Universal / Polydor (label)
26 January 2015 (released)
06 February 2015
The vinyl comeback might well be overplayed by some music fans, certainly in terms of the actual impact on sales, but there is undoubtedly a hunger for more music to be issued or re-issued in this format. As the Pink Floyd album of 2014 showed, there is in particular a certain type of music where the vinyl format is in demand. Tapping into that sense of nostalgia is this reissue of these Lynyrd Skynyrd albums from 1973 to 1977, including the live collection One For The Road.
Lynyrd Skynyrd were soon to master the Seventies' driving rock (pitched somewhere between The Eagles and The Band), but initially built their following through constant touring. This allowed them to generate a tight sound that they looked to capture on record. Although a wonderful title, the 1973 debut release Pronounced Leh'nerd Skin-nerd, sounds mostly pedestrian now. The nine minute epic Freebird sounds out of place alongside the more country tinged Americana, but it gave the band some wider attention and a place in epic rock song history.
A year later, the follow up Second Helping fully establishes that early promise and features the band's signature song Sweet Home Alabama and the tender The Ballad of Curtis Loew. A third album in three years tested the quality control and sales for Nuthin' Fancy suffered, perhaps not helped by continuing line-up changes, leading to the band's key sound and identity being lost. 1976's Gimme Back My Bullets followed the same path, saved partially by the bluesy All I Can Do Is Write About It.
The Gods started to look down unfavourably on Lynyrd Skynyrd, with two of the band members suffering serious car accidents. Soon after the release of 1977's Street Survivors, three leading members of the band were killed in a plane crash in Mississippi. It was a decade before the surviving members reunited for a tour and another four before they recorded again.
But it is these hazy, mad few years in the mid 1970s that place the band in the rock history and this lovingly produced collection uses all the original artwork. There are no frills in terms of lost demos or added extras. But there doesn't need to be. Just a special sense of nostalgia.
