Leon Wilkeson Fan Club

I've always thought that Leon was rock solid. He always had tasteful lines and a great tone, IMO.

 

When my son was in high school he was in the marching band and at home games they had a stage setup for bass, guitar and drums. My son played the guitar and they played Freebird during half-time. He had a blast playing the solo and it was a real crowd pleaser.

Since I was never in a situation where I had to learn it, while he was learning the song I was fiddling with the bass line and I was impressed with how melodic it is.

 

Great player, great band.

I've be re-visiting some of their albums recently, really just digging the tunes and the playing - so this is quite a timely thread.

There's some great stuff on YT, few where LW is playing a Jazz. Proves that they can cut right through if they can get past the wall of Skynyrd guitars!

 

Love his playing. His tone on the jazz bass sounds amazing. I found some settings for his jazz bass. He is mainly using the bridge pickup.

 

What would Leon do?

He was a great player. Jazz bass into Peavey amps. Cannot deny he was tops

 

This is the tune that made me realizes that they were great players, love this tune. I used to do it in a country/southern half original rock band during the early 80's we did a good job on it and it was always one of the crowds favorite tunes.

 

I thought he used mainly T-Birds?

 

He also used a early p bass seen in

 

He used a number of different basses. Here Leon is playing a j bass

 

The credits on the debut LP say that Leon composed "many" of the bass parts Ed played, not all of them. I don't know if it's known which ones Leon wrote.

 

When Ed King played free bird on the album the bass sounds totally different to Leon’s live version.

 

I’ve long been a “casual” Skynyrd fan, but have recently dove deeper into the legends, lore, and the music. ‘Frustrated to find so little about Leon’s playing, his gear, his influences... Like a lot of bassists, he’s way underrated and overlooked.

 

It’s not either or; Larry Junstrom, later of 38 Special, and Greg T Walker, later of Blackfoot, preceded Leon in Skynyrd and may have composed of the bass lines for songs written before Leon was in the band.