Road Music with Weird Harold

Despite all I've said about Weird Harold, there was one thing you could really count on - - Great Road Music.  In this recurring segment, we're going to relive a bit of those tunes that took us across the Great American Prairie at over a hundred miles an hour. 

I don't claim that this is the best music ever made, or even that it's superior to other songs produced at the same time.  All I'm saying is that it sounded fantastic in Harold's rolling stereo system at a crystal clear 105 decibels (measured for clarity at many stereo contests).

A couple things you need for great road music:  Anthems and brilliant vocals.  Lynyrd Skynyrd gave both of those in quantity.  Every song was an anthem and Ronnie Van Zant was hands-down the best Southern Rock Vocalist. 

We listened to the Greatest Hits Album so many times that the lyrics are burned into my subconscious.  My lips start syncing as soon as a song begins, not one of them is unfamiliar.  Hate Freebird as much as you'd like – make fun of it, hold up a lighter and scream it out, but it's indelibly ingrained on a generation. 

We hit the entrance ramp to the “one-two-three” and the opening chords of Sweet Home Alabama. It's the first song I remember where an open challenge from one musician to another is made.  Canadian Neil Young is also a fantastic singer, but Van Zant takes him to task for putting down the band's home state:

Well I heard mister Young sing about her
Well, I heard ole Neil put her down
Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
A Southern man don't need him around anyhow

 

By the time Gimme Three Steps roars to life, we're above 80 and I've taken trooper duty.  That means I've got the radar detector in front of me, the sound's off, so I have to watch it closely and the signal is stereo mute . . . that'll tell Harold to slow it down.  I also have a pair of binoculars to keep an eye out for cops, because in North Dakota you can see to the horizon. Skynyrd's songs are anthems like I said.  You just have to scream out with them whether you can sing or not – and at 105 decibels who really cares if you can sing.

wont you give me three steps,
Gimme three steps mister,
Gimme three steps towards the door?
Gimme three steps
Gimme three steps mister,
And you'll never see me no more.

(watch it here)

Simple Man starts out so softly and Harold starts directing the stereo as Van Zant brings it in, “Mama Told Me When I was Young.”  It's a cry, a plea, a desperate attempt to change the nature of a son.  The drums make this song, I have to say, and we're both air drumming by the chorus. (watch it here)

We're floating on the highway we're going so fast and my favorite Skynyrd song is up.  Saturday Night Special.  It's a song about both ease of getting a gun and the repercussions.  Handguns kill and the statement here is that it's just so easy to get 'em and there's only one thing to do with it.

Hand guns are made for killin
Aint no good for nothin else
And if you like your whiskey
You might even shoot yourself
So why dont we dump em people
To the bottom of the sea
Before some fool come around here
Wanna shoot either you or me

(watch it here)

Life in the South isn't better portrayed than hunting and dogs.  Swamp Music is a rolling romp through Southern life.  Call and response, instruments play with each other while the musicians play the song.  Great music. (kind of poor quality, but you can watch it here)

Now we slow it down again for a ballad – The Ballad of Curtis Lowe.  Want to know what a Dobro is?  Well, here's one.

old Curt was a black man with white curly hair
when he had a fifth of wine he didnot have a care
he used to own and old dobro used to play across his knee
I'd give old Curt my money he play all day for me

(watch it here)

Call Me the Breeze – we're back into a rolling Southern Rock song.  The kind of song that's made for speed.  We usually hit 100 to this one.  It's one thing to try and change a man, but you might as well be trying to change the weather. Oh man this is a good one.  Listen to that guitar work, listen to it pray to the bass line to speed up.  Want to know why Southern Men Whoop and Holler?  This is the reason right here.  There goes the piano – holy crap – it's out of control. (it's another poor quality clip, but you can watch it here)

I've told you before that I love stories.  Lynyrd Skynyrd songs are stories and Coming Home is the story of a man who just wants to spend a little time at home away from all that he's earned and all that he's done – to spend a little time with friends and relive that simpler life.  From the cooler, I crack open a couple of beers and Harold and I toast.  Yeah, yeah, I know about drinking and driving, but this blog is my autobiography – good, bad, and all in between.  Couldn't spend some time on Road Music with Harold and not imbibe now, could we? 

This song always made me wish I had a home to go to.  But that's material for other blog posts, isn't it?

I miss old friends that I once had
Times aint changed and Ill be glad when I go home
I dont know why the thought came to me
But why Im here I really cant see. and now...

(sorry, I couldn't find a good clip)

As a tribute to working men, to people who've seen the rougher sides of town, who've been in trouble, Gimme Back My Bullets does it justice.  This is about a guy who is going to make his own way through life and all you have to do is stay out of his way.  (watch it here)

Well, its 8 o'clock in Boise, Idaho
I'll find my limo driver
Mister, take us to the show
I done made some plans for later on tonight
I'll find a little queen
And I know I can treat her right.

One of most famous Lynyrd Skynyrd songs.  What's Your Name. You've got to sing along with this one.  It's so wrong – a story of what it's like to be a rock star on the road.   Or what it's like to travel the world as a G.I.  What was your name, little girl?  (watch it here)

You Got That Right.  Listen:

Seems so long I been out on my own
Travel light and I'm always alone
Guess I was born with a travellin' bone
When my times up, I'll hold my own
You won't find me in an old folks home

You got that right, Ronnie.  You didn't end up in an old folks home and neither will I.  I doubt Harold will either. In fact, I'd guarantee it, because we swore to it somewhere between Bismarck and Minot. Here it is:

 

Another ballad.  All I Can Do Is Write About It.  I kind of feel the same way.  I'm basically a quiet guy. I have so many stories in my head about what I've done and what people around me have done and what else can I do but write about it? Another couple beers and some quiet listening at about 85 mph while wheat fields stretched endlessly before us. 

Did you ever stop to think about, well, the air your breathin
Well you better listen to my song
And lord I cant make any changes
All I can do is write em in a song

(watch a video montage of it here)

This is the song that boys make fun of and few people listen to carefully, but there really is a message here.  That Smell.  Listen for a moment, it's about killing yourself with bad habits – drinking and drugs – the addictions that will surely kill someone.  No doubt about it.  The smell of death surrounds you.

(watch it here)

We've reached the end of the album. We've reached the final stop on this installment of Road Music and like a good concert, the most anticipated song is waiting there for us.  It's Freebird.

If I leave here tomorrow

Would you still remember me?

That's a really good question.  Without this blog, without this life, and without these stories I'm sharing, how many of you would have ever known anything about me?  Maybe that's good, maybe bad, but it is something.

For I must be traveling on, now,
cause theres too many places Ive got to see.
But, if I stayed here with you, girl,
Things just couldn't be the same.
cause I'm as free as a bird now,
And this bird you can not change.
Lord knows, I cant change.

Another truism. I'm not someone who can be changed.  I've been in and out of too many relationships, had too many “should've beens” to expect that I'm not going to just be wandering around someday, free and dumb.

Bye, bye, its been a sweet love.
Though this feeling I cant change.
But please dont take it badly,
cause lord knows Im to blame.
But, if I stayed here with you girl,
Things just couldnt be the same.
Cause Im as free as a bird now,

Odd that songs can really describe the man.  Maybe this is me.  Maybe it's Harold.  Maybe it's each and every one of us.  Maybe people need some freedom, and significantly for those of you who know, Free as a Bird is as apt a description as one might find for me.

And this bird youll never change.
And this bird you can not change.
Lord knows, I cant change.
Lord help me, I cant change.

 

  -rick, free but changed.

Comments

[a rose is a rose]

one of my all time favorites, jj cale wrote 'call me the breeze'. of course it's NO 'crazy mama' (my favorite jj cale tune) but it'll do

one of THE most idiotic things i've done in my life is to pass up buying a national steel string AND a dobro from the same dude back when i was a young 'un. i kick myself everytime i think of it (i went on a roadtrip to boston instead of meeting the dude and buying the instruments)

oh, i've also been know to yell out 'stairway to freebird' at many a concert (you have to be there)

[CV Rick]

Wow, Rose, I forgot to put in the photo of a Dobro. I know you wish you'd have gotten it.

Stairway to Freebird? Did you know what concert you were at?

[Success Warrior]

Skynyrd will be playing here on July 21st, in case you're interested.

[CV Rick]

Only if they can bring Ronnie Van Zant back from the grave.

[Success Warrior]

I'll talk to our entertainment guy and see if we can get that in the rider.

[Sister Mary Lisa]

Wow, Rick. This post is an awesome one...I could really relate to the feelings you feel when you truly experience great music like this. Thanks for the glimpse into who you are.

[Cherise]

Great blog, Rick. Simple Kind of Man and Freebird are two songs from the soundtrack of Cherise's life. Dontcha just love music and the memories it evokes? ;)

[CV Rick]

I'd like to see the whole playlist off the Soundtrack of Cherise's life.