Gimme Three Steps
| "Gimme Three Steps" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Lynyrd Skynyrd | ||||
| from the album (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd) | ||||
| B-side | "Mr. Banker" | |||
| Released | November 1973 | |||
| Recorded | March 29, 1973 | |||
| Studio | Studio One, Doraville, Georgia, U.S. | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:17 (single), 4:26 (album) | |||
| Label | MCA | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Ronnie Van Zant, Allen Collins | |||
| Producer(s) | Al Kooper | |||
| Lynyrd Skynyrd singles chronology | ||||
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"Gimme Three Steps" is a song by southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd released on its 1973 debut album, (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd). It was written by Allen Collins and Ronnie Van Zant.
History
The song is based on a real-life experience Ronnie Van Zant had at a biker bar in Jacksonville known as The Pastime, having a gun pulled on him for dancing with another man's woman, and thus inspiring him to write the lyrics on his way home.[1] It's memorable for its opening riff and engaging narrative of how the singer was dancing with a girl named Linda Lou at a bar called The Jug when a man, probably the girl's boyfriend or husband, enters with a loaded .44 and catches them, angrily believing her to be cheating. The song's title refers to the chorus, where the interloper begs for a head start out of the bar: "Won't you give me three steps / Give me three steps, mister / Give me three steps towards the door? / Give me three steps / Give me three steps, mister / And you'll never see me no more."[2]
Van Zant would sometimes comment in concert, most famously at the Knebworth Festival in 1976 (and on One More From The Road), that he did not want to "fight him over that cunt anyway".
Personnel
- Lynyrd Skynyrd
- Ronnie Van Zant - vocals
- Gary Rossington - lead guitar
- Allen Collins - guitar
- Ed King - bass guitar
- Billy Powell - keyboards
- Bob Burns - drums
with
- Bobbye Hall – percussion