Song of the Day 02/15/22

Today's Song of the Day is "I Know A Little" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. The fourth track off their last album featuring all of the original members, Street Survivors. This track was written by new band member Steve Gaines prior to joining the band. Gaines was the younger brother of Skynyrd backing vocalist, Cassie Gaines. After Ed King left the band in 76', Cassie recommended her brother Steve to join the band, and he came up on stage for an impromptu jam of Jimmy Roger's "T for Texas" that safe to say rocked, as the track was recorded and later released to acclaim. Gaines' guitar-picking and songwriting skills were a major revelation to the band, as demonstrated on his one studio album. Publicly and privately, Ronnie Van Zant marveled at the vocal and instrumental skill of Skynyrd's newest member, claiming that the band would "all be in his shadow one day". Gaines unfortunately passed on October 20th,1977, along with lead Singer Ronnie Van Zant, his sister Cassie, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary, and co-pilot William Gray, when Skynyrd's plane crashed outside of Gillsburg Mississippi. Gaine's greatest accomplishment is most likely "I Know A Little". It is a monster rock boogie that has a plethora of tasty licks, and tells a typical story of man who is being played, but is fairly aware of it. Personally, this is one of my favorite Skynyrd songs, and having enjoyed their music I was surprised and interested to hear of Gaines' story. The whole band, surviving plane crash members included, have had a very dark, gloomy, and tragic story, which could have been predicted in the Van Zandt song "That Smell", but that's a song for another day. Check out any of the docs done by surviving members of Skynyrd if you want to learn more about one of (if not the) greatest southern rock bands of all time.