Having been met with critical acclaim upon release, thanks in part to songwriting and guitar contributions from new member Steve Gaines, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s fifth album, Street Survivors, should’ve been the start of a promising future for the Southern rock band.
On October 20, 1977, just three days after the release of the album, a Convair CV-240 plane crash cut that potential short. The aircraft, taking off from Greenville, South Carolina, was bound for Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where the band was expected to play a gig at Louisiana State University. However, a fuel shortage and the subsequent crash claimed the lives of Gaines, his sister and backing vocalist Cassie Gaines, and the band’s lead singer, Ronnie Van Zant.
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s road manager, Dean Kilpatrick, along with the flight crew, Captain Walter McCreary and First Officer William John Gray, were also killed in the incident. The group’s other members, Allen Collins, Gary Rossington, Leon Wilkeson, Billy Powell, Artimus Pyle, and Leslie Hawkins, along with tour manager Ron Eckerman, survived the crash but suffered significant injuries, resulting in a ten-year hiatus that only ended when Johnny Van Zant, Ronnie’s brother, filled Ronnie’s role as lead vocalist in 1987.
Buoyed by early praise before the crash, Street Survivors, in addition to the spotlight on the group following the tragedy, went on to achieve gold certification within ten days of release, later going double platinum. The original album sleeve, in a case of unfortunate coincidence, featured the group surrounded by flames, with Steve Gaines’s face nearly entirely engulfed by the fire. At the request of his widow, Teresa Gaines, this was quickly withdrawn and replaced with a photo of the group against a black background.
Perhaps best summarized by music critic Robert Christgau, Street Survivors suffers from an additional tragedy in that the album accidentally became the original group’s final work, after the band found new strength thanks to their recently changed lineup. Drawing a comparison to fellow music stars who died in 1977, Christgau wrote in his A-grade review, “I mourn [Van Zant] not least because I suspect that he had more good music left in him than Bing [Crosby] and Elvis put together.”
