Big Leather Couch

The original super group "CREAM" was formed in 1966. It was short lived due to the pressure of being this huge entity and due to the animosity between Bruce and Baker which was a carry-over from their years together in the Graham Bond Organisation.

The music made by this trio stands up against any music recorded in the 41 years since their formation.

It is a long, winding road for all three of these musicians and today, we hope to give you a ride down this path.

Eric Patrick Clapton was born on March 30, 1945 in Ripley, Surrey, England, the son of unwed parents Patricia Molly Clapton (aged 16) and Edward Walter Fryer a 24-year old soldier from Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Clapton grew up believing his grandmother Rose and her second husband Jack were his parents and his mother, his older sister. Their surname was Clapp, which let to speculation over the years that this was Eric’s real name. It was not, he was given his mother’s maiden name upon birth.

Shortly before Clapton’s birth, Fryer shipped off to war and later returned to Canada. A few years later, his mom married another Canadian soldier and moved to Canada, leaving Clapton with his grandparents. When he was 9, his mom returned home with his new half-brother who was 6 at the time.

It was then that Clapton found out the truth about his parentage and it affected him greatly. He began to stop working at his schoolwork and became moody and depressed.

When he was 13 he received an acoustic guitar and a marimba for his birthday. He struggled with both and almost put the guitar away for good. The influence of the blues and the black artists from America, Clapton buckled down and began practicing for hours upon end teaching himself the sounds of the artists he admired.

In 1962, Clapton one year foundation art course, but never went on to obtain a degree.

He began playing around Kingston, Richmond and the West End of London and joined “THE ROOSTERS” in 1963. Later that year he joined “THE YARDBIRDS”, and Clapton soon began to cause whispers around the British music scene. The Yardbirds, played a fusion of Chicago blues and music influenced by Buddy Guy and B.B. King, to name a few.

When the Yardbirds began to move in a more “pop” direction, Clapton began to get antsy and suggested they hire Jimmy Page as his replacement, but Page was, at that time, happy with the session work he was doing, so Jeff Beck took Clapton’s place.

Clapton joined “JOHN MAYALL & THE BLUESMAKERS” after leaving the Yardbirds. The reactions he received from their club dates and from the album “BLUES BREAKERS’ began to build and his name was talked about by people everywhere. This guitar player who could bring the sounds of the blues to his instrument with a intensity and fire rarely seen.

It was around this time that the ‘message’ appeared on a wall in the Islington Underground station in the autumn of 1967. Unlike some reports, the slogan did not appear on wall all over London. The ‘message’ was captured in the famous photo of a dog urinating on a wall of the underground. The message was simple…three words…


In 1987, Clapton told "The South Bank Show", the message embarrassed him at the time.
"I never accepted that I was the greatest guitar player in the world. I always wanted to be the greatest guitar player in the world, but that's an ideal, and I accept it as an ideal." Clapton said at that time.

John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce was born May 14, 1943 in Bishopbriggs, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland to musical parents who moved often.

This resulted in Bruce attending 14 different schools. He won a scholarship studying cello and composition at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama; however, he left at the age of 17 claiming he knew more than the teachers

While still at college Jack Bruce played with orchestras in Glasgow music halls. After leaving college he toured Italy playing double bass with the "MURRAY CAMBELL BIG BAND". In 1962, Bruce became a member of the London-based band "ALEXIS KORNER'S BLUES INCORPORATED", in which he played the double bass.

He then joined the Graham Bond Organisation, which played bebob, blues and R&B and this is when Bruce switched from double bass to electric bass.

Also in the band was Ginger Baker and the two held extreme hostility towards each other. Baker eventually fired Bruce in 1965.

After that Bruce began playing with the John Mayall Bluesbreakers and this is where he met Clapton. He moved on to spend a short period with Manfred Mann, earning him his first commercial success.

Bruce’s background is heavy into the jazz movement. His work since Cream has been an eclectic mixture of music and musical partners.

In September 2003, he underwent a liver transplant, which was almost fatal, as his body initially rejected the new organ. He has since recovered.

Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker was born on August 19, 1939, in Lewisham, South London.

His career began playing with big bands and then he eventually moved on to be the leader of the Graham Bond Organisation. This is where he met Jack Bruce and their volatile relationship began.

Baker's drumming attracted attention for its flamboyance, showmanship, and his pioneering use of two bass drums instead of the conventional single 'kick' drum. He is also noted for using a variety of other percussion instruments and for his application of African rhythms to much of his drumming.

Around 1966, Baker began growing tired of the drug usage and instability of the GBO and was ready to move to a new group. It was at just this time that he met Clapton.

Baker had met Clapton after a gig (during Clapton's time with the Yardbirds). "I had always liked Ginger," explained Clapton. "Ginger had come to see me play with John Mayall. After the gig he drove me back to London in his Rover. I was very impressed with his car and driving. He was telling me that he wanted to start a band, and I had been thinking about it too."; each was impressed with the other's playing abilities, prompting Baker to ask Clapton to join his new, then-unnamed group. Clapton immediately said yes, but only on one condition: that Baker hire Jack Bruce as the group's bassist.

Clapton had met Bruce when the bassist/vocalist did a short stint with the Bluesbreakers in March 1966; impressed with his vocals and technical prowess, Clapton had wanted to work with Bruce on an ongoing basis.

What Clapton did not know was that while Bruce was in Bond's band, he and Baker had been notorious for their quarreling, the confines of the GBO had proved too small for their egos. Their volatile relationship included on-stage fights and the sabotaging of one another's instruments.

After Baker fired Bruce from the band, Bruce continued to arrive for gigs; ultimately, Bruce was driven away from the band after Baker threatened him at knifepoint.

For this new group, Baker and Bruce planned to put aside their differences for the good of the new trio.

The band was named "Cream," as Clapton, Bruce, and Baker were already considered the "cream of the crop" amongst blues and jazz musicians playing the British scene at that time. Before deciding upon CREAM the band considered calling themselves "Sweet 'n' Sour Rock 'n' Roll."

Shortly after the band's formation in 1966, CREAM received an invitation to perform at the July 1966 "Winsdor Jazz & Blues Festival". The band did not have any original material yet, but Clapton’s workings of blues standards and the energy of the rhythm sction was greeted with enthusiasm of the crowd. They also got a chance to jam with Jimi Hendrix.

It was during the early organization that it was decided Bruce would serve as the group's lead vocalist. While Clapton was shy about singing, he occasionally harmonized with Bruce, and as he grew as a singer, would take lead vocals on some notable CREAM tunes including "FOUR UNTIL LATE," "STRANGE BREW," "CROSSROADS," and "BADGE."

CREAM'S debut album, "Fresh Cream", was recorded and released in 1966. The album reached #6 in the UK charts and #39 in the United States. The album consisted of blues covers, songs written by Jack Bruce and a couple of songs by Baker, including “TOAD” one of the earliest drum solos in rock music. It also included this gem, "I'M SO GLAD"


Their second album “DISRAELI GEARS” was released in 1967 and this album reached the Top 5 in the charts on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Recorded in New York, this album is considered the defining moment in the band’s life. It consisted of 8 original tracks and 3 written by others. Besides “STRANGE BREW” and “TALES OF BRAVE ULYSESS” , it also contained the popular “SUNSHINE OF YOUR LOVE”

“WHEELS OF FIRE”, their third album was released in 1968 and topped the American charts. It included three live recordings from the Winterland Ballroom and one from the Fillmore. This album contained the radio staple, “WHITE ROOM”. Believe it or not, this was one of the songs we sang lead on in our bands...


In the spring of 1969, the final album “GOODBYE CREAM” was released. It hit the shelves after the band had broken up the previous November and contained six songs; three live from The Forum in LA and three studio recordings, including “BADGE” co-written by Clapton and George Harrison (who also played rhythm guitar on the track).

Non-stop touring by the band contributed to the heated tension between Mr. Bruce and Mr. Baker. Clapton was constantly put into the ‘peacemaker’ role and this put much strain on him.

Baker recounted, during a 2006 interview with "MUSIC MART" magazine that; "It just got to the point where Eric said to me: 'I've had enough of this,' and I said so have I. I couldn't stand it. The last year with Cream was just agony. It's damaged my hearing permanently, and today I've still got a hearing problem because of the sheer volume throughout the last year of Cream. But it didn't start off like that. In 1966, it was great. It was really a wonderful experience musically, and it just went into the realms of stupid."

Their management persuaded them to do one final tour to promote their new album. This "farewell tour" consisted of 22 shows at 19 venues in the United States between October 4 and November 4, 1968, and two final farewell concerts at the Royal Albert Hall on November 26, 1968.

The final United States gig was at the Rhode Island Auditorium, November 4th, 1968.

The two Royal Albert Hall concerts were filmed for a BBC documentary and released on video (and later DVD) as "FAREWELL CONCERT".

Both shows were sold out and attracted more attention than any other CREAM concert, but their performance was regarded by many as below standard. Baker himself said of the concerts: "It wasn’t a good gig ... Cream was better than that ... We knew it was all over. We knew we were just finishing it off, getting it over with."



In 1993, CREAM was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and set aside their differences and performed live at the ceremony.

The end result was an incredible set consisting of "Sunshine of Your Love," "Crossroads," and "Born Under a Bad Sign"
In 2004, it was announced that Cream would finally reunite for a series of four shows, May 2, 3, 5, and 6 of 2005 in England at the Royal Albert Hall in London, the venue of their final concerts in 1968.


Clapton would later state that he had become more "generous" in regards to his past, and that the physical health of Bruce and Baker was a major factor: Bruce had recently undergone a liver transplant for liver cancer, one that almost cost him his life, while Baker had severe arthritis.

Tickets for all four shows sold out in under an hour. The Royal Albert Hall reunion proved a success on both a personal and financial level, inspiring the reformed band to bring their reunion to the United States.

CREAM chose to play at only one venue, Madison Square Garden in New York City from October 24 - 26, 2005.

In February of 2006, Cream received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of their contribution to, and influence upon, modern music.

CREAM…three men with an enormous amount of talent. A whirlwind three years of touring, fighting and making music that holds up, even today.

There have been many ‘power trios’ over the years, but none ever had the talent, the energy or produced the music of this original band.

Congrats to Alex Rodriguez of the NY Yankees for becoming the youngest player in MLB history to reach 500 home runs.

Steroid-head tied the wonderful HENRY AARON on Saturday. Loved the slack jaw look of Mr. Bud Selig, commissioner of baseball when it happened. He looked, snarled, stood and shoved his hands in his pockets....was actually very comical...

Then all day Sunday, ESPN ran clips of the major home runs hit by a player that came into the game with the most incredible potential. If you can catch it (as we are sure they will replay it when he hits the next one) please watch it and pay attention.

Homer #1...skinny 20 year old, with some muscles...
Homer #100...pretty much same body...
Homer #200...he is a bot bigger but nothing amazing...
Homer #300...not much change...
Homer #400..ummm did he add a half a person in there?....
Homer #500..WOAH! Who the hell is that, he is big...
Homer #600...now there are two people and his head is growing...
Homer #700...he is, no lie, 2 1/2 times the size he was when he began and his head has grown 5 hat sizes...

FOLKS, LIFTING WEIGHTS DOES NOT INCREASE YOUR HEAD SIZE!

He didn't know what the cream and 'clear' was..the stuff his trainer and the CHEMISTS gave him...yeah dude... here, close your eyes and open your mouth...promise we won't put anything in your mouth....LIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Well the migraine hung on through Saturday playing little games and yesterday, we just sort of recovered and spent quite a bit of time talking to our best friend, which we had not had a chance to do in a few weeks.

That said, our newest template project is a few days behind. And we really didn't have anything set to post.

We also had fun screwing around on TurnBaby's BlogTalk Radio Show with Mr. Fab...we took the show over for a good 20 minutes...heehhee

Next two days we are off-site in planning meetings...


Heard a snippet of something on the radio yesterday, and it keyed our song of the day...

Ladies and Gentleman, boys and girls....

THE PAUL BUTTERFIELD BLUES BAND...



Paul Butterfield was born and grew up in Chicago. After studying classical flute as a teen, he developed a love for the blues harmonica, and hooked up with white, blues-loving, University of Chicago physics student Elvin Bishop.

The two started hanging around great black blues players like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Junior Wells.

Butterfield(Harp) and Bishop(Guitar) soon formed a band with Jerome Arnold(Bass Guitar) and Sam Lay(Drums), both of Howlin' Wolf's band.

In 1963, a watershed event in introducing blues to white America occurred when this racially mixed ensemble was made the house band at the Chicago blues club Big John’s. Butterfield was still underage at the time.

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band added another underage member, Michael Bloomfield as lead guitarist and signed with ELECTRA Records. Their original debut album was scrapped, then re-recorded after the addition of organist Mark Naftalin.


The Butterfield Band's second album, East-West (1966) reflected the music scene's interest in sitar great Ravi Shankar and other Eastern musicians. It was also critically acclaimed.

This is the title track from East- West, written by Mike Bloomfield & Nick Gravenites...remember kiddies an interracial band in 1966 playing this eclectic music...

THE COUCH NOTE (added later): Think about the music of 1966; Beatles, Nancy Sinatra, The Beach Boys, The Dave Clark Five, The Rolling Stones, Simon & Garfunkel ruled the charts...and in Chicago these five guys were creating this masterpiece....INCREDIBLE!

Well, we didn't get home until almost 8:30 tonight and then needed to watch "BIG BROTHER" and do some 'domestic chores'...and then realized...DOH...you didn't do a post yet!

We have a slight headache, so we are going simple today...

Summer...beach...romance...it all rolls together when you grow up near the beaches, which we did.

Hot summer nights on the boardwalks...on Long Island they weren't mini-amusement parks...just beautiful boardwalks for miles...

Then we would also go down to the NJ beaches and their boardwalks with the games of chance and the bars....

And we also did it the summer we turned 16 in New Hampshire....

Under the boardwalk, down by the sea, on a blanket with my baby...is where I'll be...

The beautiful and enticing Twyla has conceived a new Meme and tagged me with it.

It is a simple Meme from a subject standpoint, but certainly not so easy in application.

The rules are to name the 4 best nights of your life. Then tag 4 people.

Well being as we have had somewhere in the realm of 19,389 nights in our life, we have more to choose from then others......

Off we go...

1) April 3, 1987 (the only one we will date) - this is simply the easiest. Matthew came into the world on this evening and my life has never been the same. My son is my everything...We miss him so very much...miss being able to just knock knuckles or hug or just laugh about something stupid. And we really miss watching him play baseball. We have written about this night before, but the short version was it was getting late and my A-Type personality brain had been told he would be born that day...and it was almost the next day...and then we were in the delivery room and then he was screaming his brains out...NIRVANA

OK, this wasn't so much about that night as it was about the results. We had to add it Twyla...

2) See, we are breaking the rules already, and this meme is not even 24 hours old...it was a day/night thing...just spending it with a special friend. We were out and about all day laughing and smiling, holding hands and hooking our thumbs into the back pocket of the other's jeans, and just enjoying each other's company, and then back for dinner at my apartment.
Made some pasta and my gravy for her as promised...

Then the BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE PART ---we just laid on the couch together so close, under a soft blanket we have...watching TV for a while before ....well...before.... Silly me had put together a few hours of music we knew she loved and appreciated and it played in the background...with the candles...and ...well.....That night everything in the world just felt so right, like it had never felt before....like the black clouds had been vanquished forever...there were visions of a lifetime of similar days...wonderfully happy days...a night that will live in my brain and my heart forever.


3) The night we were made a member of TKE Fraternity. Without going into details (NO, there was no puking, eating of disgusting things, animals or breaking the law involved in our initiations), it began as a stressful night with the impression we would be asked to leave, until they asked us to be their Brother. It was the night that we gained friends that we still have to this day. men who we would drop everything for to assist (well, my closest friends know we would do that for them also...anytime, anywhere, anything...) and they would do the same if we needed. Yes, it ended up in drunken debauchery that lasted two days and a freakin' killer hang-over the next day (do you know how drunk you have to be at 19 to have a hang-over...very freakin' drunk, let me tell you!)


4) One evening at work, back in 1977...got a call from a business associate. Would we like tickets to see the opening night of the Knicks, or go with him to the 6th game of the World Series...Dodgers/Yankees....
Silly question, we headed for Da Bronx, and that night witnessed history as Reginald Martinez Jackson - in three at bats, on the first pitch of each at bat, off of three different pitchers, hit three home runs and the Yankees won the World Series...Thrilling night.


Now, I am to tag 4 people.....and the wheel goes round and round and the first place it stops is....

our most favorite SugarBaby friend DIXIE

and around and round she goes and next up is...
Ms. Julie from Philly

big spin on the wheel now.....flying round and round so fast...
Ms. Songbird, our friend from the Desert you are a winnnnnnnnnnnnner

and finally..........
OK, dear Tug.....wonderful Yankee fan...all around cool Grandmother...your name came up on the spin...

Please let us know when you post so we can link it here...

It was 1964 in Jacksonville, Florida when 5 teenage friends began playing in a band together, which they named MY BACKYARD.

Their early influences included FREE, THE YARDBIRDS and THE BEATLES as well as the southern blues and country and western they had grown up on.

The five teenagers were Ronnie Van Zant on vocals, Allen Collins and Gary Rossington on guitars, Larry Junstron on bass and Bob Burns on drums.

Throughout the 60’s the band changed names including THE NOBEL FIVE and ONE PERCENT. They played local dance clubs and bars and began to develop a following.

In 1968, they won a “Battle Of The Bands” contest and used the money to record two songs; “NEED ALL MY FRIENDS” and “MICHELLE”. Additionally this win gave them the opening spot for the Southeast shows being performed by the STRAWBERRY ALARM CLOCK.

In 1970, the band’s roadie, Billy Powell joined the group as keyboardist and they began to rehearse at an isolated farm outside Jacksonville, which they christened ‘Hell House’.

Rossington and Burns had been students together at Robert E. Lee High School and they had a gym teacher who was a stickler for the rules. The two boys were constantly in trouble for having hair that touched their collar or sideburns that extended below their ears. (Remember...it is the 60's remember...shock, horror, sideburns below the ears...)

In a mocking tribute to this teacher, the band bastardized his name when deciding on the new name for the band. The teacher, Mr. Leonard Skinner…the band Lynard Skynard.

They began playing across the South, honing their skills and working on their song collection. In 1972 Leon Wilkeson replaced Larry Junstrom on the bass. Strangely enough, Wilkeson then left the band as they were about to start recording their first album.

In 1973, as a tribute to the BYRDS, the band changed the spelling of their name to the now well known LYNYRD SKYNYRD.

While playing at a club in Atlanta, Al Kooper of the band BLOOD SWEAT AND TEARS heard and fell in love with their sound. He immediately signed them to MCA Records.

He was the producer for the first album “LYNYRD SKYNYRD (pronounced leh-nerd skin-nerd)”. The album contained the song which would be associated with the band forever…”FREE BIRD”. It reached #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts that year.

The band called on the the guitarist for the Strawberry Alarm Clock, Ed King to play bass on the album. When it was completed, Van Zant called King “the worst bass player I’ve ever played with”, and then convinced Wilkeson to rejoin the band as the bass player and had King go back to the guitar, giving them the ability to play the three-guitar part they had created in the studio using over-dubbing.


Also on that album was "SIMPLE MAN"(Rossington/Van Zant), we have always loved the total package of this song. Great lyrics, a driving beat, multiple guitar runs played by multiple guitarists...hallmark of Southern Rock (that term was not even in existence back then...it was not an easy sell for the record company's and the radio stations...country? rock?)



In 1973, a big break came about when the band was asked to open for THE WHO for their “QUADROPHENIA” tour of the U.S. This helped them to gain a larger audience then they had been able to prior.

Their second album “SECOND HELPING” was released in 1994 and included the hit “SWEET HOME ALABAMA” (King/Rossington/Van Zant) a song written in response to Neil Young’s two songs "ALABAMA” and "SOUTHERN MAN”. “Sweet home Alabama” hit #8 on the charts that August. The album reached the #12 spot.



In 1975 the band toured the U.K with GOLDEN EARRING and did the same in 1976 with THE ROLLING STONES.

In 1975 Burns left the group and Artemus Pyle from North Carolina became the bands drummer. “NUTIN’FANCY” was released in 1975 and became the bands first Top Ten album. "SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL” from that album hit #27 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Also in 1975 the band added the “HONKETTES” to the band. They were Leslie Hawkins, Cassie Gaines and JoJo Billingsley, and they added a special background touch to the band’s set.

In the middle of the tour to support the album Ed King decided to leave the band. They continued on for a while with only two guitarists, but eventually brought in Steve Gaines (brother of Cassie), to be their third guitarist.

The band put out a double-live album called “ONE MORE FROM THE ROAD” with the latest lineup in place. It became a Top Ten hit and the band was on their way once more.

Their next album, “GIMME BACK MY BULLETS” was released in 1976, to less acclaim then their pervious efforts.

The final album for this lineup was “STREET SURVIVORS”, released in October of 1977. This is one of our favs from this album...It shows where the band was heading...Rossington and Van Zant were really just getting their footing..."I KNOW A LITTLE" (Gaines)
We really love the boogie piano that comes in toward the end of the song...and the guitar part just before that, an interesting little run they built there...

Three days after the release of “Street Survivors” a chartered Convair 240 was carrying the band between shows in Greenville, SC and Baton Rouge, LA. Somewhere near a forest close to McComb Mississippi, the plane went down.

Killed in the fiery explosion were Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, co-pilot William Gray and pilot Walter McCreary.

Artimus Pyle crawled from the wreckage with several broken ribs. He and surviving crew members Kenneth Peden, Jr. and Mark Frank hiked through the woods until they were able to locate help.

Allen Collins had two cracked vertebrae in his neck and he and Wilkeson nearly had arms amputated as a result of injuries. Wilkeson also suffered a punctured lung and lost most of his teeth in the crash.

Rossington had both his arms and both legs broken in the crash. Leslie Hawkins had a concussion, broke her neck in three places and had severe facial lacerations. Security manager Gene Odom was seriously burned on his arm and face and lost an eye when an emergency flare was set off during the crash.

Billy Powell almost had his nose ripped from his face and had severe facial lacerations. The last member of "The Honkettes", JoJo Billingsley was not on the plane for the flight, having gone home to take care of family business.

An interesting note… The Convair 240 itself had been inspected by members of AEROSMITH'S flight crew for possible use in the early summer of 1977, but was rejected because it was felt that neither the plane nor the crew were up to standards.

In an interview in the book "WALK THIS WAY", Aerosmith's assistant chief of flight operations Zunk Buker tells of seeing pilots McCreary and Gray trading a bottle of Jack Daniels back and forth while Buker and his father were inspecting the plane.

The following is from the official NTSB accident report:
"The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of this accident was fuel exhaustion and total loss of power from both engines due to crew inattention to fuel supply. Contributing to the fuel exhaustion were inadequate flight planning and an engine malfunction of undetermined nature in the right engine which resulted in higher-than-normal fuel consumption."
In an eerie foreboding, the original album photo for “Street Survivors” showed the band surrounded by flames. The record company, MCA, withdrew the original sleeve and replaced it with a picture not containing the flames.

The band announced they were breaking up after the accident. This is to be expected as they all needed time to heal their wounds both physical and mental after the loss of their friends.

Rossington and Collins formed THE ROSSINGTON-COLLINS BAND between 1980 and 1982, releasing two albums. Neither was met with overwhelming desire by the public, but contained some good tunes.

Pyle formed THE ARTIMUS PYLE BAND in 1982. Again...nothing really came of this venture.

Collins formed THE ALLEN COLLINS BAND in 1983. Tragedy struck the band again in 1986 when Collins crashed his car while driving drunk near his home in Jacksonville, killing his girlfriend and leaving him permanently paralyzed from the waist down.

In 1987, Lynyrd Skynyrd reunited for a full-scale tour with crash survivors Gary Rossington, Billy Powell, Leon Wilkeson and Artimus Pyle and former guitarist Ed King.

Ronnie Van Zant's younger brother, Johnny, took over as the new lead singer and primary songwriter.

Because of Collins' paralysis, he was only able to participate as the musical director, choosing Randall Hall, his former bandmate in the Allen Collins Band, as his stand-in. Collins was stricken with pneumonia in 1989 and died on January 23, 1990.

This reuniting of the band as meant to be a one-time tribute to the original lineup, captured on the double-live album “SOUTHERN BY THE GRACE OF GOD/LYNYRD SKYNYRD TRIBUTE TOUR – 1987”, but because of an overwhelmingly positive reaction by fans, the band decided to stay together and record new material.

The band is still out touring, though tragedy continues to follow them. In 2001, Wilkeson was found dead in his hotel room, the result of a liver/lung disease.

In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked the group #95 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

On November 28, 2005, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced that Lynyrd Skynyrd would be inducted at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan on March 13, 2006. Lynyrd Skynyrd had been nominated 7 times.
Southern rock is the genre for which we feel the most affinity. The Allman Brothers brought us to this style of rock and roll…Skynyrd became one of our more favored bands.

On Sunday mornings at R.I.T., "FREE BIRD" was the song we pumped into the fraternity house to get the football or basketball or softball teams psyched up prior to their playing in the Fraternity league on campus.


Studio albums Original lineup
• 1973 - (pronounced 'lĕh-'nérd 'skin-'nérd) (MCA)
• 1974 - Second Helping (MCA)
• 1975 - Nuthin' Fancy (MCA)
• 1976 - Gimme Back My Bullets (MCA)
• 1977 - Street Survivors (MCA)

Post-Crash lineups
• 1991 - Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991 (Atlantic)
• 1993 - The Last Rebel (Atlantic)
• 1994 - Endangered Species (Capricorn)
• 1997 - Twenty (CMC)
• 1999 - Edge Of Forever (CMC)
• 2000 - Christmas Time Again (CMC)
• 2003 - Vicious Cycle (Sanctuary)

Compilations
• 1978 - Skynyrd's First And... Last - collection of 1971-1972 demos (MCA)
• 1980 - Gold & Platinum - best of (MCA)
• 1982 - The Best of the Rest - collection of unreleased demos, B-sides (MCA)
• 1987 - Legend - collection of unreleased demos, B-sides (MCA)
• 1989 - Skynyrd's Innyrds - best of (MCA)
• 1991 - Lynyrd Skynyrd - 3-CD box set compilation (MCA)
• 1997 - Old Time Greats - 2-CD best of (Repertoire, reworked in 2005 by Universal)
• 1998 - The Essential Lynyrd Skynyrd - 2-CD compilation (reissued 2006 as Gold) (MCA)
• 1998 - Skynyrd's First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Album - compilation of 1971-1972 demos previously scattered across 3 albums (MCA)
• 2000 - All Time Greatest Hits - best of (MCA)
• 2000 - Then and Now - live & studio album (CMC)
• 2003 - Thyrty: The 30th Anniversary Collection - compilation
• 2005 - Then And Now, Vol. 2 (Sanctuary)
• 2005 - Greatest Hits - 2-CD best of (Universal, rework of the 1997 by Repertoire)
• 2006 - Gold - 2-CD compilation (reissue of the 1998 Essential Lynyrd Skynyrd)
Lives and videos
• 1976 - One More from the Road - live album (MCA)
• 1988 - Southern By The Grace Of God (Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute Tour 1987) - live album (MCA)
• 1988 - Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute Tour - tour video (Cabin Fever)
• 1996 - Freebird... The Movie - video of live concert footage (Cabin Fever)
• 1996 - Freebird... The Movie - video soundtrack (MCA)
• 1996 - Southern Knights - live album (SPV)
• 1998 - Lyve From Steel Town - live album (CMC)
• 1998 - Lyve From Steel Town - tour video (CMC)
• 2003 - Lynyrd Skynyrd Lyve: The Vicious Cycle Tour - tour video (Sanctuary)
• 2004 - Lynyrd Skynyrd Lyve: The Vicious Cycle Tour - live album (Sanctuary)

Singles
Shade Tree Records
• 1968 - "Michelle / Need All My Friends" (101/102)
Sounds of The South/ MCA Records
• November 1973 - "Gimme Three Steps / Mr. Banker (demo)" (MCA 40158)
• April 1974 - "Don't Ask Me No Questions (remix) / Take Your Time (demo)" (MCA 40231)
• August 1974 - "Sweet Home Alabama / Take Your Time (demo)" (MCA 40258) #8 US
MCA Records
• November 1974 - "Free Bird" (edit of 1973 album version) / Down South Jukin' (demo)" (MCA 40328) #19 US
• 1975 - "Saturday Night Special / Made In The Shade" (MCA 40416) #27 US
• 1976 - "Double Trouble / Roll Gypsy Roll" (MCA 40532) #80 US
• 1976 - "Gimme Back My Bullets / All I Can Do Is Write About It" (MCA 40565)
• 1976 - "Gimme Three Steps (live) / Travellin' Man (live)" (MCA 40647)
• 1976 - "Freebird (live) / Searchin' (live)" (MCA 40665) #38 US
• 1977 - "What's Your Name? / I Know A Little" (MCA 40819) #13 US
• 1978 - "You Got That Right / Ain't No Good Life" (MCA 40888)
• 1978 - "Down South Jukin' / Wino" (MCA 40957)
• 2006 - "Sweet Home Alabama" #61 UK