Customer Rating: 
Summary: Skynyrd's finest studio album
Comment: Okay, so this isn't Dylan or the Beatles, but it sure is fun.
Lynyrd Skynyrd's debut album isn't just "the one with 'Free Bird' on it", it's much more than that, one of the original group's best efforts, and quite possibly the best one of the lot. It mixes heartfelt ballads, country, swaggering riff-rockers, and the delightfully silly down-home boogie-rock of "Gimme Three Steps" and "I Ain't The One".
I do prefer the slightly tougher (and string-less) live rendition of "Tuesday's Gone" from the "One More From The Road" album, but this one is no throwayay either. And you can't help but love the aforementioned "Gimme Three Steps" and "I Ain't The One", a wonderful blend of self-deprecating lyrics and gritty guitar riffs.
The stately slow rock number "Simple Man" is not one of Skynyrd's best-known songs, but it's certainly one of their best, and it showcases what a talented vocalist the late Ronnie van Zant really was. And the rollicking country-rock bounce of "Things Goin' On" makes you want to jerk your shoulders up and down while pushing out your lower lip. (Seriously.)
Skynyrd also try their hand at an acoustic country blues pastiche, "Mississippi Kid", and with plenty of succes at that.
"Poison Whiskey" is probably the most sincere hard rocker on the album, a rough but juicy slice of prime Southern rock. Oh, and then there's a looong number called "Free Bird" tacked on to the end of the original album.
...This expanded 2001 edition features five excellent bonus tracks, demo versions of "Tuesday's Gone" (a tougher version with no strings, which I consider a plus), "Gimme Three Steps", "Free Bird", and the non-album tracks "Mr Banker" and "Down South Jukin'". Three of them are previously unreleased; the low-key "Mr Banker" and the melodic rock n' roll of "Down South Jukin'" have seen the light of day earlier, but they are certainly great to have if you don't own them already.
Great bonus tracks on a great, great album, one of the classics of Southern rock. 70s rock n' roll. Or just American rock n' roll in general. Don't let the(partly tongue-in-cheek) redneck image of Lynyrd Skynyrd scare you off; this is really good stuff. Great melodies, big hooks and big riffs, a tight band and some really excellent musicianship. Four and three-quarter stars!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Hit me like a ton of bricks....
Comment: I well remember listening to Beaker Street on the old AM radio powerhouse KAAY out of Little Rock back in '73 and hearing "Simple Man" for the first time--this was my introduction to Skynyrd.The next day at school I was telling anyone who'd listen about this great new band I'd heard and about their funky name. Shortly afterward, again on Beaker Street, I heard "Tuesday's Gone" and "Freebird" and that was that--I had to get this album.Good move.I know that there were other great Southern bands but I think this album sort of highlighted the whole genre of Southern Rock in a way it had never been before.Get this disc, take off your shoes, crack open a cold one and boogie down southern style.
Customer Rating:
Summary: kickin' it southern style
Comment: Wow, Lynyrd Skynyrd certainly came out of nowhere with a bang! A debut album that contains a MASSIVELY huge hit, along with two other ballady type "soft rocker anthems", and just for fun, a short and sweet hard boogie rocker ("Gimme Three Steps") to confirm they were, in fact, TOTAL southern rock right behind the Allman Brothers in terms of popularity. So the album has a total of 4 hits. That's how you make a statement!
One of the most underrated songs is actually "Poison Whiskey" with its energetic and forceful tone in the chorus. Love the vocals on that one. "I Ain't the One" has picked up popular steam in recent years. Before 10 years ago or so, we never would have heard this song on the radio. Now people wanna hear it. "Things Goin' On" is just pure southern rock catchiness with its tasty instrumental parts and melodic singing sections.
Overall, one great album that certainly is a masterpiece.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Lynyrd Skynyrd - A Southern Rock Classic
Comment: I grew up in the era where southern rock had it's hey day and Lynard Skynard was the king of them all. On this their debut album, the band shot out of the gate right from the start with one of their best discs. This album is best known as the disc that produced one of the most popular classic rock songs in history "Free Bird" which closes the album. The disc also contains the Sknyrd classics "I Ain't The One", "Tuesday's Gone", "Gimme Three Steps", and "Simple Man" all songs that continue to receive airplay to this day. The other three songs "Things Going On", "Mississippi Kid", and "Poison Whiskey" are all solid as well. This is definitely one of Skynyrd's best and a southern rock classic album.
Customer Rating:
Summary: SKYNYRD'S FIRST AND... BEST !
Comment: Make no mistake about it, when it comes to rating Lynyrd Skynyrd's studio albums, their debut, Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd (1973) cannot be topped by any of the others. The album features the legendary Free Bird, which, of course, is the greatest song in the history of rock (if you ask this southern reviewer), the anthems Simple Man and Tuesday's Gone, and the honky tonk rocking classic Gimme Three Steps. Every one of these songs is the best that classic rock has to offer, and they're right up there in the top category. I Ain't The One and Poison Whiskey are street tough rockers with triple attack guitar excellance and Ronnie Van Zant's indomitable vocals. Mississippi Kid presents a short break from the southern rock with some acoustic folk-blues. They get personal and political with the bluesy Things Goin' On.
Have you ever been down in the ghetto?
Have you ever felt the cold wind blow?
If you don't know what I mean,
Won't you stand up and scream,
Because there are things goin' on that you don't know!
Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd is a great classic southern rock album that includes some great classic southern rock songs. Lynyrd Skynyrd is a smart, street tough, and talented band that has an extraordinary ability to emotionally connect with their fans in a profound way, and those fans would stand and fight with them, if it came down to it. That's a rare commodity in the music world that not many others can claim.
|
