Excellent brand new, factory sealed CD.

When the plane carrying Lynyrd Skynyrd went down, it was the day the music died for many Southern rock fans. Ronnie VanZant, the guiding light of Skynyrd, was gone, as was guitarist Steve Gaines -- both taken at the peak of the band's popularity. And while a Skynyrd demo collection was rushed out in 1978, the Rossington Collins Band essentially provided the final chapter in the original Lynyrd Skynyrd story. Along with new singer Dale Krantz, four of the surviving members -- guitarists Gary Rossington and Allen Collins along with keyboard player Billy Powell and bassist Leon Wilkeson -- regrouped and recorded two albums, 1980's Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere and This Is the Way, released in 1982. The ongoing MCA series 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection collects the best tracks from those two albums plus a few tracks from itinerant projects from Rossington and Collins later in the decade. Their most popular tracks are here, "Prime Time" and "Don't Misunderstand Me," but it's "Tashauna" -- a tribute to VanZant -- that remains the most resonant moment for the band. Hardcore fans will certainly search out the full albums, but for anyone wondering what happened to these Skynyrd vets after the tragic turns of their late-'70s demise (and before their re-emergence in the '90s), this is a great place to start. 

Rossington Collins Band, as they came to be called, were more than a cash-in effort. With three powerful guitarists and a rhythm section the envy of anyone in rock, a strong singer fronting them, and the combined talents of several good in-house songwriters, they were a solid hard rock outfit with a soulful edge. Fans flocked to them in the second half of 1980 when they issued their first LP, Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere, which made it to the Top 20 and earned a gold record award with help from the single "Don't Misunderstand Me." The group might have been able to build on that beginning but for events in Allen Collins' life starting late that same year -- the loss of his wife was only the beginning of a tragic series of events that ultimately destroyed his career and took his life; it was enough to remove him from most of the creative aspects of the band's music, and he was barely visible as a composer on the group's next album, This Is the Way (which was dedicated to Katy Collins' memory). The album was surprisingly good considering the circumstances behind its recording and release, rising into the Top 30. 

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