Gimme Three Steps
by Lynyrd Skynyrd
- 136
- BPM
- A major
- Key
- 11B
- Camelot
- 56
- Danceability
- 70
- Acousticness
The lyrics of "Gimme Three Steps" came from a real night, according to Gary Rossington. Ronnie Van Zant had been at a bar in Jacksonville, Florida, dancing with another man's woman, when the man pulled a gun on him.
In the song, the narrator is dancing with a girl named Linda Lou at a bar called The Jug. A man with a .44 revolver walks in, assumes she is cheating, and threatens the narrator's life. The narrator insists he has not even kissed her and begs for three steps toward the door. When the man turns to shout at Linda Lou, he runs.
Allen Collins and Van Zant wrote the song, which appeared on the band's 1973 debut album. The single carried "Mr. Banker" on the B-side. A live version came out as a single in 1977. Lynyrd Skynyrd formed in Jacksonville in 1964 as My Backyard. It toured small venues for four years before settling on its name in 1968.
Gimme Three Steps runs at 136 BPM, the tempo of techno, trance and big-room dance. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.76 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 441 ms. It is in A major, Camelot 11B, which shares its notes with F# minor and mixes cleanly with D major and E major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.