Lynyrd Skynyrd and their first album "(Pronounced 'Leh-'Nérd 'Skin-'Nérd)" (1973)

This is about the first album by Lynyrd Skynyrd, an American band playing rock with a Southern sound. It was released in the summer of 1973 by MCA Records in the States, Japan, New Zealand and some European countries. The British version appeared only in 1974.

An excursion into history

In the summer of 1964 in Jacksonville, Florida, childhood friends Ronnie Van Zant, Allen Collins and Gary Rossington formed the first version of the band, then called My Backyard. Over the years, the names have changed frequently, including "The Noble Five", "One Percent", and, since 1969, "Leonard Skinnerd", in wicked memory of the physical education teacher at the school from which the musicians graduated. His name was Leonard Skinnerd, and he had a bad habit of dragging the kids around by their fashionably overgrown hair. This teacher was the reason why Rossington was expelled from the school - when asked to cut his hair he firmly refused.

https://youtu.be/WoPGi8uWDb8

By 1970, the band was called "Lynyrd Skynyrd". As the band grew older, school conflicts became less serious, the attitude towards the former teacher softened, and after the guys became leaders in their hometown, they called a school teacher to perform, to introduce the band at a large-scale concert at the local Coliseum. From 1970 to 1974 the band toured the southern part of the United States, developing a unique "signature" sound, which was the result of mixing different styles, from country style with bluesy notes to rock of the British tradition. This, perhaps, is the secret of the guys' incredible popularity, even from the debut album.

In the first half of the 70s Lynyrd Skynyrd changed their line-up. In 1972 Billy Powell was a keyboardist in the band. At the same time the lead singer and another drummer Ricky Medlock, as well as bassist Greg T. Walker were hired - they periodically left (to join "Blackfoot"), and then came back again.

Lynyrd Skynyrd's popularity peaked at the beginning of their interaction with musician and producer Al Cooper (who took part in the creation of "Blood", "Sweat & Tears"). He happened to attend a live show in Atlanta and immediately signed the band to his own label, Sounds of the South, which was publishing and promoting their product in conjunction with MCA Records. Cooper encouraged the team to begin recording their first album in Atlanta.

https://youtu.be/xId25aroayo

Bassist Leon Wilkison was probably very sceptical about the possibility of success, so after recording only two tracks, he returned to his homeland to work quietly for an ice cream company. He did manage to record the bass parts of all the other tracks before leaving, so Ed King, guitarist from the psychedelic-minded band Strawberry Alarm Clock, was brought in. But while the album was being worked on, Wilkison realised there was something more interesting than the ice cream trade, weighed up the pros and cons and came back. He was welcomed back into the line-up, and his photo is on the well known album cover. But Ed King was also retained as the first guitarist, and thanks to this the band played grandiose solo parts on three guitars at once.

"Free Bird."

This is the sensational hit of the album and the final song of the album - "Free Bird". It was released as a single in the autumn of 1974 and reached a position no higher than 19th, but despite this, it became an "all-time" song on American radio stations. Together with Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven", the song was among the selected long songs that were allowed to be broadcast, despite the rather strict FM radio regulations. At live shows, the song was usually played towards the end, and lasted 15 minutes.

The main chords of the song were created by guitarist Allen Collins. Once he played them during a rehearsal, Van Zant listened and asked him to play them again. A couple of minutes later, both the music and the lyrics to it emerged. The long solo guitar parts allowed Van Zant to give Van Zant a little rest during performances, because the band had to play several gigs in clubs in one night.

All the participants knew that Billy Powell played the piano, but after he created the initial chords of the composition, it was decided to use them, and Powell himself became a full member of the team. He had an academic musical background and could play complex polyphonic pieces. He often played with his left hand, which in the recording muted the effect of the guitars. Cooper tried to change this manner of Powell's playing much to no avail, and then decided to simply tie the musician's left hand to the piano.

The opening words of the song are, "If I leave you today, will you remember me?"

This is a question that Allen Collins once heard from his girlfriend Cathy. She later married him, but the phrase was remembered and became the beginning of the hit song "Free Bird".

In general, it was written in memory of Duane Allman, who was one of the founders of The Allman Brothers Band. These guys were honoured by Lynyrd Skynyrd as the authors of "southern rock". A guitar virtuoso, Duane Allman died in an accident in 1971, and he was only 24 years old at the time. During a performance on the famous British show "The Old Grey Whistle Test" in 1975, Van Zant noted that the song was written as a dedication to two people at once - Duane Allman and Berry Oakley, because the image of a free bird suited both of them. The latter was the bassist of The Allman Brothers Band and also died after an accident just a few blocks from where Duane died a year later.

In the '70s, rock concert audiences liked to chant for musicians to play a hit "for all time". In the early 1970s, for example, they asked for "Smoke on the Water", Deep Purple's trademark. And by the end of the decade, "Free Bird" had become an all-time hit. The composition was included in the top of "Rolling Stone" as one of the 500 best in musical world history (193rd position), it is also included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the list of 500 who influenced the formation of this trend.

"Tuesday Gone with the Wind" and others.....

The smash hit is by no means the best track on this rather well-made album of southern rock songs. The second track, "Tuesday's Gone", is similar to the previous one in some ways - especially in its inclination towards the ballad genre. It sounds just as elegiac and probably embodies Van Zant's thoughts:

"Everything was calm until we signed the contract with MCA. The good times are over - now we have to plough on and on".

It sounds surprising, but Tuesday is a female name (in English-speaking culture it is sometimes customary to name a child of either sex by the day of the week they were born). The soloist's unhurried articulation in the context of a strong musical flow recreates a vein of change that causes everything to drift into the past. Al Cooper introduces a fragment of strings on mellotron and vocal backing into the chorus. By the way, the producer decided not to announce his own musical presence in the album directly, covering himself with the pseudonym "Roosevelt Cook". The composition "Tuesday's Gone" is one of those rare Lynyrd Skynyrd songs that was not recorded with drummer Bob Burns. This part was performed by Atlanta Rhythm Section guest Robert Nix.

The composition was underestimated. It was not as crazy popular as the first song of the album, but despite that, it is one of the most famous of the band. Allen Collins particularly singled it out. The song reached the peak of recognition again in the 1990s, when it was included in the American film "Dazed and Confused" (1993). And already 5 years later the popular cover was recorded by the guys from Metallica, releasing it in the album "Garage Inc.".

The sound of the ballad "Simple Man" is equally impressive, but the lyrics are more serious and simple. They are available at amalgama-lab.com.

Ballad compositions are interspersed evenly, in about a 1 : 1 ratio, with intense rock'n'roll songs like "I Ain't The One" or "Gimme Three Steps" with light or tragicomic themes, as in the latter, for example. There's a translation of this song at amalgama-lab.com, too. But unfortunately, the first lines are interpreted with distortions - too literal, and this is completely unacceptable for English-language sustained combinations:

I was cutting the rug

Down at a place called The Jug

With a girl named Linda Lou

So:

I was dancing dashingly with a girl named Linda Lou.

at a place called The Jug

And further everything is translated correctly. Well, that's the privilege of countries where the right to own a gun is accepted 🙂 🙂

In the song "Poison Whiskey", alcohol addicts and the disease itself are caricatured. The comic effect is added by the fact that the members of the band themselves, as many audience members said, often appeared in front of the audience - almost every performance - drunk. "Poisoned Whiskey" is Johnny Walker Red Lable. Only a miracle can explain the fact that the Scots, who developed the brand, did not sue. Although, on the other hand, it's very good publicity.

Only one song is made in the spirit of good old rock'n'roll - "Things Goin' On", and it is quite serious, although in it, too, the playfulness and sarcasm characteristic of the musicians' style slip through. This relaxed, honky-tonk-like song, sung by Van Zant, will not seem protesting at all to someone with a superficial grasp of English:

Have you ever lived in a ghetto?
Did you feel the cold wind blowing?
If you don't know what I mean,
Then stand up and shout,
Because there's stuff going on out there that you had no idea about.

This is true for all times and for all nations.

Title and cover

The album had the same name as the band, but it turned out that the public tended to take the clarification (Pronounced "Le-nerd Skee-nerd") for what it was, even though it was for advice on correct pronunciation.

The cover photo was taken in Jonesboro on Main Street, Georgia. From left to right are photos of bassist Leon Wilkison, keyboardist Billy Powell, leader Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Harry Rossington (in a sitting pose), drummer Bob Burns, guitarists Allen Collins and Ed King.

It so happened that in a 3-year interval, an episode of Smokey and the Bandit was filmed near this place.

A tandem of two groups

As for the promotion of the album, there was a funny story: Al Kooper, producing the team, was initially quite deeply worried about the name of the band, impersonal for beginners, and so more than once asked the musicians to come up with and approve another one. And after an emphatic refusal, he conducted a masterful marketing campaign to ensure that a wide audience would remember them. He designed a catchy logo: in the form of a skull and crossbones (placed on the back cover), and promoted it to specialised magazines and alternative weeklies in big cities in the States. The attention was attracted by a very simple question: "Who is Lynyrd Skynyrd?" And an intrigued public wanted to know the answer.

The size of the advert was increasing weekly, enriched with various details - and there were many - so by the time it was released, the advert had already taken up a whole two-page spread. And practically after this campaign Pete Townsend from The Who started negotiations with MCA Records (where his band was listed) to find a good guitarist to "warm up" for the tour of his wards, who had recently recorded the album "Quadrophenia". And who else could he count on, if not on the loose and ambitious guys from Lynyrd Skynyrd? And then it was as if the advertising strategy had been planned with further touring by both bands: "WHO IS LYNYRD SKYNYRD?" Genius solution!

Public appearance

The album, which ironically became known as "(Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd)", was released in the States in the summer of 1973. Despite the fact that it never reached the top of the American top lists, it ensured the band's widespread popularity in America. By the end of 1974 it had already gone "gold" (more than half a million copies sold) and reached the 27th position in 1975, and by 1987 it was twice recognised as a platinum rock album - and a modern classic. In 2003, it was named one of the 500 best albums in all of music history by Rolling Stone magazine (403rd position) and was included in the book "1001 Albums You Must Listen To Before You Die". Vinyl originals from the 1970s in acceptable condition are very highly valued today.