaranteed by the incessant support of FM rock radio. A closer examination reveals that Street Survivors actually bears very little in the way of filler material, considering the cut-and-paste methodology used to complete the disc. In fact, one of the most underappreciated pieces on Street Survivors dates back to before the band's debut album. "One More Time" was originally recorded during a 1971 session at Muscle Shoals studios and can be heard -- sans the 1977 augmentation -- on Skynyrd's First: Complete Muscle Shoals Album. Likewise, "I Know a Little" is a track that Steve Gaines (guitar/vocals) brought to the fold from his pre- Skynyrd days. The song's high-energy rhythm and good-time country flavor made it almost obligatory incidental music during the '80s NASCAR sports simulcasts. Although a majority of the bonus tracks were issued on subsequent compilations, here they are given both historical perspective as well as presented in a way that highlights the improvements and directions that the band was attempting to steer the music into. On October 20, 1977, three days after the release of Street Survivors, Ronnie Van Zant (vocals) and Steve Gaines (guitar) were killed when the chartered aircraft the band was using ran out of fuel near Gillsburg, MS. Indeed, the band's surviving members would re-form in several spurious attempts to reclaim and/or honor the music and heritage of Lynyrd Skynyrd. However, it is difficult to argue that the band's effect would ever be as powerful or as direct than on this release. ~ Lindsay Planer

Rolling Stone (p.60) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[B]est of all is the group's raucously virtuosic take on Merle Haggard's 'Honky Tonk Night Time Man,' which overflows with gorgeous country riffs that sound like pure chicken-fried joy." Q (May 2002, p.132) - 4 out of 5 stars - "...[Skynyrd at] their stadium-filling peak....STREET SURVIVOR suggested something of a renaissance....it wasn't to last..." Uncut (p.97) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[The album] sounds as fabulously feral as ever, in particular the deadpan odes to excess, 'What's Your Name?' and 'You Got That Right'." Mojo (Publisher) (p.121) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he music here -- quintessentially Southern rock'n'roll -- carries a life-affirming spirit, typified by the honky-tonk groupie anthem 'What's Your Name' and the sweetly soulful 'I Never Dreamed'..." Blender (Magazine) (p.80) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Skynyrd stayed closer to the common dirt of the everyday, rooting their music in blues, soul and outlaw country and composing every note of their three guitarists' solos with blue-collar labor." Paste (magazine) (p.73) - "STREET SURVIVORS exhibited a renewed vigor and updated edge....SURVIVORS careens from the Celtic vibe of 'One More Time' to the raw, Bakersfield boogie of Merle Haggard's 'Honky Tonk Night Time Man'..." Record Collector (magazine) (p.94) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "If you like your Southern rock with honking brass and plenty of bottle then the last hurrah of the Ronnie Van Zant-led line-up of Alabama's finest is just the ticket."

During their 1970s heyday, Lynryd Skynyrd emerged as the preeminent practitioners of Southern rock. Their triple-guitar attack and country-tinged songs carved a permanent spot on the playlists of classic rock radio. Since its first release in 1973 their epic hit "Freebird" has received more airplay than anything this side of "Stairway to Heaven." The tragic deaths of visionary lead guitarist Steven Gaines and lead vocalist Ronnie Van Zandt in a 1977 plane crash cut down the band at its peak; but after parting ways for several years, the surviving members re-formed the group, with Van Zandt's little brother Johnny at the helm.

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