Artist: Lynyrd Skynyrd
Year Released: 1976
Format Owned: Double CD 1996 re-mastered version
Band Line-up: Ronnie Van Zant (vocals), Allen Collins (guitar), Gary Rossington (guitar), Steve Gaines (guitar), Billy Powell (keyboards), Artimus Pyle (drums), Leon Wilkeson (bass). Backing vocals: Cassie Gaines, Jo Billingsley, Leslie Hawkins.
Track Listing
CD1
1. Workin' For MCA
2. I Ain't The One
3. Searching
4. Tuesday's Gone
5. Saturday Night Special
6. Travellin' Man
7. Whiskey Rock-A-Roller
8. Sweet Home Alabama
CD2
1. Gimme Three Steps
2. Call Me The Breeze
3. T For Texas
4. The Needle and the Spoon
5. Crossroads
6. Free Bird
This record is Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded at their peak, in July 1976 at the Fox Theatre, Atlanta, Georgia. Always known as one of the best live bands of their time this shows the mixture of raw power and exquisite musicianship that made the band what it was. Fifteen months later the heart was ripped out of the band when Ronnie van Zant, Steve Gaines and Cassie Gaines, were killed in a plane crash, along with the pilot, co-pilot and assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick. While Lynyrd Skynyrd re-formed in 1987 and still record and tour today, the line-up captured on this recording is the finest that Skynyrd ever had.
From the opening track, Workin' For MCA, you feel the energy that must have been present at the show, with the band ripping straight into the song after being introduced. The band is very tight, with the rhythm section especially noticeable in this track, Leon Wilkeson's bass can be picked out and shows how important his playing was to the band's sound. The energy continues through I Ain't the One and Searching, before the pace drops with Tuesday's Gone, a beautiful country-rock ballad with haunting harmonica over the understated guitars and Ronnie van Zant's almost plaintive vocals.
The pace picks up again with Saturday Night Special, Travellin' Man and Whiskey Rock-A-Roller, before kicking into an even higher gear for a song that has become one of the best known rock songs on the planet, Sweet Home Alabama. Most people know the story, but for those who don't Neil Young wrote a couple of songs about some of the racist killings and general attitudes that were prevalent in Alabama, and across the south, in the 60s and 70s. Well, Skynyrd had spent a while recording at Muscle Shoals, a studio famous for recording soul artists, found that the people of Alabama weren't all the hicks and rednecks that were portrayed in those songs and wrote Sweet Home Alabama as a tribute to the good people they met in Alabama. And for the record, the Skynyrd boys are from Florida.
The second CD starts with a declaration from Ronnie van Zant that he hasn't even worked up a sweat yet, and the band then tear into "Gimme Three Steps", a song about dancing with the wrong girl in the wrong bar when her boyfriend shows up and trying to extricate yourself from the situation when he pulls out a gun. In short it's everything a southern rock song should be, and I just love the riff.
This is followed up with two cover versions, firstly JJ Cale's "Call Me The Breeze" and then Jimmy Rodgers' "T For Texas", both delivered with the trademark Skynyrd swagger. The band then move into "The Needle and the Spoon", which if memory serves me correctly is the first Lynyrd Skynyrd song I ever heard. The title and lyrics are fairly self-explanatory, setting forward a strong anti-heroin message and urging people not to "mess with the needle and the spoon, or the trip to the moon". The next track is a blistering cover of the Robert Johnson blues standard "Crossroads", and emphasises the band's ability to take other people's tunes and make them their own.
This brings us to the final track, 13:30 of Free Bird. The greatest southern rock song of all time, from the slide guitar and piano intro, through the two verses, choruses and bridge and then into that epic triple guitar instrumental which goes on and on, yet when it ends you wish it could have kept going. The studio version of Free Bird is great, but this version blows it out of the water, the feeling in van Zant's voice, the tone from the guitars, Powell's delicate piano fills, everything comes together and leaves the hair on the back of your neck standing.
As much as I've heaped praise on the album there are a couple of minor flaws. Firstly the audience mix is too low in places. I know that you don't want to hear the audience at the detriment of the music, but it would be nice to be reminded that they are actually there at times. Secondly there are some brutally obvious overdubs where the sound level changes at the point the guitar was dubbed in, on the more recent legacy edition of the album these have been removed, but on this version they are still in place, I'm not a fan of overdubs unless someone has actually dropped their guitar in the middle of a song, as rock n roll is all about playing loose, and occasionally a bum note will slip in. That's all part of live music and should be a part of live albums.
Overall this is a great record of a fantastic band at the peak of their powers, and even with the odd flaw there is nothing that really detracts from the quality of the performances or the songs.
Rating: 8.5/10
NOTE: The newer versions of this album have rearranged the tracks into the order they were actually played during the shows, with "Sweet Home Alabama" and "The Needle and The Spoon" switching places. I've always liked the fact that one disc finishes with "Sweet Home Alabama" and the other one finishes with "Free Bird" though. It just feels right.
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