Let me begin with an explanation, the name – vanzantshat – why?
I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s, “when dinosaurs still roamed the earth” (thank you to the Drive by Truckers for this quote) , or so my children think. I remember the advent of colour TV, Neil Armstrong first steps on the moon, and the Beatles debuting “All you need is love” on the first world wide TV satellite link up. There were no PCs, IPADs, IPODs, or mobile phones. We had 2 TVs, one in the sitting room and the other a small b&w in my parent’s bedroom. It is here that I’d watch “The Old Grey Whistle Test” (with Bob Harris).
One late night in 1975, whispering Bob introduced a song that was to change my life! Well that may be an exaggeration, but it certainly shaped my life from the age of 15 / 16 onwards. I didn’t catch the name of the song but the band was called Lynyrd Skynyrd and so the next day I headed down to my local record shop, the “Sound of Music” in Rotherham, and purchased an album called “Nuthin’ Fancy”. I got home played it through a couple of times, but didn’t find the song and the next day I headed back to the shop bought my second Skynyrd album “pronounced ‘lĕh-‘nérd ‘skin-‘nerd”, and there I found the song – “Free Bird”. I was hooked!
Years later I found the recording shown that I’d seen on the OGWT, it was from December 1974 @ WDR Musikhalle Hamburg in Germany (for the record, Skynyrd were touring Europe as support for Golden Earring).
Aficionados of all things “Skynyrd” will tell you that their lead singer was named Ronnie Van Zant and that in later years he wore a hat, and for the majority of my life his songs have feature most prominently on my record player, on my song Walkman, and now on my ipod.
van zant's hat 