re: Lynyrd Skynyrd vs CCR

CCR, better lead vocals, more iconic songs, by all accounts were a great live band in their prime. A really self-contained band in that John Fogerty produced and wrote the songs, whereas Skynyrd had the benefit of Al Kooper doing the dirty work.

CCR all day.

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This is something people fail to acknowledge. Ronnie Van Zant was one of the group's principle songwriters. His death warrants the speculation of what sort of material would have been produced had he not passed away.

The band was undergoing a pretty noticeable shift in sound when Street Survivors was released, and I have to wonder which direction they would have ultimately taken had it not been for the plane crash.

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I've long thought Skynyrd would have eventually morphed into a country band (albeit one that rocks) and be viewed as the godfathers of modern country. And I think Street Survivors points to that direction.

By the time albums like Nuthin Fancy and Gimme Back My Bullets were released the band and their songs felt labored and perfunctory. Steve Gaines came along at the exact right time to infuse the band with some fresh energy and give them their second wind. They were having fun again and the creative juices were all over that last record.

It's one of the great tragedies in music that we didn't get to see them fulfill that promise.

I'll get booed for this but I hate both. I can recognize the quality in their music but it has long-since been ruined by repetition and sappy sentimentality of the fans. I can't listen to CCR without getting the mental image of bland, basic people thinking they're being rebels by "rocking out" to Proud Mary. And Lynyrd gives me white trash douche chills all the way to the bone.

Sometimes a car with high mileage is a classic. And sometimes that car just needs to be dropped off at the fricking junkyard already.

I feel CCR has aged remarkably well. Hell, I'm hearing new songs from them via the internet and movies that I never heard much of on classic rock radio. Maybe it's my affinity for JF's voice but I personally never have to force myself to sit through a CCR classic. For Skynyrd, it's the opposite with the exception of "Tuesday's Gone," which has become my favorite of theirs.

CCR by a mile,

"CCR doesn't have anything close to Freebird " live" though."

This would be a net positive for CCR.

Everytime I hear someone shout "play freebird" at a concert a part of me dies

CCR by a mile!