The Ballad of Curtis Loew

"The Ballad of Curtis Loew"[2][3][4] is a song written by Allen Collins and Ronnie Van Zant and recorded by Lynyrd Skynyrd. The song was first released on the band's 1974 album, Second Helping[5] and again on their compilation, The Essential Lynyrd Skynyrd and later on All Time Greatest Hits. It is on many of their compilation albums and before the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash, was performed once live on stage. Ed King says, "The original version of the band only played 'Curtis Loew' one time on stage. We were playing in a basement in some hotel and thought we'd try it. We never played it again until the Tribute Tour with Johnny Van Zant."

"The Ballad of Curtis Loew"
Song by Lynyrd Skynyrd
from the album Second Helping
ReleasedApril 15, 1974
RecordedRecord Plant Studios, Los Angeles, California, January 1974
Genre
Length4:51
LabelMCA Records
Songwriter(s)Allen Collins
Ronnie Van Zant
Producer(s)Al Kooper

Synopsis

A young boy wakes up early and searches for soda bottles to cash in at the local store. He gives the money to an old black man named Curtis Loew, who buys wine and plays blues songs on his old Dobro guitar for the boy all day. The boy often returns to hear Curtis play, despite receiving beatings from his mother; he idolizes Curtis, seeing him as "the finest picker to ever play the blues", and scorns the local people's opinion that he "was useless". When Curtis dies, no one attends his funeral and the narrator laments his passing: "I wish that you was here so everyone would know."[6]

Origin
The "country store" featured in "The Ballad of Curtis Loew".

The band's website says that the song is based on a composite of people who actually lived in the Van Zants' original neighborhood in Jacksonville, Florida. Specifically, the country store "is based on Claude's Midway Grocery on the corner of Plymouth and Lakeshore [Blvd] in Jacksonville." The business has since been renamed Sunrise Food Store, but still occupies the same location. The specific spelling of the surname comes from Ed King writing the liner notes for the Second Helping and deciding to name the bluesman after the Jewish Loew's Theatre.[7] Some of the sources mentioned include Claude H. "Papa" Hammer, Rufus "Tee Tot" Payne, Robert Johnson, and Shorty Medlocke,[8] the grandfather of Rickey Medlocke, Lynyrd Skynyrd's drummer during their 1970 tour and one of the band's current guitarists.[9]

Covers

References
  1. "The 25 best country rock songs of all time". Classic Rock Magazine. August 5, 2016. Retrieved April 27, 2019.
  2. Dorman, Frank; Odom, Gene (2003). Lynyrd Skynyrd: Remembering the Free Birds of Southern Rock. Broadway. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-7679-1027-9.
  3. Hale, Grace Elizabeth (2002). "Invisible Men". In Abadie, Ann J.; Urgo, Joseph R. (eds.). Faulkner and His Contemporaries. University Press of Mississippi. p. 166. ISBN 978-1-60473-544-4.
  4. Ching, Barbara (2008). "Where Has the Free Bird Flown?". In Watts, Trent (ed.). White Masculinity in the Recent South. Louisiana State University Press. p. 260. ISBN 978-0-8071-3314-9.
  5. "Second Helping" song list, lynyrdskynyrdhistory.com
  6. "The Ballad of Curtis Loew" lyrics. lynyrdskynyrdhistory.com
  7. "Was there a real Curtis Loew?" from the FAQ lynyrdskynyrd.com. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  8. Odom, Gene and Frank Dorman (2002) Lynyrd Skynyrd: Remembering the Free Birds of Southern Rock. Random House At Google Books. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  9. At the end of the live version on Live from Freedom Hall, Van Zant says "Curtis Loew and Mr Shorty Medlocke. How about it there, Kentucky?"
  10. "Greensky Bluegrass Live at Town Park on 2016-06-17". Internet Archive. soling. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
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