Vastly underrated but abundantly talented.

Re: RIP Billy Powell

COOL!!!!!! Where you bin!!!!!!
That is sad news. And so it begins again. Losing people who impacted the music.

Guess that’s the way it goes,huh?

Re: RIP Billy Powell

56 yrs old… too bad

under-rated?

The piano itself is under-rated in rock and roll… and the guitar is over-rated

Re: RIP Billy Powell

I don’t know how under-rated he was, but playing in such a horrendously awful group couldn’t have helped.

Re: RIP Billy Powell

I don’t know how under-rated he was, but playing in such a horrendously awful group couldn’t have helped.

Its clear the first part of your comment is true “i dont know”. You should have left it at that.

They were seven-time platinum and one gold in their 4 year career. If you enjoy rocknroll, you are an isolated sole if you think this group is awful.

....as most of your opinions and behavior are also companionless in this forum

/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif alt=

Re: RIP Billy Powell

If you enjoy rocknroll, you are an isolated sole if you think this group is awful.

Hardly. I haven’t met a sole soul since 1973 or so (whenever their abomination “Freebird” began to be aired) who professed to like them, and I’ve met all sorts of persons who professed to abhor them.

....as most of your opinions and behavior are also companionless in this forum

I’ve certainly noticed that musical taste in general is abysmal here (with significant exceptions), but I rather doubt that this group is universally admired even here (in this forum universe). Powell himself is obscure (or possibly “under-rated") enough that probably not everyone even knows what group it is we’re talking about--or didn’t before I mentioned “Freebird”: It’s the infamous Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Does de mortuis nil nisi bonum come with a statute of limitations? Of course it does, and I determined it passed in this case after you dredged this thread from the bottom of the sea. When it was originally extant I simply ignored it. Still, it should be clear that I’m in no way condemning Powell himself.

Re: RIP Billy Powell

Well im gonna go out on a limb and say that its your personality disorder talking and you don’t truely believe this group is as “horrendously awful” as you scoff.

Re: RIP Billy Powell

That’s going out on a limb, all right. I’ll (otherwise) ignore the gratuitous and outrageous insult and mention certain (of the many) things about this group that annoy the hell out of me.

I don’t know to what extent they envisioned themselves as Allman Brothers impersonators, but it’s pretty clear that the Allman Brothers unwittingly paved the way forward for them, and it strikes me that their regrettable popularity to a significant extent rests on a preference for the ersatz, the phony, the fake, the second-hand. (The second-hand is always safer; it’s easier to adopt someone else’s opinion than originate your own.)

There’s little I can say of “Freebird“‘s lyric except to point out that it’s offensively idiotic--in other words, not at all deserving of analysis--, but what’s the deal with the seemingly random tempo fluctuations in this thing, and do you truly rate the guitar solos (or triples, as it were) worthy of, say, Duane Allman and Eric Clapton on Layla and Other Love Songs? They seem to me exceedingly amateurish.

Let’s consider the lyric to “Sweet Home Alabama”: Do you really think “I hope Neil Young will remember/A southern man don’t need him around anyhow” a witty riposte? Do you really think “Now Watergate does not bother me/Does your conscience bother you?” a penetrating political analysis or in any way responsible (rather than, say, appallingly reprehensible)?

Re: RIP Billy Powell

I guess it’s safe to say that scotch doesn’t do gigs where “Sweet Home Alabama” is played....  /forums/images/icons/wink.gif alt=

Re: RIP Billy Powell

I once did a week in Nashville at a club called Cajun’s Wharf. No one requested Lynyrd Skynyrd. (I like the portrait, by the way. Where’d you get it?)

Re: RIP Billy Powell

(I like the portrait, by the way. Where’d you get it?)

A fan drew it at a gig. I’m still trying to find his business card; so many people like his work.

Re: RIP Billy Powell

Scotch, IMO you’re judging the book by it’s cover. Freebird and Sweet Home Alabama are just two songs from Lynyrd Skynyrds long career. Maybe they are the most played in radio stations but the genius is hiding elsewhere.

Many of their songs are praises for the Simple Man and Good Clean Fun. Carefull listening might widen your world too.

Re: RIP Billy Powell

Although, even on SHA powell had some cool piano chops at the end. His piano solos were great on the songs that called for it. You certainly didnt hear great piano solos from allman brothers. From the stories ive heard they forced gregg allman to play something instead of allowing him to just sing, so he chose keys.

Eric clapton however did play with some great keyboard players, chuck leavell notably, especially on “old love” from unplugged album..

hear this solo from attachment in this thread

CLICK

Re: RIP Billy Powell

What are you talking about, man? Chuck Leavell was a member of the Allman Brothers!

You certainly didnt hear great piano solos from allman brothers.

Oh, yes I did. I’ll make you a deal: If you return with proof that you’ve listened to Brothers and Sisters, I’ll make an attempt to find (at the city library or the university library) the Lynyrd Skynyrd. album of your choosing--so long as it doesn’t include “Freebird” or “Sweet Home Alabama”. (I’m not equipped to hear your attachment, I’m afraid. In any case, Billy Powell’s playing is not the thing in dispute here.)

There is also Sea Level, whom I saw in concert once, but I think I liked Leavell best with the Allman Brothers.

From the stories ive heard they forced gregg allman to play something instead of allowing him to just sing, so he chose keys.

He sang soulfully, and soulfulness is one thing (among many) I never heard in Lynyrd Skynyrd. Although he occasionally played piano and guitar ("Melissa" on Eat a Peach, for example), as an instrumentalist he was essentially an organist. Although he occasionally played solos on the organ, as an organist he was essentially a colorist, and I happen to think him proficient at that (although he may not have been at the very start).

Re: RIP Billy Powell

HOLY CRAP!

I didnt know leavell was in allman bros!!!!

ps. how could i forget jessica?

Re: RIP Billy Powell

[tuquoque] Scotch, IMO you’re judging the book by it’s cover. Freebird and Sweet Home Alabama are just two songs from Lynyrd Skynyrds long career. Maybe they are the most played in radio stations but the genius is hiding elsewhere.

Well, let’s hope so. As far as radio play goes there was (and remains) also “Gimme Three Steps, Mister”, which I wouldn’t mind at all if it didn’t seem to me a pale reflection of “One Way Out”. “Freebird” is a pretty lengthy “just”.

Anyway, I don’t think this analogy quite right. The cover of a book is no part of the work itself, whereas “Freebird” and “Sweet Home Alabama” are actual samples of the oeuvre, apparently the most popular samples (and popularity was presented to me just a bit back as evidence of worth). I don’t know a better way to judge whether the rest of an oeuvre is worth assimilating than to listen to a sample.

Moreover, if we take for the purpose of argument Lynyrd Skynyrd to mean that particular incarnation responsible for the samples in question, then it’s reasonable to assume for the rest of the oeuvre the same whiny voice as on “Freebird”, the same amateurish guitar playing as on “Freebird”, and the same inability to hold a tempo as on “Freebird”, to say nothing of the same songwriting. It’s a pretty far cry from “Freebird” to “genius”: Let’s say I’m dubious.

Nevertheless, pending further investigation, I’ll amend my original remark and apply the description “horrendously awful” only to “Freebird” and “Sweet Home Alabama” (excepting Powell’s playing on the latter--which I happened particularly to notice and wonder about at the gym a couple of weeks ago, by the way).