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Rockin’ Songs of the South: Freebird Night By Deroy Murdock Bohemian Club January 28, 2009 January 29, 2009 (Ladies’ Night) Draft I (Separate Thursday, Head Table and Friday scripts to follow)
[The Jinks Theater’s curtain rises as we hear…]
[Song: “South’s Gonna Do It Again”]
Sire: Thank you very much, Michael Lee Firkins and Carlos Reyes with the Charlie Daniels Band’s hit, “The South’s Gonna Do it Again.”
[Applause.]
I’m Haley Barbour, and I’m your Sire tonight.
This is my first time to be a Sire, but with my accent, Rich Garlinghouse, the Imperial Potentate around here, thought I’d be perfect . 2
. . and, Rich, thanks for letting me do it without an interpreter.
Rich says I’m the only member of the Club who pronounces his first name with three syllables.
[For Thursday continue with head-table remarks, then end; Resume remarks after first musical number in Jinks Theater Thursday night. Downstairs script begins with thank yous after “South’s Gonna Do It Again.]
[For Friday Night, continue straight through.]
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We are here tonight to honor and appreciate Southern Rock.
One of this genre’s pioneers, Greg Allman, believes the term “Southern Rock” is redundant.
“Sort of like ‘rock rock.’”
After all, rock & roll began as southern music.
There’d be no rock without the blues, created in the Mississippi Delta by the original bluesmen, like Charlie Patton of Dockery Farms, and Hazlehurst’s Robert Johnson, who, legend has it, sold his soul to the devil to learn to play the blues guitar, down where Highway 49 intersects with US 61.
Later came the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Aaron Presley of Tupelo, Mississippi. 4
The Mississippi Delta exported blues and gospel north, among the possessions that many black workers carried with them as they traveled to Memphis . . . seeking greater opportunity and barely less stringent segregation.
Meanwhile, whites — mainly from Appalachia — moved west to Memphis, carrying bluegrass and country music with them.
In the early 1950s, these sounds collided, and rock & roll was born.
Pioneering producer Sam Phillips of Sun Records captured Ike Turner, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis as they wove these disparate musical threads into a brand- new fabric.
By the way, beyond his pyrotechnic piano technique, you may recall that “Killer” as Jerry Lee Lewis was known, stirred great 5 controversy when he married his 14- year-old- niece.
Even in the real deep South, that’s not very good for your career.
This group — plus Roy Orbison from Vernon, Texas and Carl Perkins from Tiptonville, Tennessee — was the first generation of rock from the south.
But the Southern Rock we celebrate tonight. . . is quite a bit different.
In the late 1960s, musicians who grew up listening to this first wave of Southerners — plus everybody from B. B. King to the Beatles to the Beach Boys — grabbed their instruments and stepped on stage.
They began with the blues, rock & roll, jazz, folk, and a generous dash of country. ______6
They also harnessed the LP or long-play format on the 33-1/3-RPM albums that dominated FM radio.
This freed them from the short song lengths dictated by the 45-RPM single that AM DJs had spun since the 1950s.
With more time and more creative space, one of Southern rock’s key features flourished — powerful jams that featured elaborate, extended guitar solos, duets, and even trios.
For instance, the instrumental interlude that closes the studio version of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Freebird” soars for four minutes and 20 seconds.
Southern rock produced many of the guitar anthems that sent air guitarists into states of pantomimed bliss.
______7
To see what I mean, let’s listen to “Sweet Home Alabama,” one of the biggest hits. . . by one of the biggest Southern Rock bands of all.
Lynyrd Skyrnyd hails from Jacksonville, Florida.
Of course, Florida is hardly the South at all; but Jacksonville is far enough north in Florida to actually be southern! ______This band took its name from a gym teacher at Robert E. Lee High School named Leonard Skinner.
He tormented Ronnie Van Zant, Gary Rossington, and Allen Collins by enforcing the school’s rules against male students wearing long hair.
When these young men launched their new band, they retaliated by naming their group after their old P.E. teacher. 8
They changed the spelling to avoid lawsuits.
Despite earlier tensions, Mr. Skinner warmed up to the band and even introduced them once at a concert in Jacksonville.
______
As you hear Jack Foster sing “Sweet Home Alabama,” consider this:
You probably live in Alabama if the directions to your house include the phrase, “When you turn off the pavement….” Jack Foster
[Song: “Sweet Home Alabama”]
[Song: “Ramblin Man”] 9
[Song: “Hold on Loosely”] 10
Sire: Let’s hear it for Jack Foster on “Sweet Home Alabama,” Dave Weeks on “Ramblin’ Man” and Dave Hagerman on “Hold on Loosely.”
If you like what you heard, let’s hear from you?
[Applause.]
“Hold On Loosely” was the work of .38 Special, an offshoot band started by Jacksonville, Florida’s own Don Barnes and Donnie Van Zant, brother of Lynyrd Skynyrd founder Ronnie Van Zant.
This song appears on the platinum album Wild- Eyed Southern Boys and hit No. 3 on the rock charts in 1981.
“Ramblin’ Man” hit No. 2 on the charts and is the best-selling single by The Allman Brothers Band. 11
Upon their induction in 1995, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame called the Allman Brothers “the principal architects of Southern rock.”
It all began in Macon, Georgia, when singer and organist Greg Allman united with his brother, Duane Allman, who Rolling Stone ranked the second greatest guitarist ever, nestled between No. 3 B.B. King and No. 1 Jimi Hendrix.
As early as 1969, the Allmans earned critical applause, fan loyalty, and ultimately 11 gold and five platinum albums.
Their winning formula includes reverential interpretations of blues masters like T. Bone Walker and Blind Willie McTell, a rigorous touring schedule, and virtuoso, jazz-like improvisation.
______12
Landmark albums such as Live at Fillmore East, Eat a Peach, and Brothers and Sisters showcase these creative elements as well as the unparalleled musicianship of the two Allmans, ex-member and guitarist Dicky Betts, drummers Butch Trucks and Jai Johanny “Jaimoe” Johanson, and more recently, guitar powerhouse Warren Haynes.
______
The Allman Brothers have survived more than their fair share of tragedy.
In October 1971, while riding a Harley- Davidson in Macon, Duane Allman crashed into a truck and was killed
Just 13 months later, in November 1972, tragedy struck again when bassist Berry Oakley lost his life hours after he smacked his motorcycle into a Macon city bus, just three blocks from where Duane died. 13
Let’s honor Duane Allman and Berry Oakley’s contribution to this musical genre as Jesse Bradman brings us a song they both recorded as Allman Brothers in 1970,
Here comes “Midnight Rider.”
[Song: “Midnight Rider”]
[Song: “Keep on Smilin’]
[Song: “Keep Your Hands to Yourself”] 14
Sire: Thank you very much Jesse Bradman, and thank you Chip Mallari [Maul-YAR-ee], Tim Carter, and Dave Hagerman on “Keep on Smilin’” by Wet Willie.
[Applause]
The dynamic trio you see before you also is performing tonight’s background vocals.
Finally, Mike Phelan took us into orbit with the Georgia Satellites’ No. 2 Billboard hit, “Keep Your Hands to Yourself.”
Keep your hands to yourself, but please put them together for these fine vocalists.
[Applause]
Speaking of the Georgia Sattelites, a question they often ask in North Georgia is: 15
“If Sally and I get a divorce, are we still brother and sister?
As for Mobile, Alabama’s Wet Willie, if you want to “Keep on Smilin,’” you might listen to their albums “Drippin’ Wet” and “The Wetter the Better.”
The less said about that, the better.
Our next song comes from the Marshall Tucker Band.
This group from Spartanburg, South Carolina takes its name from a key ring that opened the warehouse where they rehearsed.
That key ring bore the name Marshall Tucker, which the band adopted as their own in 1972.
They eventually learned that Marshall Tucker was the warehouse’s previous tenant. 16
Moreover, Marshall Tucker was a blind piano tuner, so the musical synchronicity was even stronger.
______The Marshall Tucker Band also shared this with the Allman Brothers, and Wet Willie:
They all were signed by Capricorn Records.
Based in Macon, Georgia, Capricorn was — more or less — a good ol’ boy version of Motown Records.
This creative and commercial home for Southern Rockers included Elvin Bishop, the Outlaws, and Sea Level, an Allman Brothers spinoff band that explored jazz fusion.
Sea Level was a kind of redneck Steely Dan.
Interestingly enough, before Capricorn unraveled in 1979, its leader was Phil Walden, 17 former manager of soul-music giant Otis Redding. ______
Let’s hear Chris Hicks now with the Marshall Tucker Band’s 1973 hit, “Can’t You See.”
[Song: “Can’t You See?”] [Song: “I Know a Little”]
[Song: “Whipping Post”] 18
Sire: Please make some noise for Chris Hicks on “Can’t You See” and “Whipping Post,” and Michael Lee Firkins with “I Know a Little.”
[Applause]
“Whipping Post” was made famous by Greg Allman, who, in fact, once was Jackson Brown’s roommate.
You might think that “Whipping Post” concerns Gregg Allman’s tumultuous marriage to the actress and singer Cher.
But Cher was just one of Greg Allman’s six wives, so why pick on her?
As for “I Know a Little,” it first appeared on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s 1977 album Street Survivors.
At that point in their careers, they had become hugely successful. 19
They opened for The Who on the Quadrophenia tour and opened for the Rolling Stones in the United Kingdom.
Their first four albums had gone either gold, platinum, or double platinum.
Skynyrd’s own Street Survivors tour would take them to New York’s Madison Square Garden, a lifelong dream of Ronnie Van Zant’s.
But that was not to be.
[Pause]
Tragedy struck Southern Rock yet again when the band was on what they celebrated as the last flight of their decrepit tour airplane.
On October 20, 1977, just three days after Street Survivors reached record stores, their 20 twin-propeller plane went down near McComb, Mississippi, en route from Greenville, South Carolina to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Co-founder and lead singer Ronnie Van Zant was killed, as was guitar wunderkind Steve Gaines and his sister, backup singer Cassie Gaines, along with the pilot, co-pilot, and the band’s assistant tour manager.
The other band members were injured badly, but they survived.
Ten years later in 1987, the remaining members of Lynyrd Skynyrd reunited and have recorded and toured ever since.
In 2006, Lynyrd Skynyrd was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
[Pause] 21
We turn now to music of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils from Springfield, Missouri, and their 1973 hit, “If You Want to Get to Heaven.”
Then we will hear the music of another Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, Wilmington, North Carolina’s own Charlie Daniels, and his platinum single, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”
As Charlie Daniels likes to say: “Let there be harmony, let there be fun, and 12 notes of music to make us all one.”
Take it away, boys!
[Song: “If You Want to Get to Heaven”]
[Song: “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”] 22
Sire: Please show some love to Brad Cordle, Steve Pickford, and Carlos Reyes!
Both on stage and off, a team of Bohemians has stayed mighty busy to bring you tonight’s festivities.
Please hold your applause until I recognize them all: JCR: Richard Garlinghouse Director: Mike Varney Music Director: Mark Robertson Writer: Deroy Murdock Steward: Skip Gould Asst. Stewards: Jack Watts Sound: OO McGlennan Ray McNaughton Rick Pedley Mooka Rennick Asst. sound: 00 Lights: Rich Saffir (SAFF-uhr) Multimedia: Dan Reid Stage Manager: Tony Rose 23
Stage Crew: 00 Set Design: Robin Chase Bill Hamilton Participation Cmte. Representative: Mike Zischke Photographer: Scott Sibley Artist: Bob Steele Costumes: Vincent Rojas Makeup: Jean-Pierre Louis Viel Memorabilia: 00 Anybody else?: 00
And where on Earth would we be without our musicians?
Guitar and vocals: Michael Lee Firkins Jack Foster David Weeks Bass: Stu Hamm Our guest, David Sikes Drums: Peter Gotcher Leo Vigil 24
Percussion and harmonica: Bob Skye Keyboards: Tim Gorman Mark Robertson Fiddle: Carlos Reyes Vocalists: Jesse Bradman Tim Carter Brad Cordle Dave Hagerman Tim Hockenberry Chris Hicks Chip Mallari (Maul-YAR-ee) Mike Phelan Steve Pickford Anybody else?: 00 And you soon will enjoy a musical Afterglow with Brian Nova and Friends.
Please tell these gentlemen how much you appreciate their labor of love. 25
Well, what about today?
Younger bands like Widespread Panic from Athens, Georgia and the Black Crowes from Atlanta continue the Southern Rock tradition.
The Allman Brothers and Charlie Daniels Band still record and tour, as do the surviving members of Lynyrd Skynyrd.
From record stores, to movie soundtracks, to concert venues, Southern Rock happens wherever people who talk like this [Sire points to himself] play like that. [Sire points to the band.]
I’m Haley Barbour.
Thank you for listening, and please keep listening to the unmistakable sounds of Southern Rock. 26
[Curtain rises to reveal Tim Hockenberry and band to play a surprise encore.]
[Encore: “Freebird”]
THE END