Ten Favorite Time of Day Songs: Hurry Sundown (#4)

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Hillbilly is probably scaring the daylights out of my regular readers (both of 'em). I'm delving into previously uncharted territory on this list of my favorite songs with a time of day (a general time, not a specific clock reading) in the title. Here's the next shock...er....song. #4: Hurry Sundown - Outlaws Can you believe it? Two, count 'em, TWO southern rock songs on the same countdown!!!????? I know. Scary, ain't it. Truth be told, I like a lot of the first-generation southern rock: Skynyrd (other than "Sweet Home Alabama," which I simply heard too much), Marshall Tucker, the Atlanta Rhythm Section, Charlie Daniels, and these guys. I grew up in Florida, so a lot of these acts got significantly more airplay there than they may have in the rest of the country. When I lived on the west coast of Florida the Outlaws' big top 40 hit, "There Goes Another Love Song," was popular, but the local stations played more than that because the Outlaws were from Tampa. Even when my folks moved back to Daytona Beach the popularity of the band had spread to most of the FM rock stations in the region. There are some commonalities in southern rock: more guitars in the band than at your local music store and a "ghost story" or two. Marshall Tucker's "Fire on the Mountain" is sung from the point of view of a man murdered for his gold claim; and there's Charlie Daniels' "The Legend of Wooley Swamp. The Outlaws' entry into the "ghost story" theme is this song, about a group of gypsies summoning "the ghost of an outlaw, Sundown was his name" (ha, and you thought that was just Gordon Lightfoot's cheating wife's name from that song! ) to ask him to take vengeance on a man who'd killed one of the gypsies. At the end the ghost obliges ("he had come for the one who'd took her life"). Sad to say, there's another commonality about southern rockers: they don't tend to live to be a ripe old age. You know, of course, about the 1977 plane crash that killed Skynyrd lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and his sister, tour singer Cassie Gaines. Two brothers in the Marshall Tucker Band -- Tommy and Toy Caldwell -- both died young and tragically (Tommy at 30 in a car wreck, and Toy at 45 of a cocaine overdose). Molly Hatchet lead singer Danny Joe Brown died at 53 of complications from diabetes. As I mentioned with "Midnight Rider," two members of the Allman Brothers Band (Duane Allman and Berry Oakley) died in motorcycle accidents 53 weeks and three blocks apart. Sadly, the Outlaws weren't exempt. Members Billy Jones and Frank O'Keefe died days apart in 1995, and original lead singer Hughie Thomasson died of a heart attack at the age of 55 in 2007. This is quality 70s southern rock. Hurry Sundown Written by Hughie Thomasson Recorded by the Outlaws From Hurry Sundown, 1977 Gypsies danced around the campfire: