The Two Sides Of Lynyrd Skynyrd

Once upon a time in the South there was a little rocking Southern band by the name of Lynyrd Skynyrd that came from the swamps to record classic albums for MCA before a plane crash took the vision and thoughts of Ronnie Van Zant to the Great Beyond.  To which survivors started their own band and did the unthinkable: reunite with a brother singer and became a cliche upon itself.

There's no bar band that ever escaped some yayhoo screaming PLAY FREE BIRD or SWEET HOME ALABAMA at some hole in the wall bar out in the middle of nowhere.  Free Bird was the lesser seller of Sweet Home, it hardly got any airplay unless it was FM radio but since the beginning of the CCC owned classic rock stations either song is being played at some spot in the world as we speak.  Once an anthem, it's as overplayed as they come.  And while both are great songs, they pretty much fall under something I could listen to once a year and then that's that.

Nevertheless, Skynyrd the Original cannot be topped due to the wry and sly song writing ability from Ronnie Van Zant  and with a triple guitar lineup of Ed King, the late great Allen Collins and sole remaining original band member Gary Rossington  they took southern rock and boogie to a whole new level.  The first album is just about perfect with each song in its rightful spot.  The insane beginning of I Ain't The One, the yearning Tuesday's Gone, the bar band staple Gimme Three Steps and Simple Man, every song on side one was many a band learning it for the bar faithful.  Although side 2 slips a bit, Things Goin On and Mississippi Kid rarely get played on the radio and Poison Whiskey a Van Zant PSA about the dangers of rotgut these songs have a charm on their own.  Which leads into Free Bird, which turns out to be the song most associated with Ronnie, a song about defiance and having a come and gone way to which they would jam out the last 5 minutes with a fury of lead guitars from all three guitarist.  Long time ago, it came out on Al Kooper's Sounds Of The South label, which was distributed by MCA but the first album sold well enough for Second Helping, more fun stuff and songs that were as good as the first.  To where Sweet Home Alabama picks up where Free Bird left off, a Southern gentleman's FU to Neil Young's Southern Man.  To which these two songs, forever playing somewhere would be the basis of the After Ronnie Lynyrd Skynyrd would rewrite time and time ago.  I think Second Helping is a bit better than the first album, there's no wasted songs anywhere to I Need You, the funny Don't Ask Me Any Questions,  the boogie Swamp Music and The Ballad Of Curtis Loew  which marvels on how well Ronnie Van Zant could look back in the past and create memories and turn it into a original song and not the cliche.  And of course Working for MCA which still may be the best song about working for a major label for all the good or bad.  Ronnie seemed to have no patience for those pencil pushers or the city slickers stealing his money.   And then another anti drug song The Needle And Spoon and the album classic Call Me The Breeze.  You heard them all before on the radio but it still sounds good when you put the record on.

While critics have not been kind to Nuthin Fancy or Gimme Back My Bullets, they were probably recorded at the time all the band would be fucked up to perform, new drummer Artimus Pyle gave them a more harder rocking beat.  And these two albums were the most played at my place.  Nuthin Fancy featured the last album Al Kooper produced and it was the best recorded.  Saturday Night Special was the main hit but Ronnie is fed up and ready to shoot his Cheatin Woman,  wants to ride the rails on Railroad Song and still remains I'm A Country Boy.  Second side gives a hard rocking romp On The Hunt, wonders If I'm Losing due to fairweather friends, and adds a pre war blues romp on Made In The Shade before concluding with Whiskey Rock N Roller.

Gimme Back My Bullets showcases The Honkettes, the female singers that would from that day forward would be a part of Skynyrd.  Tom Dowd produced this and the mix was terrible but it still had great songs (the remastered cleaned up the sound much better). The title track and the power driving Double Trouble to which Ronnie proclaims if he fell into a rose bush he still coming out smelling like SH---. I found myself playing Every Mother's Son a lot during high school and Trust still rings true like it did today.  And they find themselves raiding J J Cale again with I Got The Same Old Blues Again.  For the first time, some of the songs on side 2 sounded weak, like they needed a break but still Searching and All I Can Do Is Write About It, the latter sees Van Zant getting a bit cynical as he sees the creeping concrete coming closer to take away childhood memories.  It may have been seen slight back then but Ronnie was way ahead of his time even on the throwaways.  The two slight songs are Roll Gypsy Roll and Cry For The Bad Man

But the band's drug and booze habits were weighing things down so they decided to get clean and sober but before then gave the world One More From The Road, a album that has the hits and what they were famous for, right down the 10 minute ending of Free Bird.  It still remains an album to get if you wanted to hear how damn great they  were.  By then Steve Gaines joined up and he may have been the best guitar player and plus he could sing too.

Street Survivors to me is like what In Step from Stevie Ray Vaughn was.  They got cleaned up, they went and made their best album and then the plane crash that ended the best version of that band (in SRV's case it was a helicopter).  An early recording of One More Time from a early session is on it but the rest are sure fire hard rocking classics, from What's Your Name to That Smell to Steve Gaines playing swing guitar on I Know A Little and then dueting with Ronnie on You Got That Right.  Even I Never Dreamed may have been slight it still fits in well and then a cool cover of Merle Haggard's Honky Tonk Night Time Man.  Steve Gaines takes over on vocals on Ain't No Good Life.  If later albums were an indication, Gaines would play a big role but then a 1977 plane crash took both him and Ronnie and Skynyrd would be silenced for 10 years afterwards.

Since then MCA has repackaged their albums and added bonus cuts and B sides.  Skynyrd's First and Last album was a early session featuring Ricky Medlocke on drums for a collection of rough and wild southern rock (Preacher's Daughter, Wino, Down South Jukin').  MCA would reissue it with even more tracks and some that would feature later on other albums including a wobbly take on Free Bird.  Legend, the 1990 scrapes the bottom of the barrel with outtakes from Street Survivors  and the Sweet Home Alabama b side, the 7 and half minute Take Your Time.  There are tons and tons of greatest hits out there and basically it's for those who only want the hits although their albums were so much more.  The Free Bird Movie Soundtrack is a rougher live performance which isn't too bad.

And then rising from the ashes, the survivors returned to do a live album Southern By The Grace Of God and the Skynyrd returned with Johnny Van Zant doing the vocals.  Not a bad album by any means a version of Free Bird is sung by the crowd.  Which begins the second phase of Skynyrd which continues to this day.  Johnny Van Zant may be a better singer than Ronnie says the critics, but Ronnie trumps both him and Donnie and the songwriting department.  The 1991 comeback album for Atlantic was basically flat I thought but The Last Rebel was much better but by then a revolving door of personnel begain.  Ed King and Randall Hall would be replaced down the road by Ricky Medlocke who left and formed the harder rocking Blackfoot with late great Jackson Spiers on drums, and Hughie Thomassen of The Outlaws but instead of adding their own songs and vocals, chose to pretty much to be guitar playing sidemen on later albums.  After making 2 albums for Atlantic, they did a an acoustic one off for Capricorn (Endangered Species) and then over CMC International (Later Sanctuary) for Twenty best known for Travelin' Man a song that Ronnie comes back from the grave to sing it with Johnny and Donnie Van Zant.  Kid Rock appears on Vicious Cycle.

While most original members have died (Bob Burns, Billy Powell, Leon Wilkerson, Allen Collins, Ronnie, Steve & Cassie Gaines)  or left (Artimus Pyle) The Lynyrd Skynyrd that is still around is not like the band of long ago and far away.  Moving to Roadrunner Records in 2010 they begin to update their sound to something like Nickleback (Bob Marlette who produced their recent two albums may have something to do with that).  Although Gods & Guns and the latest Last Of A Dying Breed are good in their own way, they have more to do with the new rock sound that Nickleback is known for   I certainly don't think Ronnie would ever stoop down to do anything in protools, the original Skynyrd sound was rough and tumble, the way Southern rock and roll is meant to be.  Marlette's production seems to smooth up the edges a bit too much for me although Last Of A Dying Breed works a lot better than Gods & Guns did.  In some ways it might be their best of the Johnnie Van Zant led band.  No, it doesn't hold a candle to early albums but take it for what's worth, it's got enough of the new modern rock but still a nod toward the country and southern rock.  As long as Gary Rossington and Johnnie Van Zant with Rickey Medlocke remain together, I won't count them out.  Neither should you.

The Albums:
Pronounced Lynyrd Skynyrd (MCA 1973) A-
Second Helping (MCA 1974) A+
Nuthin Fancy (MCA 1975) A
Gimme Back My Bullets (MCA 1976) A
One More From The Road (MCA 1976) A-
Street Survivors (MCA 1977) A+
Skynyrd's First and Last (MCA 1978) B+
Gold And Platinum (MCA 1979) A-
Best Of The Rest (MCA 1982) A-
Legend (MCA 1988) B-
Skynyrd's Innyrds (MCA 1990) B+  (There's many best ofs out there, this was the only one I reviewed)
Skynyrd's First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Sessions (MCA 1998) B
Free Bird The Movie (Cabin Fever/MCA 1996) B

The new Skynyrd

Southern By The Grace Of God Tour (MCA 1987) B
1991 (Atlantic 1991) C+
The Last Rebel (Atlantic 1993) B-
Endangered Pieces (Capricorn 1994) B
Twenty (CMC 1997)  B
Edge Of Forever (CMC 1999) C+
Vicious Cycle (Sanctuary 2003) NR
Gods & Guns (Roadrunner 2009) C
Last Of A Dyin Breed (Roadrunner 2012) B

Side Projects:
Rossington Collins Band/Allen Collins Band

Anyplace Anytime Anyhow (MCA 1980) B
This Is The Way (MCA 1982) B+
Here, There And Back (MCA 1983) B+
Returned To Scene Of The Crime (Atlantic 1986) C
Love Your Man (MCA 1988) C
Solo Flytes (MCA 1999)  B (collection of Rollington/Collins, Allen Collins, APB, Steve Gaines tracks)

Steve Gaines:
One In The Sun (MCA 1987) B+

Artimus Pyle
APB (MCA 1983) C
Artimus Venomus (Deadline 2007) C+