History Trivia / LynyrdSkynyrd

* DistancedFromCurrentEvents: The band’s fifth album had its cover changed immediately after the plane crash. The original cover showed the band surrounded by flames. The 2007 reissue of the restored the original flames cover.

* DistancedFromCurrentEvents: The band’s fifth album had its cover changed immediately after the plane crash. The original cover showed the band surrounded by flames.

* AnswerSong: "Sweet Home Alabama" was a reply to to Music/NeilYoung's criticism of racism in "Southern Man" and "Alabama". The song would receive a pretty savage Answer Song of its own in Music/WarrenZevon's "Play It All Night Long".

* DistancedFromCurrentEvents: The band’s fifth album had its cover changed immediately after the plane crash. The original covered showed the band surrounded by flames.

* AnswerSong: "Sweet Home Alabama" was a reply to to Music/NeilYoung's criticism of racism in "Southern Man" and "Alabama". The song would receive a pretty savage Answer Song of its own in Music/WarrenZevon's "Play It All Night Along".

* RealLifeRelative: Johnny Van Zandt replaced his older brother as lead singer.

* AnswerSong: "Sweet Home Alabama" was a reply to to Music/NeilYoung's criticism of racism in "Southern Man" and "Alabama". The song would receive a pretty savage Answer Song of its own in Music/WarrenZevon's "All Night Along".

* AuthorExistenceFailure: One of the most memorable instances in music, when a plane crash tragically claimed the lives of musicians Ronnie van Zant and Steve Gaines, backup vocalist Cassie Gaines, and several production staff. The rest of the band either left, or died sometime after. TheBandMinusTheFace, indeed.

* IAmTheBand: After surviving band members squabbled with the widows of Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines when the 1987 reunion proved to be a major success, the parties ultimately came to a legal agreement that any band using the Lynyrd Skynyrd name must include Gary Rossington and two other pre-crash members. Lineup evolution has caused relaxation of this clause; the only two pre-crash members currently in the band are Rossington and Rickey Medlocke, who played briefly with the band in the early 1970s.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: "Sweet Home Alabama", released a little over a month before Nixon's resignation, references the Watergate scandal as a current event.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: One can only begin to speculate on what Lynyrd Skynyrd might have produced and/or become if not for the plane crash. On the individual level, Steve Gaines in particular was a rising star with incredible promise (Van Zant once asserted that the rest of the band would "all be in his shadow one day"), but was still very early in his career and never got the chance to reach his full potential or cement his legacy the way Van Zant did.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: One can only begin to speculate on what Lynyrd Skynyrd might have produced and/or become if not for the plane crash. On the individual level, Steve Gaines in particular was a rising star with incredible promise (Van Zant once asserted that the rest of the band would "all be in his shadow one day"), but never got the chance to reach his full potential or cement his legacy the way Van Zant did.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: One can only begin to speculate on what Lynyrd Skynyrd might have produced and/or become if not for the plane crash. Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines in particular were rising stars with incredibly bright futures awaiting them (Gaines, though new to the band, was such a promising musician that Van Zant once claimed the rest of the band would "all be in his shadow one day").

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: One can only begin to speculate on what Lynyrd Skynyrd might have produced and/or become if not for the plane crash.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: "Sweet Home Alabama", released a little over a month before Nixon's resignation, references the Watergate scandal as a current event.

* AuthorExistenceFailure: One of the most memorable instances in music, when a plane crash tragically claimed the lives of musicians Ronnie van Zant and Steve Gaines, backup vocalist Cassie Gaines, and several production staff. The rest of the band either left, or died sometime after. TheBandMinusTheFace, indeed.

* AuthorExistenceFailure: One of the most memorable instances in music, when a plane crash tragically claimed the lives of two band members, a backup vocalist, and several production staff. The rest of the band either left, or died sometime after. TheBandMinusTheFace, indeed.