If I Leave Here Tomorrow: A Film About Lynyrd Skynyrd

Right now I'm thinking that this is the best documentary that I've ever seen. Definitely the best Music Documentary, and I've seen a lot of those. My husband and I watched all the way to the end and then pressed replay to rewatch right away. I've never done that with a movie before! I helps that we love the band, but you will love this movie even if you just love music documentaries. Or really interesting stories told very, very well.

Having grown up on Lynyrd Skynyrd's music, I thought the in-depth documentary was great. All of the photos and stories from the early days when they were just a bunch of kids from Jacksonville who wanted to be rock stars were fantastic, and Gary Rossington in particular is a very likable and endearing guy.

It's that they basically stopped at the plane crash, then skipped right to the band's rebirth, with no further story about the surviving members, that sucks. Mostly, that what happened to Allen Collins never came up. Frankly, Allen was probably the single most tragic member of Lynyrd Skynyrd (including those who died in the crash), and he was a founding member, yet after the plane crash there was no mention of him other than his "in memoriam" at the end. That kind of sucks. He deserved more.

Other than that, I really liked it.

If I Leave Here Tomorrow: A Film About Lynyrd Skynyrd (2018)

**** (out of 4)

Excellent documentary that covers the rise of Lynyrd Skynyrd from a small band playing in little clubs to becoming giants opening for The Rolling Stones, The Who and then taking off on their own. Of course, all of it came to a halt when a plane crash killed three members of the band including the lead singer.

IF I LEAVE HERE TOMORROW was released just as the band set off on their "Farewell Tour" and in many ways it's a very fitting documentary for a number of reasons. For starters, as it is said in the movie, a lot of people probably know the band for Sweet Home Alabama and Freebird yet they might not know other details about where they came from, how they took off and why they continued on after the crash. All of that is answered here and in fine detail.

Many of the surviving members are on hand speaking about the band's career and there's no question that this here is the highlight of the picture. It was really a lot of fun to get first-hand accounts of the band starting up, taking off and living up to their reputation. The drugs, the booze and the loud music are all discussed and we really get some great stories and some even better footage of the original band performing.

The plane crash is also discussed in detail including some rather haunting footage from current times when they revisit the crash site. In fact, they actually find a part of the plane, which is hard to believe after all of this time. The surviving members discuss what happened, what they knew about the plane before taking off and we get some chilling details about the crash itself.

IF I LEAVE HERE TOMORROW works as a great tribute to the band and add in all the great footage and fans should really enjoy this.

I was in the 10th grade when I first heard Lynyrd Skynyrd on WJLN out of Birmingham Alabama. It was immediate and I was interested. There was no internet let alone personal computers and my education was just listening. Fortunately one of my good friends ordered that first album which really hadn't broke yet. Listening to the entire album only further made a big impression. In less than a year I got to see them open for Wet Willie at Birmingham's Boutwell Auditorium. I was already a Wet Willie fan but this band was something else with three guitarists. Their second album came out and I still wasn't old enough for a driver's license but I'll never forget hearing them in my dad's pickup as he drove me home from school. It was Sweet Home Alabama and if it was on AM then Lynyrd Skynyrd was out of the closet in the mainstream. They did it without selling out or changing their style which I respected. I say all of this because I really was a faIn at the beginning. By the time of the live album I had lapsed because all of the drug addled red necks (which I wasn't) had chosen Skynyrd as their poster band. Still the music was calling. I couldn't really turn my back on the band. I had sat the records after Second Helping for the most part though. In this I heard the first cuts from Street Survivors and once more I was back. I quickly purchased the album. It would be a few weeks until the crash and I was fully back into Lynyrd Skynyrd. The crash was almost too poignant. I saved the front page of The Birmingham News the day after which sadly confirmed what we already knew. Could it be? Another of those days when the music died? Well that's a misnomer because the music lives on as we all have seen. That makes another Skynyrd documentary welcome as in this musical wasteland of today this stuff still is loved and listened to around the world.

With the above out of the way I'm going to actually do what this site intends and that is to give a personal critique of this particular documentary, and what a great addition it is. This really tells the best linear story of the band and does so with generous amounts of footage never before seen. It isn't at all about the concerts and the sound quality isn't that good of those clips. It doesn't matter because this is the real inside history of the band. There is much gold here such as Al Kooper saying he was in fear of Ronnie in a very respectful, but honestly felt, way. There is the arc of a band clawing it's way up not for money but because they loved doing it. There is the craziness that took them out of their beloved "Hell House" practice shack where they probably had more fun and creative juices without so many distractions. The final album was so aptly named in that they had suffered the unforgiving road with all of the nasty habits to re-focus on the music in a serious way. It's all here and with the excellent interviews of the actual members it is a fitting addition to past documentaries actually rising above all of them. In closing I want to say Jo Jo Billingsley was often a customer of mine. I run a shoe store and a shoe repair shop in Cullman, Alabama. Ms. Billingsley (her stage name) was actually Deborah Jo White and she is greatly missed as she was a joy whenever she came in and we got to talk. She related to me she had left the band but with Street Survivors she was back again only she was not going to be on stage for the first shows of the supporting tour as she was attending to her mother who was not well at the time. It was one of those serendipitous absences that may have saved her life. Though she loved her time in the music business she had found joy in being a born again Christian which she radiated. She even returned one day with a Christian based magazine who had did an article about her and her life's journey. I still have that magazine. RIP members of Skynyrd. This documentary tells the story well indeed.

Living in Alabama I hear "Simple Man" damn near every day. I really liked the documentary. Cried Three times.