2178. “Greenville to Baton Rouge” by The Drive-By Truckers
Hear it at Last.fm
“Greenville to Baton Rouge” was the route of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s final flight, so its only fitting that the penultimate song on Southern Rock Opera addresses this directly. The lyrics basically address what the band might have been thinking on the flight before they realized that disaster was imminent.
There’s a bunch of resources out there about that fatal night.
Crash survivor Gene Odom (their bodyguard) describes it (Gene Odom’s Wikipedia Entry
A page dedicated to telling the story
Anyhow, suffice to say, this would have been a genuine tragedy even if it hadn’t happened to one of the most important bands of the 70’s.
In our production, let’s assume that the hero is flying the same route, but isn’t really thinking he’s going to experience the same fate. The style of the song lends itself to the character being irritated, but not necessarily aware of what’s about to happen to him. I think we can stage this in a way that the plane is obviously having a bumpy - maybe even more bumpy than normal - ride. It isn’t until the end of the song - and transition into the next song - that he realizes this is really it.