32 Years Today: Steve Gaines Remembered

How To Play ‘I Know a Little;’ Played on a Les Paul?

We miss you down here, man!

Thirty-two years ago today, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane went down and we lost one of the greatest guitar players ever to walk out on a stage: 28-year-old Steve Gaines.

Steve was an absolute monster. Couple quotes to that effect (if you read nothing else, read Ed King’s!):

Ronnie Van Zant
Ronnie and the other members of Skynyrd, were blown away by Steve. Ronnie’s well-known quote was that someday everyone else in Skynyrd would be in Steve’s shadow.

Ed King
Steve replaced Ed King in Skynyrd, and this is what Ed had to say about Steve on his website:

“Those Steve Gaines parts are a BEAR. I hate ’em. I’d rather play the long version of ‘Freebird’ twice in a row than play ‘I Know a Little.’ He was one of the best I’d ever heard. I’ve been trying to play this one lick in ‘That Smell’ for 15 years. Still can’t get it.

“I never liked to play any of Gaines’ parts! They’re damn near impossible. Of course, he couldn’t play the solo to “Sweet Home Alabama” either – but I’ll bet he didn’t bitch and moan about my parts like I did about his!

“Some people think that because one guitar player ‘smokes’ another, that player must be better. Maybe technically. I can guarantee you that Gaines was in awe of the songs those other two guitar players had written with Van Zant.

“Most other guitar players can ‘smoke’ me real bad…Carlisi [Jeff, of .38 Special] and Hargrett [Charlie, of Blackfoot] come to mind. But I wrote some memorable stuff, so I can hold my own. In my opinion, Rossington and Collins could most definitely hold their own with Gaines. But if I was Rossington and Collins, I wouldn’t want to go off and jam with Gaines! There is that ‘technical’ aspect!

“I’m sure once Gaines joined the band, AC and GR really had to step it up. And they did. I love AC’s parts on ‘That Smell,’ but you’ve got to be able to hear that he can barely keep up with Gaines. Gaines’ arrival may have made AC and GR think, for the first time, that they could be replaced!”

‘I Know a Little’

It goes without saying but I’m going to say it anyway: The ‘I Know a Little’ intro is one of the baddest, craziest, greatest, how in THE HELL did he come up with that series of riffs ever.

I’ve never heard anyone, on video or live, nail the ‘I Know a Little’ intro. I’ve heard people say they knew someone who could or did, but…are you sure they NAILED it? Following is Steve playing it pre-Skynyrd, and a few how-to vids. But first, here’s Ed King’s opinion on the intro, which most people think is played on a Strat:

“I don’t care what y’all say – ‘I Know a Little’ was played on the Les Paul Custom (that had some modifications on the wiring), and ‘That Smell’ was a Strat. That is IT.”

Steve playing it pre-Skynyrd
> You can hear how he changes the opening lick when he plays it the third and fourth times. Is that one of the secrets to mastering this lick?
> Steve owned two Les Pauls, and this sounds like a Les Paul!

Album (Street Survivors) version
> Yes it could be a Les Paul!

Fender demo artist Greg Koch coming very close!
> Riffs 5 and 6 on the opening don’t sound right to me…but the rest is sweet!

Greg breaks the riff down – great stuff!
> Presumably from Greg’s Skynyrd riffs DVD, which you can find here.

Notable

Guess what Steve's favorite band was when he was a teenager?

> Quote from Steve, on Oct. 17, 1977: “This is like a start of what I want to do. This is the beginning. I hope that I can be good enough to keep on going…. This is all I ever dreamed about, you know? Just doing this.”

> Also don’t forget today about the other folks who died in that crash, notably Ronnie, Steve’s sister Cassie, Skynyrd assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter Wiley McCreary (who may have caused the crash by miscalculating the amount of fuel needed for the flight) and co-pilot William John Gray.

> All photos in this post are from the official Steve Gaines website, which looks like it hasn’t been updated in a while.

Category: Les Paul, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Steve Gaines, Strat