![]() Many fans have certainly seen the film footage of the concert as part of the 1996 rock doc Freebird …The Movie, in which it was intercut with interviews and other material. Lynyrd Skynyrd Live at Knebworth ’76, Eagle Vision 2021 This is the classic lineup, too, featuring Van Zant on lead vocals, guitarists Gary Rossington, Allen Collins and Steve Gaines, bassist Leon Wilkeson, drummer Artimus Pyle and keyboardist Billy Powell. Its a CD/Blu-ray collection containing the band’s legendary performance at the Knebworth Music Festival on Augwhile they were on tour in support of their latest studio LP Gimme Back My Bullets. I got this new live album from Skynyrd that was sent to me in the mail. But also because I’m not 100 percent comfortable repping this band in 2021. I stopped listening to Skynyrd’s music for the most part these days, mainly because when it comes to Southern Rock I would much rather listen to the Allman Brothers Band or The Kentucky Headhunters, to be quite honest. Perhaps the most Ronnie Van Zant ever revealed about his political beliefs occurred on “Sweet Home Alabama,” when he admitted his indifference towards Watergate. And indeed their music was omnipresent within earshot of anyone with their local classic rock station on the radio dial, which garnered them a fanbase that existed beyond the color lines. Nothing the band ever said or did directly smacked of racism. Lee raining down on American decency.įor the majority of their career as a band, the Confederate Flag has also served as the main symbol for Skynyrd, who utilized the imagery as part of their Southern bad boy image. It was like one last gob of spit from the ghostly, fetid maw of Robert E. ![]() The image of one of the insurrectionists parading around the punchbowl with a giant stars and bars was something we never thought we’d ever see in our lifetimes. Many people were brandishing Confederate flags during the riot. VIDEO: The Golden Palace, Season 1 Episode 11 (1992)Īlmost 28 years after that episode aired, we saw a mob of angry (and predominantly white) men and women storm the United States Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, in a failed effort to overturn the U.S. The North is just as bad… I’ve battled that flag all my life.” It is about crosses being burnt front lawns today – not an evil past, Blanche, today. “It’s about companies that won’t hire me. It’s about colleges that won’t let me in,” Cheadle explains in the episode. Devereaux, is not about college football games or quilting bees or fried chicken on Sunday. In the episode, Don Cheadle’s character reminds Rue McClanahan’s Blanche of the sordid history of the Confederate flag when she tried to hang it up for a party. However, it took an episode of The Golden Girls spinoff The Golden Palace to show me just how much that flag still brought so much pain to my friends and family members of color. Press play to hear a narrated version of this story, presented by AudioHopper. And as a pro wrestling fan, seeing The Fabulous Freebirds with their faces adorned with warpaint in the likeness of the Stars and Bars when they faced The Road Warriors in 1985 was just so badass. I mean, who didn’t think the General Lee was the coolest fucking car on earth when The Dukes of Hazzard was riding high in the Neilsen Ratings? I had those toys, for sure. ![]() As I sit here on the cusp of 48, I was raised during a time when the Confederate Flag was handled with kid gloves in American pop culture. This conundrum is at the very root of my incredibly mixed emotions about this band in the present tense. It’s Memorial Day 2021 and I’m in my office writing about Lynyrd Skynyrd.
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