Down South Jukin’

“Billy Joe told me, said everything’s lookin’ fine.”

The Lynyrd Skynyrd Band was struggling to write new material. Their practice studio, the un-airconditioned “Hell House”, was cooking under the north Florida sun. Ronnie, pissed at the lack of progress and the immature playfullness of his younger bandmates, sent them all but Gary to get Cokes. Too poor to own a car and too afraid of Ronnie’s temper to say no, the boys started up the dirt road hoofin’ it on foot, red-neck style.

”He got the place all secure, got the ice box full of wine.”

Ronnie told Gary to play something... anything. Gary found a choppy lick and looped it over again and again while Ronnie began singing about what he knew... southern life. Lynyrd Skynyrd has a dozen rock and roll classics and Ronnie never wrote a single lyric down on paper... not one. Before the other band members got back with the Cokes “Down South Jukin’“ was a completed song. Never a big hit it was, never-the-less, the song that drew me to the band.

”He said, now hurry on over and don’t be late, I got three lovely ladies that just won’t wait. We‘ll do some down south jukin, lookin’ for peace of mind.”

The song resonated with me and my high school friends. These were our guitar heroes. They were singing about their lives, but could just as easily have been singing about ours. Those guys on the record were just like us! They were country kids going to town on Friday night, looking for love, or ready for a fight, just like us! Billy Joe was having a party. “I got girls over... Where the hell are you guys at?” That was my life they were singing about. Billy Joe could just as easily have been one of my buddies.

”Now come Monday mornin’ we’ll be headin’ back to the fields. We’ll be pickin’ up cotton for Poppa and Ol’ Uncle Bill. Well, but come Friday night we’ll be headin’ to town, tryin’ to pick up any woman hangin’ around, and do some down south jukin’, lookin’ for peace of mind.”

Working class people, farm kids blowing off steam on Friday night. Yep. Ronnie even sounded like us, with that southern twang of his. His voice wasn’t perfect, but his songs were. Despite the rock anthem influences of “British Wave” bands like Free and Cream, Ronnie gave his “rock and roll” a country feel, and a country sound, that made it feel like it was ours. The east coast had The E-Street Band, and the mid-west had The Silver Bullet Band, and the west coast had... well, whatever that weird hippie-shit was that the west coast had ;), but Skynyrd, the hardest rockers of them all, belonged to us.

I was walking down Broadway in Nashville the other day and Skynyrd songs were pumping out of three different honky-tonks. Ronnie’s music is still raking the kids in forty years later. I guess maybe a lot of people are still just, “Down South Jukin’, and searching for some peace of mind?”

So clap those hands on the down-beat people, and stomp them feet...

Doin’ it, Ronnie! We miss you, brother.