Lord Knows I Can't Change

You know when the world has gone mad when you read a review of a simple rock concert and it forgets about the music and drones on and on about inexplicable connections to random things that 20 year old kids never thought about when they wrote them. This is the Globe and Mail:

"At the Toronto concert, which is part of an extended farewell tour, Skynyrd singer Johnny Van Zant (the much younger brother of Ronnie Van Zant, the singer who was killed along with two other band members in a plane crash in 1977) asked if there were any Americans in the audience. People booed at that instance, but otherwise lustily applauded a retiring group “singing songs about the South land.” They cheered the loudest for the show-closing Free Bird, a euphoric anthem, a defiant declaration of the band’s rebel spirit – “Lord help me, I can’t change” – and, ultimately, a farewell.

"There’s a certain romance to the band’s rebellious spirit. Nostalgia is a part of it as well. But, mostly, the material was the main appeal of the night. It stands up, even if some of its most important creators no longer do. Sweet Home Alabama still has the ability to “pick me up when I’m feeling blue,” all these years later."

This makes me wonder if the reviewer was actually there at the show or simply wrote an op-ed based on whatever crusade he was on at the time. For goodness sake, these tunes were written by a bunch of 20 year olds hoping against hope to make the big time. No political side to things. Actually the band is very good friends with Neil Young and this was a gentle piece of mickey taking ... according to another biopic on You Tube, that great encyclopedia of the modern day.

It was a great night except that Viv gave her ticket to one of our friends who was visiting us, Martin from Boston. She'd threatened this at each show but this time it was for real which was a shame as it was the best show of all.

I hadn't realized there'd be other bands as well as ZZ Top and was surprised when we turned up to find Blackfoot churning away. Then 38 Special, another 2nd or 3rd tier American band who are very, very accomplished. Both I'd never given much time to but I was looking forward to ZZ Top and boy did they deliver.

I'd watched yet another biopic on You Tube and learned like many bands from the 1970s who sort of quit at the beginning of the 1980s when they became dinosaurs, out of fashion with what was going on, they got back together largely because the people who were their fans in the 1970s were still their fans, but now had jobs, families and other responsibilities. I remember crying when The Who announced their break up in 1982, for example. Returning to ZZ Top they got back together again a few years later and discovered that they had both grown beards, well Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill had anyway. So they kept them and started playing once more.

Who even knows what they look like before those beards??

This is what they look like before they had beards. Or rather long beards

They were great!

As for Lynyrd Skynyrd, I'd seen them 8 or 9 times before. It was John Peel in England who introduced me to them and I remember buying their first album as an expensive US import when I was at college during a (one of many) rail strike in London. I had to lug the damn thing around with me for days before I could get it home and listen to it. 

The first show of theirs I saw was in Southend at the Kursaal when they supported Golden Earring, a fabulous Dutch rock band. They were fantastic however I was really disappointed that a girl I really fancied who wore a long Afghan coat (as I recall) ended up backstage snogging one of the guitarists... and I suppose did other things too. I dropped the notion of chasing her immediately.

The guitarist on the right, Allen Collins, was the guy snogging that girl I fancied at the Kursaal!

Others followed including one in the US sometime in the 1990s when they played the same set as they did tonight. Boy, am I glad some things don't change. Sounds like the title of this blog! Mind you their significant years were in such a short space of time before they went down in a plane crash when a number died. Only one is alive and in the band these days.

The sole survivor, Gary Rossington

The audience went wild throughout... including myself! I video'd the encore 'Freebird' all 14 minutes of it and can tell you that holding up that damn phone was hard work on some muscles in my arm that I didn't know that I had.

Thanks guys! You were and remain the best!! Oh yes and here of course is.... from Toronto 2018 in all its glory. Hope you like it!!