Revisiting Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Doomed ‘Street Survivors’

Street Survivors was going to be the album that would make Lynyrd Skynyrd even bigger stars. They had already dented the mainstream, reaching the Top 10 with “Sweet Home Alabama” in 1974, and picking up a sizable following of Southern rock fans since releasing their 1973 debut. Street Survivors, released on Oct. 17, 1977, was supposed to catapult them into a whole other realm of rock-star popularity. The year before, they added a guitarist, Steve Gaines, who also sang and wrote. They sharpened their pop hooks, becoming a more soulful group as a result. And they tinkered with the album to the point where they scrapped the original recordings and returned to a Georgia studio with producer Tom Dowd to tweak all of the songs… read more >