Uploaded June 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
"If I Leave Here Tomorrow, Would You Still Remember Me?"
I was writing a song about dying, when I noticed that everyone who writes or sings about death, dies ... and usually tragically.
Lynyrd Skynyrd's first album, released in 1973, concluded with Free Bird. They closed all their concerts with this song as the final number.
The lyrics asked "If I Leave Here Tomorrow, Would You Still Remember Me?" and the last line in the song is "Fly High Free Bird."
On October 20, 1977, only three days after the release of their fifth studio album, Street Survivors, their plane ran out of fuel and crashed near Gillsburg, Mississippi.
Singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, backing singer Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary, and co-pilot William Gray, were all killed on impact. Guitarist Allen Collins survived the crash but died of in pneumonia in 1990.
The original cover for Street Survivors featured a photograph of the band standing on a street with all its buildings engulfed in flames, obscuring Steve Gaines's face. The cover was changed out of respect for the deceased.
Side Note: I quickly reworked the theme of my tune to be about returning home through space and time (totally not dying). I then dropped the lyrics and turned the melody into a guitar instrumental. That should be safe (youtu.be/1FuUKGrjEGY)!
"If I Leave Here Tomorrow, Would You Still Remember Me?"
I was writing a song about dying, when I noticed that everyone who writes or sings about death, dies ... and usually tragically.
Lynyrd Skynyrd's first album, released in 1973, concluded with Free Bird. They closed all their concerts with this song as the final number.
The lyrics asked "If I Leave Here Tomorrow, Would You Still Remember Me?" and the last line in the song is "Fly High Free Bird."
On October 20, 1977, only three days after the release of their fifth studio album, Street Survivors, their plane ran out of fuel and crashed near Gillsburg, Mississippi.
Singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, backing singer Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary, and co-pilot William Gray, were all killed on impact. Guitarist Allen Collins survived the crash but died of in pneumonia in 1990.
The original cover for Street Survivors featured a photograph of the band standing on a street with all its buildings engulfed in flames, obscuring Steve Gaines's face. The cover was changed out of respect for the deceased.
Side Note: I quickly reworked the theme of my tune to be about returning home through space and time (totally not dying). I then dropped the lyrics and turned the melody into a guitar instrumental. That should be safe (youtu.be/1FuUKGrjEGY)!
