Southern Rock's "Day The Music Died"

I missed this and am disappointed that I did, but yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the infamous plane crash that silenced my new favorite band at the time being only 13 years old and still one these many years later at 43, Lynyrd Skynyrd.

As a lifelong guitar player I still play much of their music I was just learning at that age (a few of those songs that nearly took me this long to perfect unbelievably) quite often and have seen the offshoot and rejuvenated Skynyrd a few times although the last being about 8 years ago.

They came from Jacksonville Florida and that city still holds them as hometown hero's done well even this many years later, as their unfortunate and tragic demise at that time was a significant loss in all of Rock and Roll, but most particularly in the up and coming Southern Rock Genre that was kicking pretty well but still in it's infancy.

A crash maybe not quite as significant as the Buddy Holly,Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens crash 20 years previous to that commemorated in Don McLean's American Pie to many, but a terrible loss none the less, and again is remembered by many still.

This was was the case yesterday as every other year in Jacksonville Florida, an event that was covered by the hometown paper very well and linked to below and worth reading an remembering if you too were and are a fan of their groundbreaking music..

The plane crash that muted Southern rock:

Jacksonville.com: Metro: Story: "Thirty years ago today, a rented plane took off from Greenville, S.C., headed for Baton Rouge, La. Just before dark, just before it reached the Louisiana line, the plane ran out of fuel and sank toward the Mississippi landscape below.

It first grazed the tops of the pine trees. 'It was like the sound of a billion baseball bats beating the side of the plane.' Lynyrd Skynyrd bass player Leon Wilkeson described in an interview a decade ago."

"It was like the sound of a billion baseball bats beating the side of the plane." Lynyrd Skynyrd bass player Leon Wilkeson described in an interview a decade ago.

The plane crashed down through the trees to the ground, breaking apart as it went. In the twisted, broken pieces of that 1947 Convair lay what was left of Jacksonville's greatest musical legacy.

Though there were 26 people on the plane, only six died that evening, Oct. 20, 1977. But killed along with the two pilots were three band members and the road manager for Lynyrd Skynyrd.

The long-haired, blue-collar guys had moved from playing the bars of Jacksonville's Westside to filling arenas, taking Southern rock far from their native South. But the dream ended, at least a good chunk of it, in those piney Mississippi woods with the deaths of singer and leader Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines and his sister, backup vocalist Cassie Gaines.

Though the band would regroup a decade later, something vital had been lost. continued here

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