WHISKEY BOTTLES: LYNYRD SKYNYRD

WHISKEY BOTTLES:LYNYRD SKYNYRD                MARK RIBOWSKY
Posted:  Feb. 28, 2015

 This intimate story of Lynyrd Skynyrd tells of how a band of lost souls and self-destructive misfits with uncertain artistic objectives clawed their way to the top of the rock 'n’ roll world. Based on interviews with surviving band members, Whiskey Bottles and Brand-New Cars shares how lead singer and front man Ronnie Van Zant guided the band’s hugely successful five-year run and, in the process, created not only a new country rock idiom, but a new Confederacy in constant conflict with old Southern totems and prejudices. Placing the music and personae of Skynyrd into a broad cultural context, this book gives a new perspective to a history of stage fights, motel-room destructions, cunning business deals, and brilliant studio productions. It also offers a greater appreciation for a band whose legacy, in the aftermath of their last plane ride, has since descended into self-caricature.

HUBBY'S REVIEW:
This is an in depth look at the rise and tragic crash of the Band Lnyrnd Skynyrd. This book starts with Ronnie Von Zant, and how he went from a rowdy kid to a rock musician who still fought but could write music, sing and play guitar. This band lived life liked they played music loud wild and free. There are fights, yelling and with fists. There are deals made and deals broken. Goes into how much they drank, took drugs, how long they were on the road and how much money other people made off of him and the band. How the so call manger bought a plane that Aerosmith would not buy, and while the band flew on the plane he flew first class on a commercial airline, all to save a few bucks. Aerosmith thanked there guy and gave him a raise, they were flying in their own private jet bought for 200,000 a Cessna 310. Which by the way Skynyrd could have afforded. You get a look at Ronnie’s broken personal relationships and what it took for them to get certain songs they wanted recorded. How it was so frustrating for them to get a record deal but then to do the music their way, and to record Free Bird. This book starts off with the author talking about how Ronnie Van Zant loved to fight as kid and even when he was older. The book ends the same way, for either the surviving members are either fighting for their lives because of drug and alcohol abuse or they are still fighting one another since the crash. The end of the book is the saddest because of instead of the survivors coming together they went after each other and tried to destroy each other that they were bigger than the other one. When in fact they were all there because of Ronnie, he made them practice, he made them write songs, and yes they fought but they did it together and when they all got on stage or in a recording studio they made magic. Why? Because their music is still great today as when I bought their first album back 1973 and the ones after that, I even have the album with the flames on the cover before they pulled them from the shelves. I still listen to their music and it means more to me now than it did to me as a teenager. This is a good book with a ton of information that I have left out you will not be disappointed in this book. I got this book from net galley.  I give this 5 Stars.