3 Southern Rock Groups From the 1970s You’d Never Skip on the Radio

Southern rock music came to life in the 1970s. While bands from across the pond like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and The Who were proving the British Invasion was alive and well, other bands from the muggy South were doing their thing.

And that’s just what we wanted to dive into here below. We wanted to highlight three rock bands from the US that proved southern rock could stand on its own two feet. Indeed, these are three southern rock groups from the 1970s you won’t change the radio dial for.

Lynyrd Skynyrd

Born in Jacksonville, Florida, there might not be any band more representative of southern rock than Lynyrd Skynyrd. Indeed, the band’s 1973 debut LP, (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd), was an instant classic for southern rock fans. The record included songs like “Tuesday’s Gone”, “Simple Man”, and “Free Bird”. What more could you want? With a joy and talent in spades, Lynyrd Skynyrd, which released five albums in the 1970s, understood two things very well: Music is an art form that should be pursued, and partying is as good a pastime as any!

The Allman Brothers Band

This is another group that got its start in Jacksonville, Florida. Surely, something must have been in the water there in the 1970s. Regardless, The Allman Brothers Band boasted attitude, artfulness, and a bit of wizardry in their music. While the project released its debut self-titled LP in 1969, The Allman Brothers Band went on to release seven more albums in the 1970s, including their seminal live record, At Fillmore East. Every track on that album seems bolstered by bolts of literal lightning.

ZZ Top

ZZ Top comes from Texas. And as soon as you hear their buzzing rock music, you can hear their roots. The bearded band shared their debut LP, ZZ Top’s First Album, in 1971. Thereafter, they enjoyed several eras of popularity. The 1973 album Tres Hombres includes the sensational blues-rock track “La Grange”. It’s a song you’ve heard 10,000 times whether you know it or not—it’s that classic. Really, if that was the band’s only release, they’d still be icons. But the Texas-born project enjoyed later successes, too, thanks to songs like “Sharp Dressed Man” and “Legs”.

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