Something 4 The Weekend # 104

Lynyrd Skynyrd: Second Helping: "Call Me The Breeze" [mp3]

Lynyrd Skynyrd's longtime keyboardist Billy Powell died of a heart attack this Wednesday at the age of 56...With his passing, guitarist Gary Rossington remains the only living member of the original band...Sad but true, though the band itself...Well, we all know what happened...

Now, if I wanted to really honor Billy Powell, I suppose I should stream "Freebird" here and now, because it was Powell's piano arrangement of that song that not only got him promoted from roadie to keyboardist, but his arrangement that ended up on the band's debut album...

But I simply don't...can't...stream that song...Not even the original demo version that is thick with Powell's piano...No, we've all heard "Freebird" enough in this lifetime, and I say that as someone who considers Lynyrd Skynyrd one of the four or five greatest rock bands in the geezer pantheon...

So, here we are..."Call Me The Breeze"...Sticky boogie, it is, but more to the point, Billy Powell has a solo in the middle, and after he does his thing for twelve bars, yr thinking, "meh, that was alright", he then launches into a second dozen that's got a spot more piss and fire...If you've listened to dinosaur radio at all in yr life (if yr old like like me) you've probably heard this song a few times...Enough times that Powell's solo has kinda become iconic...Not as iconic and even legendary as "Freebird", of course, but damn good playing on a classic summer song, something that feels good and needed after running around today in the biting cold of late January.

RIP, Billy Powell...You kept a great band choogling along...

Hotcha! Hank