Pre Plane Crash Releases

Need All My Friends / Michelle - 1968

Tracklisting:

Credits:

Lynyrd Skynyrd: Ronnie Van Zant (vocals); Gary Rossington, Allen Collins (guitars); Larry Junstrom (Bass) ; Bob Burns (drums).

Comments:

Commonly referred to as the Shade Tree single, thses are the first two songs Lynyrd Skynyrd ever recorded, in a studio in Jacksonville for a company called Shade Tree Records. "Need All My Friends" is a really good song. It's so good, in fact, it's hard to believe it was their first. It's kind of a ballad type song, with a mellotron or something sweeping through it. "Been so long since I've been gone," sings Ronnie. "Lord I'm tired and I want to go home. My throat is raw from singin' the blues, need all my friends to talk to." Awesome lyrics and some great guitar make you wonder why it took so long for Skynyrd to get a record deal. The other song, Michelle (written about Van Zant's oldest daughter), is a rocker. It starts off at a medium pace, then really picks up in the middle where Allen (I think) rips an incredible solo. It's hard to believe these guys were so young when they recorded this. Finally released in 2000 on Collectybles.

Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd - 1973

Track Listing:

Credits:

Produced by Al Kooper.

Lynyrd Skynyrd: Ronnie Van Zant (vocals); Ed King (guitar, bass); Gary Rossington, Allen Collins (guitars); Billy Powell (keyboards); Robert Burns (drums).

Additional personnel: Steve Katz (harmonica); Roosevelt Gook [actually Al Kooper] (bass, Mellotron, background vocals, organ, mandolin, bass drum); Robert Nix (drums); Bobbi Hall (percussion).

Comments:

Skynyrd's first release for MCA records. There's not a weak track on here (as is the case on just about all Skynyrd albums). Just look at the classic songs on this album: Free Bird, Gimme Three Steps, Tuesday's Gone, Simple Man, all on the same album. Then there's lesser known but equally good tracks like Poison Whiskey and Things Goin' On. They just don't make albums this consistant any more. A real classic.

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Second Helping - 1974

Track Listing:

Credits:

Produced by Al Kooper

Lynyrd Skynyrd: Ronnie Van Zant (vocals); Gary Rossington, Allen Collins (guitar);, Ed King (guitar, bass); Billy Powell (keyboards); Leon Wilkeson (bass); Bob Burns (drums).

Additional personnel: Mike Porter (drums); Clydie King, Merry Clayton, & Friends (backround vocals); Al Kooper (piano, acoustic guitar, background vocals); Bobby Keyes, Trevor Lawrence, & Steve Madiao (horns).

Comments:

Tracks 9-11 appear only on the 1997 remastered version of the album. Skynyrd's sophmore release was even better than the first and again demonstrates their "all meat, no filler" approach. "Sweet Home Alabama was Skynyrd's only hit single, and other outstanding tracks include "Don't Ask Me No Questions", the cautionary "The Needle & The Spoon", "Workin' For MCA", and everything else. The bluesy "I Need You" is perhaps Skynyrd's most underrated track ever. This along with Street Survivors, is Skynyrd's finest hour.

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Nuthin' Fancy

Track Listing

Credits:

Produced by Al Kooper. Reissue produced by Ron O'Brien

Lynyrd Skynyrd: Ronnie Van Zant (vocals); Ed King, Allen Collins, Gary Rossington (guitar); Billy Powell (keyboards); Leon Wilkeson (bass); Artimus Pyle (drums, percussion).

Additional personnel: Al Kooper (Moog synthesizer, organ, piano percussion, background vocals); Jimmy Hall (harp); Bobbye Hall (percussion); David Foster (piano); Barry Harwood (mandolins & dobro).

Comments:

Bonus tracks recorded live at the Winterland, San Francisco, CA on April 27, 1975. Bob Burns left before the recording of this album, and Artimus Pyle took over the drum set. Most critics say that this album is quite inferior to the first two releases, but listen to it and you'll see that that's not the case. Sure, there's not as many well known songs on this album, but once again, every track's a winner. The big hit off the LP was the pro-gun control "Saturday Night Special". This was Pyle's first recording with the band, and his powerful performance shows how much better he was than Burns. Other great tracks on the album are the concert favorite "Whiskey Rock-A-Roller", the hard-rocking "On The Hunt", and "Am I Losin'", a song partially about the departure of drummer Bob Burns. "Railroad Song" and "Made In The Shade" add a bit of a country flair to the album. "Cheatin' Woman" is a great bluesy, organ-led song, and "I'm A Country Boy" is a good hard rocker. A terrific album that should not be ignored, escpecially after being reissued in 1999. The packaging is excelent, with new liner notes and the original elements of the album restored. The bonus tracks are terrific. Railroad Song cooks here live, and On The Hunt simply blows the studio version away. Buy this now.

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Gimme Back My Bullets - 1976

Track Listing

Credits:

Produced by Tom Dowd. Reissue produced by Ron O'Brien

Lynyrd Skynyrd: Ronnie Van Zant (vocals); Allen Collins, Gary Rossington (guitar); Billy Powell (keyboards); Leon Wilkeson (bass); Artimus Pyle (drums, percussion).

Additional personnel: The Honnicuts (background vocals); Lee Freeman (harmonica); Barry Harwood (dobro, mandolin).

Comments:

Bonus tracks recorded at the Winterland, San Francisco, CA on March 7, 1976. Ed King quit the band (or was kicked out, depending on who you talk to) before recording of this album began. The band decided to forge ahead with only two guitarists instead of three. Critics always seem to single this album out as Skynyrd's worst, a title it does not deserve. The problem with this album isn't the songs; it's the production. Tom Dowd did a HORRIBLE job producing this album. It sounds awful, although the 1999 reissue of the albums cleans pu the sound quite a bit. The songs on the other hand are great, and again not one weak song graces this album. The only hit was the hard-driving title track, where Van Zant pleads for another hit on the charts. Other great tracks are "Double Trouble", where Ronnie brags about his arrest record, "Cry for The Bad Man", concert favorite "Searching", and the JJ Cale cover "I Got The Same Old Blues". Elsewhere on the album are the gentle "All I Can Do Is Write About It", where a country fiddle backs up Van Zant's heartfelt vocals, and "Every Mother's Son", a song unlike almost anything else Skynyrd ever recorded. If you want to see how much the band had changed since "Second Helping", compare the lyrics of "Workin' For MCA" to "Roll Gypsy Roll". The same man who had once warned he'd watch every penny now admitted he didn't know how much money he'd made, and that most of it had gone up his nose (slang for snorting cocaine). Reissued in 1999 with restored packaging, bonus tracks, and new liner notes, as well as improved sound quality. Artimus Pyle's drums sound really good now. The bonus tracks here are a little more familiar, having appeared in FreeBird The Movie, but have yet to appear on album. A live version of the title tracks rocks, but the real winner here is Cry For The Bad Man. This has always been one of my favorites, and it sounds even better live. Skynyrd's most underrated album, and definitely worth checking out, especially with the new remastering.

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One More From The Road - 1976

Track Listing

Credits:

Produced by Tom Dowd

Lynyrd Skynyrd: Ronnie Van Zant (vocals); Allen Collins, Gary Rossington, Steve Gaines (guitar); Billy Powell (keyboards); Leon Wilkeson (bass); Artimus Pyle (drums)

Additional personnel: Sam McPherson (harmonica); Cassie Gaines, Jo Billingsley, Leslie Hawkins (background vocals).

Comments:

Track listing is for the remastered, 2 CD set of the album. The band's first (and best) live album. The band finally found a new third guitarist in Steve Gaines, who rejuventated the group and helped them give some of their best live performances ever for this double LP, recorded in July of '76 at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, GA (only Gaine's third gig with the group). This, in my opinion, is the finest live album ever released. All of the songs (particularly Free Bird) are superior to their respective studio recordings, and we also get songs never recorded in the studio like "Travelin' Man", the blues-rock tour-de-force of "T For Texas", and their cover of Cream's cover of Robert Johnson's "Crossroads". The remastered version adds more songs including great versions of "Simple Man", "Gimme Back My Bullets", and an alternate "Sweet Home Alabama". Quite a listening experience. (Reissued in 2001 as a Deluxe Edition, see seperate entry).

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Street Survivors - 1977

Track Listing

Credits: Produced by Lynyrd Skynyrd. "One More Time" produced by Jimmy Johnson & Tim Smith

Lynyrd Skynyrd: Ronnie Van Zant (vocals); Allen Collins, Gary Rossington, Steve Gaines (guitar); Billy Powell (keyboards); Leon Wilkeson (bass); Artimus Pyle (drums)

Additional personnel: Cassie Gaines, Jo Billingsley, Leslie Hawkins (background vocals); Ed King (guitar); Rickey Medlocke (drums, background vocals); Greg Walker (bass); Tim Smith (background vocals)

Comments:

Perhaps Lynyrd Skynyrd's greatest album. Unfortunately, it would also be their last. Three days after it's release, Skynyrd's plane crashed, killing Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, and Dean Kilpatrick. This prompted the withdrawl of the original cover art (which pictured the group surrounded by flames) in favor of the one you see above. Steve Gaines had really added something to the band, as evident by his compositions and vocal contributions to the album (he sings lead on "Ain't No Good Life" and duets with Ronnie on "You Got That Right"). "That Smell", written about an incident involving Gary Rossington, has gone down as one of their greatest songs ever. other great tracks include the classic "What's Your Name", the Merle Haggard cover "Honky Tonk Night Time Man", "One More Time" (which came from the band's 1971 sessions in Muscle Shoals) and the swing-boogie of "I Know A Little". "I Never Dreamed" revealed another side of Van Zant's writing that had never surfaced before. In the past, Ronnie's attitude about women was of the "love 'em, leave 'em" attitude, but on this he pledges his love to one woman, begging her to come back to him. Who knows where Van Zant's writing would've gone had he lived. Again, not a bad track here.

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Skynyrd's First And... Last - 1978

Track Listing

Credits:

Produced by Jimmy Johnson & Tim Smith

Personnel includes: Ronnie Van Zant, (vocals); Rickey Medlocke (vocals, drums); Allen Collins, Gary Rossington, Wayne Perkins, Jimmy Johnson, Gimmer Nichols (guitar); Billy Powell (piano); Ed King (guitar, bass); Greg T. Walker, (bass); Bob Burns (drums). Tim Smith (background vocals), Ronnie Eades (saxophone), Cassie Gaines, Jo Billingsley, Leslie Hawkins (background vocals)

Comments:

This album is a compilation of tracks from the band's 1971-1972 sessions at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Alabama. With Jimmy Johnson and Tim Smith at the helm, the band went in and recorded an album's worth of material in hopes of selling it to a record label. Blackfoot members Rickey Medlocke and Greg Walker were a part of the 1971 sessions that produced 11 tracks, before being replaced by the more familiar Leon Wilkeson and Bob Burns. Skynyrd worked on these songs several times over the years, overdubbing more parts in 1975 and '76, in hopes of one day releasing the album. Ironically, it would finally be release after the plane crash. There is some great material on here, including "Comin' Home", "Lend A Helpin' Hand", and an early version of "Things Goin' On". Once again, there is not a bad song on this album. Reissued in 1998 with 8 bonus tracks as "Skynyrd's First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Album" (see separate entry).

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