(Pronounced 'Leh-'Nérd 'Skin-'Nérd)

I kept asking for them to play 'free bird' and then they did.

Come on. This is such a great album. Half of the songs are all time classics. Tuesday, 3 Steps, Simple Man, Free Bird. There's only 8 songs on the album and four of them are not just classic, but all time classics. What a great album!

On the one hand, this Southern fried album has a lot of great tracks that I remember from growing up and listening to it in the South. On the other hand, it's hard to ignore the rift between the band and Neil Young (though he would later come to temper that somewhat). But Neil was spot on that the band was racist and rocking the confederate flag at their shows. After everything that has happened in our country since this came out, I can honestly say, it's hate not heritage-- and that makes it hard to want to hear.

This is such a conflict. Do you reject what you know b/c the band members are racist assholes? I know that good can come from a trash heap. That people grow and growth is fucking hard. It is not linear. Once I held many of the same views. That we are toxic when we are hurting. There's maybe something really great here in this album but also it is a terrible place to stay or be stuck. I can't fully reject the South. It's in my heart so I can't fully walk away from this album. But I can't listen to it without all the extra convos that come with it. That makes it so goddamn weighty for something that is supposed to rock.

Love Tuesdays Gone thanks to Happy Gilmore. Likewise Free Bird which was the perfect soundtrack for running over prostitutes on GTA

I mean, "Tuesday's Gone," "Gimme Three Steps," "Simple Man," and "Free Bird" all on the same album. How you gonna argue with that? I almost gave this a 4 but I couldn't actually come up with anything wrong with the album especially given the release date. I sometimes find myself a bit put off by Van Zant's penchant for socio-political posturing but, for 1973, several of these songs are super pointed and progressive. That's worth a star.

I’ve enjoyed each song I’ve heard by Lynyrd Skynyrd, but never listened to an album in full. One of my friends (who I co-host a music review show with on YouTube) went through a phase where he was very much into country rock and always encouraged me to try Skynyrd. Naturally, I ignored him because he’s an idiot. Songs I already knew: Tuesday’s Gone, Gimme Three Steps, Simple Man, Free Bird Favourites: Tuesday’s Gone, Free Bird, Things Goin’ On Much like other songs of legendary status, it’s hard to imagine a time before Free Bird. I feel this way with songs like Bohemian Rhapsody, Hey Jude, and Barbie Girl. They’re all amazing songs that feel like they’ve existed forever (hey, calm down, Barbie Girl is a banger). This album from front to back is full of amazing tracks. Free Bird is long, but keeps things different enough to never get boring. The vocals are fairly simple, but it adds a lot of charm. The general music itself isn’t too perfect like lots of modern day music. Its slight flaws in timing here and there make it feel more real and less manufactured. Overall, an amazing album. Maybe I should have listened to my friend many years ago. He is still an idiot though.

Music to empty the bar.

Giving this a 4 because the first half of the album is much better than the last (save Free Bird), but this is still phenomenal, especially for a debut album. Love the blues elements and even the country twang Already Saved: Free Bird Saved After Listening: Tuesday's Gone, Simple Man

Why would I need a Greatest Hits album? This exists. Only truly "weak" spot is "Poison Whiskey," but then "Freebird" comes right after that and southern rock nirvana is achieved, so it balances out.

Ah, brings back so many fond memories with my mildly racist father. I don't really support the band anymore, but the nostalgia here hits oh so hard.

Nö…

I can't tell if I've just grown out of 5 minute guitar solos or if this really just missed the mark hard for me. Felt really forgettable with no stand out moments, and I don't think any of the songs on here are ones I'd actively seek listening to again.

The absolute peak of Southern Rock. These Skynyrd boys have it all, from rock solid bass and drums to beautiful piano and crunchy organ, not to mention their three-guitar army and killer southern vocals. The band stays mostly in the rock and blues genre, but crafts songs with surprising diversity and intentionality; no two songs sound quite the same. Even in their wildest moments, the band never gets sloppy or chaotic; all guitar solo work is carefully planned and expertly executed. Simply a joy to hear. Also, "Free Bird" is a masterpiece; How a band can get three guitarist to arpeggiate in harmony for that long is beyond me. Stand out tracks include "Tuesday's Gone", "Gimme Three Steps", "Simple Man", "Mississippi Kid", and "Free Bird".

Lynyrd Skynyrd's Three Guitar Army and Ronnie Van Zant's growl resonate deep in my bones. These songs feel surprisingly like home. Maybe it's because Gimme Three Steps was one of the songs that my brother's garage band rehearsed in our basement. (We did not have a garage.) My brother must've had a Greatest Hits album on 8-Track or something because several of these sound familiar but not all of them. I've never heard this whole album before, I'm sure of that. At least 3 songs mention guns but I don't think they ever get used, just held threateningly. I said "uh-oh" when they started talking about the ghetto in Things Goin' On but the rest of the words seemed ok and then the honky-tonk piano came in sounding exactly like something Paul Williams would write for the Muppets or Bugsy Malone and I was totally charmed. I prefer the upbeat songs like I Ain't the One, Gimme Three Steps, and Things Goin' On to the ballads but I cannot deny that Free Bird is a great song even if it's nine minutes long and I've heard it a million times. If I get to see the original Skynyrd line-up in the afterlife, you bet I'll ask to hear Free Bird.

Good old Southern Boogie Woogie. Not something I'd listen to again though. However, I'm sure I'll hear Free Bird another 10,000 times in my lifetime.

2/5 Ja, es ist gute Musik, es ist nichts falsch daran. Aber ich disassoziiere aus Langeweile. Ich höre 2 Gitarren mit Vocals,Bass, Drums Wer sind die 7 Leute auf dem Cover, schwingt der Rest die Confederate flag? Freebird ist ein guter Track

No

One of the best

An album from the Southern U.S. that embraces what it is, and because of that, it soars to excellence.

Better than I remembered. Been years since listening to this from top to bottom.

Cool mais persuadé qu’ils votent tous Trump

[[music]], [[rock music]], [[blues]] #music #rock #blues I've heard the name a lot but never listened to them fully. Everyone knows Sweet Home Alabama and Free Bird but aside from that? need to listen more. I Aint The One - Great tone setting song. really loved the vibes of it being 70s music rock for sure Tuesday's Gone - Country feeling but seeing as they're southern rock, makes sense. Blues feelings as well. Long song, bit slow but still nice to listen probably Gimme Three Steps - Vibey, dancey song. Love it. great bass and guitar mix Simple Man - Lovely message. Be a simple man. Great story about mom and son too. What's not to love? It's one of the most popular songs of theirs on the album Things Goin On - Blues guitar focused. Alright. Mississippi Kid - Guitar focused. Love the rhythym and sound Poison Whiskey - Love the sound of this song. Great start with the guitar, the drums and guitar working together Free Bird - Classic Free Bird 4/5 stars

This is one of those albums that absolutely blows my mind to find out it was the bands first album. Nearly prefect with some of the bands biggest hits. And then to end it with Free Bird may be one of the biggest mic drops in musical history. Really enjoyed this one!

Tuesday's Gone is an excellent ballad. You have to be very confident with your soloing to put a guitar solo before the first verse. The solo after the first verse is also mighty fine as are the good 'ole boys' southern rock harmonies. Things Going On is quite clearly an anti-segregation song. This is interesting given that one of the band's slightly more popular songs led to allegations that Ronnie was pro Wallace. Some of the "filler"on side 2 is really quite good. The Mississippi blues song Mississippi Kid shows their prowess with the broken coke bottle and the anti-alcohol song Poison Whisky has is also an excellent jam. Free Bird is the best song in the album and the band's second best song overall - next to that tune about folks in Birmingham loving Wallace.

I guess maybe it’s necessary to separate the original incarnation of the band from what they became, since we can’t really tell whether Ronnie Van Zant would’ve made the same decisions that the band did, had he lived. Maybe they were more liberal-minded in the early days and Sweet Home Alabama really is a skewering of conservative policies and values and they actually didn’t care for segregationist governor George Wallace - which would make sense with the “Boo Boo Boo” chant following his mention in the song, but it’s contradicted by accounts that Van Zant did, in fact, like Wallace by Skynyrd bassist Ed King and Charlie Daniels. One thing that overlaps both versions of this band is the use of the Confederate Flag in their imagery and stage shows. That was kind of a constant and is also a choice where their intent is unclear. It’s been explained away by the band that their record label, MCA, encouraged them to use the flag as a way to accent their Southernness and rebellious nature, but they also continued to associate themselves with it in their merchandise and stage shows for nearly 40 years following the band’s formation. Accepting the charitable interpretation, that Skynyrd merely used the flag as a marketing ploy, leaves us with an explanation: Lynyrd Skynyrd was fine with being tied to all the things that flag stood for, so long as they made money off of it, which is…a different kind of awful. So Skynyrd has left us with a choice to make: Do we accept their explanation that they were just playing the game, that they were actually more socially progressive, but had to lean into stereotype to make money? There’s an old saying, “If you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything” and I think that applies here. By adopting the rebel flag, they’ve forever tied themselves to its history and whatever good intentions they may have had outside of that are tarnished by the flag’s legacy. …and like I said, that’s the charitable explanation.

I imagine this is music people would like to have sex too.

On their debut, Lehner Skinnerd manages to sound like 3 people playing while being 6 people (7 on the cover?) in the band. Impressive. While much more authentic than the southern rock coming out of Creedence Clearwater Revival (as authentic you can get by telling the stories of hardship in the south from the point of view of some white guys), songs about guns and god just doesn't do it for me. Overall, the album just feels like one long wait until 'Free Bird' finally kicks in, and although that's a legendary track, I'm not quite sure it's worth it sitting through the first 7 songs.

Longest wait for “Free Bird” I’ve ever had to endure. -1 star, partially because I’m just irritable today, and partially for proudly supporting one of the most repugnant and embarrassing failed attempts at a nation-state in the history of man. Never forget that the Confederacy only lasted for 4 fucking years, and was an enormous economic and domestic disaster for all states involved. Anyone thinking that it’s something worth celebrating is not just an ignorant white supremacist, but also a historically/politically illiterate moron.

Blegh. In researching this album, I’ve dug up some archival transcripts from a real conversation between Allen Collins and Al Kooper: AK: You know what’d be great? A guitar solo to end the album AC: Oh hell yeah, sounds cool, man! People love solos! What are you thinking? AK: Make it…. Long AC: Ahhh great, brother! Like a minute-long closer?! AK: No. Longer. AC: …2 minutes? AK: Try 4. AC: Uhhh but I only know like five licks AK: Bah, so much to learn, Leh-nerd. You just gotta repeat them a bunch! Like, I’m talking multiple bars of the same thing. And when your five riffs run dry, just bend the strings! Trust me, the audience won’t know the difference. AC: Hmm what about my artistic integrity? AK: BROTHER JUST REPEAT IT. WE’LL FADE IT OUT AT THE END. (Free Bird would go on to inspire millions) Official count of unique riffs in Free Bird: 7

Never considered myself a huge Skynard fan, but this is the damn definition of the genre. Side note to Pete: when you come to atlanta next, I’m totally taking you guys to watch the dirt-track racing in Winder one night. It’s a spectacle and you’ll hear about half of this album from radios in the stands. I can almost guarantee you’ve never experienced anything like it, and you’re going to love it.

Classic, album full of chart toppers, just incredible. Impossible to not sing along.

Day 307 Amazing album. Highlights Tuesdays Gone Simple Man Free Bird

Love every bit of it. Things Goin' On was a new find for me

An amazing debut album. But honestly if free bird were the only good song on the album I would probably still have to give the album a 5 -one of the most epic guitar solos ever. But that’s not the case, as all the songs are really good and Three steps, simple man, Tuesday’s gone are all pretty great. Album cover is great, just the band hanging out. Very sad, everyone on that cover has passed. No current surviving members of the band which is very unusual. After the plane crash and loss of many in the band it was never the same, seemed more like a tribute band. An the name of the band is great!

I've mostly avoided Lynyrd Skynyrd my whole life. I'm not sure really why. The meme of Freebird might be the reason. Growing up my parent's listened mostly to classic country, outlaw country and classic rock and roll. So those were my building blocks. Later in life I learned to play the harmonica and became fascinated with the Blues. Anyway this album feels like a concentrated collection of my personal history with music.

Rock & roll de la vieja escuela.

Quintessential blues rock. If I were to show classic rock to aliens, this would probably be the top candidate. It's loud and energetic with both short hard songs and longer softer songs. And it swaps between short then long back to short and so forth to not get tiring. Now usually I'd get bored with such long songs, but if you listen to "Tuesday's Gone", the instruments vary so often throughout the song, taking turns with leads. Just start listening from the piano solo to hear what I mean. It also has a different drum sound from the other songs. "Gimme Three Steps" sounds like their later song "What's your name" but since it's not the same album it doesn't count. Each song is distinctive and inviting with catchy tunes and poppy lyrics, and the back vocals during the choruses help audience participation. With the 2nd side you can actually convince someone why it's called "blues" rock but a lot of people can get bored by it. I still think they're strong tracks. Love that old-timey piano solo in "Things goin on". Also "Mississippi Kid" gets bonus points for me just so happening to be passing through Mississippi from Memphis to New Orleans, visiting the Delta Blues Museum. "Poison Whiskey", especially the solos, does sound lazier and uninnovative than the other tracks, but I do sorta like that hard piano sound. And finally there's the most famous rock song of all time "Free Bird". I don't have much to say other than what I aready said. Great song, and the length does not hinder it. Love when it goes higher pace around 4:35. I will comment is that the ending felt anticlimatic. Overall fantastic influential album that define the era, with bangers all throughout. Despite the flaws, I still believe it deserves the 5 stars.

About as perfect an A-side as you can have... oh and then there's Freebird!

I remember the first time my dad put this album on. We were at my grandparents house one sunday while they were installing a ceiling fan in and other stuff. I was 10 at the time, and man, this album had me moving my head and hadn't heard anything like this before. Now, I was used to rock, we'd listen to CCR, Sabbath, The Beatles etc, but this southern rock was something else, man. Listening to "Gimme Three Steps" still takes me back to sitting in that wicker chair and grooving, and my little mind being blown....and subsequently kinda bored after a while with "Freebird" but still, lol. every damn song is perfect on the album, no notes!

I mean, fuck the band, and all, but that's some definitive Southern rock.

Simple man and free bird are such masterpieces

Funky southern rock. Not a bad track on the album. All quite similar in vibe.3.75 rounded to 4*

50% of this album is all time classic songs. Of the rest Things Goin' On is great, Mississippi Kid is good and the other two are mercifully short. If you take away the band's history and bullshit confederate flags it'd be an easy 5 but this defining 'Southern' so much for the worse means I can't separate the art from the artist as much as I'd like.

I'll confess to having only really listened to a couple of Skynyrd's biggest hits. You can't avoid "Freebird", it's become woven into pop culture, although as it and those around in the 70s have aged, it's faded. I gotta say this is an impressive debut album, self-assured and fully fleshed-out. Having "heard it all" at this stage in life, I am impressed with "Tuesday's Gone" which I think I've heard before. I did, however, want it to be over half-way through, instead of it repeating itself with riffs on top ad infinitum, but that tends to be how I feel about a lot of classic rock I missed that I've gone back to... "Gimmie Three Steps" is one of those hits I've heard. Didn't know it nor "Free Bird" were on the debut album. Classic rock riffs and solos. "Simple Man" I hadn't known but learned last year, as a friend who died had requested it be played at the memorial service. I can appreciate its earnestness more through my friend's love of the song He was a good, good dude. Hey there's seven people on the album cover... did they really need that many to make this record? --- Okay, checked out the comments. Folks, I can't help but notice there's no racism nor is there a confederate flag on the album cover or in the lyrics. The only political-leaning song complains about Vietnam and the government not protecting the people from the effects of pollution, and instead spending money on going to the moon. "Help the poor", it seems to say. You want to argue against any of that? I'm trying to take this journey like a visitor from another planet, without relying so heavily on all the baggage surrounding the record and the people who made it. It's impossible to completely leave your biases at the door but it's a fun exercise while going through these albums. The more I think about "southern rock" and sunburned jerks in tank tops that used to be t-shirts drinking American whiskey in front of a confederate flag, the less I like this record. The more I just focus on the music, the more I like it.

FREE BIRD!! Great classic rock album. 8.5/10

This album has some really nice moments on it, and despite the fact that this type of music sounds stereotypically southern now, it only became that way because of this band At the same time, the album sags in places. I've never been a huge fan of Free Bird, perhaps because I grew up in the Beavis and Butthead era when this song was already a meme. Trying to listen to it with fresh ears is hard as a result. I think that it's a pretty enough song, but not the all time great the way it tends to be portrayed by people who really like it. Fuck it, 4/5 by the skin of it's teeth. Maybe I like Free Bird after all. Or at least, I like 4/5ths of Free Bird. That song could have been shut down a full minute earlier with no negative impact

weirdly enough, free bird was my least favorite part of this. really surprisingly enjoyable as an album, good length. 8/10

Lynyrd Skynyrd were at the top of their game when they released their debut album. Excellent songwriting, perfected tone, and THE GUITARS! Oh man, this is guitar heaven. Can't call yourself a fan of rock until you've heard Skynyrd absolutely tear it up. Good album.

Gritty, raw, and delightful

im shit at rating and don't know the right words to express my feelings so beware!!! "i ain't the one" i wasn't really catching the vibe so i skipped it 2 mins in. 6/10 "tuesday's gone" a VERY long song, though i'm not complaining bc i really enjoyed listening to it :) 8.5/10 "gimme three steps" would prob like this more if i was energized and starting the day. 7.8/10 "simple man" love it, very much like its title, simple yet nice to listen to. 8.7/10 "things goin' on" i like how calm it sounds, though i wouldn't say i'd willingly search it up and listen to it. 7.6/10 "mississippi kid" it sounds country and i sorta don't like country heh sorry. 6.3/10 "poison whiskey" again not catching the vibe hehe, tho i think i would listen if i felt a bit more exploring ykyk iykwim. 6.8/10 "free bird" like it, especially somewhere around the ending. 7.2/10 fav: tuesday's gone least fav: i ain't the one overall rating of album: 8.2/10

I'd have never been able to pronounce it otherwise.

Sweet home Alabama extended versions, alt takes and mixes, + hit single Free Bird.

The epitome of southern "hard" rock - really exemplary. Better than their follow up album, 'Most of Us Are Dead"

average

much guitar. lots of hits

Let’s for a moment do something Lynyrd Skynyrd never quite got around to doing - forget about the confederate flag. “Tuesday’s Gone” is a treat and “Simple Man” is a great tune. But the only real reason this debut album is on the list is because of its legendary closing track. Not quite enough in itself. But almost.

The album is fine. I just couldn't engage with it. It felt really disjointed. There's certainly some classic songs here but I've personally never had much of a reaction to them.

I am trusting the process with this site, but I will be damned if I don't keep getting sent total stinkers for albums to trudge through. Classic rock (which has now been coined Dinosaur rock by the younger generations, because I guess they use Oldies for something else...) purists will tell you this is one of the best albums of all time by a legendary band who helped invent southern rock. I am not one of those people.

At the time, I’m sure that collecting the sounds of a hoe down mixing it with blues guitar noodling and an over reliance on southern stereotypes was magic to a select group of young people who were inundated with the psychedelic sounds of the late 60s. There is no doubt that Sweet Home Alabama is Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Stairway to heaven and there are some remarkable similarities in the way both songs start pastoral and build to an anthem. The similarities stop there. This album is a rather boring and dreary affair and best left to those folks who thought the 8:33 of Sweet Home was the whole album.

Free Bird is a good tune, the rest not so great

I actually quite enjoyed this in places, but one star for racists.

I didn’t know that they were really problematic, and I’m not going to give a real rating out of principle. But I’ll say this - the racists can make music.

too american

Як підсумували в одному рев'ю на rym "стерильний дед рок". З цікавого тільки на "Things Goin' On" і "Poison Whiskey" неочікувано класні клавішні партії, а на "Mississippi Kid" гармошка (хоча пісню вона не сильно рятує). З непоганих пісень тільки "Free Bird" (вочевидь), але, бляха, як же вона затягнута, була вона хоча б на хвилини три коротша, була б цукерочкою, а так маємо що маємо. Тай взагалі в пацанів немає міри того, як довго мають йти пісні. Цей альбом на ізі міг бути хвилин на 10/15 коротшим.

Nah! I don't hate Skynyrd, I "heritage" them. So instead I'm gonna review Imagination by Gladys Knight & the Pips and THEN put a list of other albums from 1973 that are worth being on this list instead. Having never heard Imagination in full and only knowing the hits (Midnight Train and Best Thing), I was a little bummed that I never took the time for the rest of the album. Gladys Knight always kinda sailed under the radar for me, not quite the diva image of Patti but also not the troubadour image of Roberta Flack. That's entirely on me as it turns out, cuz there's some damn good soul on this thing. I think Ms. Knight & the Pips flew out of my range a bit because they sing a lot of covers and songs written not specifically for them. It works out okay, but there's not always a song that fits them like a glove the way Midnight Train does. Like, most other versions of that song are trying their best to live up to this version. I'd give the album a 4/5. Great cuts, classic 70s soul arranging with big ass orchestra and the oboe doing some primary melody stuff. Reminds me of some other Philly soul while reading that this band is from Atlanta. I like it a lot. Here's a list of other albums from 1973 that I like, too: +Al Green - Call Me +Pointer Sisters - Pointer Sisters +Tower of Power - Tower of Power (this one FUCKS) +Donny Hathaway - Extension of a Man (criminal exclusion from this list) +Rufus - Rufus +Roberta Flack - Killing Me Softly +Kool and the Gang - Wild and Peaceful (you don't think a person should hear Jungle Boogie before they die? They'll die having never shaken their ass?) +The O'Jays - Ship Ahoy +Joe Pass - Virtuoso +The Main Ingredient - Afrodisiac +Return to Forever - Light as a Feather +The Stylistics - Round 2 (this one is 1972 but whatever. Great album)

Oh, the flag is about heritage and states' rights, you say? Rights to do what? HUH? Yeah.

Damn, I really hate southern rock.

Southern rock gives me the ick and this is the epitome of southern rock. Hard pass.

Not my baseball helmet full of light beer

Boring

One good song. Free bird.

This stinks

The greatest Southern rock album of all time.

Sensational album. Already loved most of the tracks but liked listening to some I hadn’t heard before

10/10

Love it love it

Pronunciation Is crucial, but not needed To enjoy these songs.

Love Skynyrd

Iconic. Nothing more to say.

Good album, really enjoyed it, rich rock sound, definitely coming back to listen again. Music that fits movies. Legendary tracks — "Free Bird", "Simple Man", "Gimme Three Steps", insane. Kind of embarrassing I didn't know this was the band behind them, huge surprise, glad it's them, glad they made this. No more words needed :D

Solid debut album first half loaded with all the songs we know minus the closer "Free Bird". This band always puts me in a good mood plus some strong nostalgia for the days of growing up and becoming a man when I was working construction and getting up early every day leaving my sleeping girlfriend behind. I bought a greatest hits 2 cd album years ago and most of these songs are on it. Still a fan to this day and can recommend this one to almost everyone.

I've always had a love/hate relationship with this album. It is widely recognized as the originator of southern rock, at least by people who are too snooty to frame ABB that way and instead call them a jam band. But there's a problem with that. There were so many others developing that sound earlier. From hillbilly fiddler Charlie Daniels to British adjacent Delaney Brammlet to Leslie West taking Mississippi Queen to #1 three full years prior (yes, I know he's a New Yorker playing with Brits, but that record is absolutely the template), there really is no credibility to that assertion. Goose Creek Symphony already had three albums under their belt. Van Zant was of his time, Gearheart was ahead of his time. It was neither the first fully southern rock album (that would be The Marshall Tucker Band) or the greatest southern rock album (Fire on the Mountain). The fact that neither of these works even appear on the #1001albumsyoumusthearbeforeyoudie lists are further testament to the Eurocentric foolishness of the list. Even Tres Hombres came out a few months before and was the Top's third full length. Is Listen to the Music a southern rock tune? Black Water? All that said, there is no denying how great this record is. It's all just noise that swirls around it. I can't blame Gary Rossington for the ignorance of rock "historians". Even more impressive than the singing, writing and playing is the singular vision of Ronnie Van Zant. Al Kooper produced this album but it was Ronnie's vision. To his credit, Al was confident enough to assert his opinions but also secure enough to allow Van Zant to throw him out of the studio as they recorded Simple Man in his absence. So while this again is NOT the album that invented southern rock, it probably is it's bellwether. 5 stars.

tuesday's gone is, of course, one of the best songs ever written. i was not familiar with gimme three steps before this listen, but really enjoyed the guitar motifs — definitely a standout for me. i ain't the one is an enticing hook to the album and creates a lot of anticipation. it feels like a movie opener moment.

Tem nem o que falar desse disco, clássico irretocável de uma das banda mais fodas de todos os tempos. Só pedrada de qualidade.

Giving it a fiver. Tuesdays Gone, Simple Man, and Free Bird alone are awesome. The rest of the album is great as well. Dig the southern rock sound.

Profusion without confusion. This is what happens when a debut album arrives with seven years’ previous experience. Lynyrd Skynyrd had been gigging since the mid-sixties, had already made an unsuccessful attempt at recording an album and had been rejected repeatedly. By 1973 there is almost none of that first-record urge to demonstrate everything you can do before the listener loses interest. They already know who they are. To 19-year-old me, Lynyrd Skynyrd weren’t exactly the enemy. They were more like music for people who refused to cut their hair. I certainly wasn’t expecting to find this much precision, restraint and sheer judgment. “I Ain’t the One” virtually announces the method with its opening line: “Now I’ll tell you plainly what I plan to do.” Everything is placed. The drums are placed. The guitars occupy particular spaces rather than simply filling them. The solos are composed, yet the band can make the ending sound as though everybody has suddenly abandoned reason before pulling themselves back together. There’s an old aphorism that jazz is improvised music trying to sound composed and rock is composed music trying to sound improvised. This album might be the apotheosis of the second half. Its apparent spontaneity is viciously constructed. That construction never makes it airless. “Tuesday’s Gone” takes seven and a half minutes because its tempo and atmosphere deserve seven and a half minutes, not because somebody forgot to stop playing. It is spectral, spacious and remarkably unshowy. Billy Powell gets a beautiful piano part rather than a LOOK AT THE PIANIST solo. Harmonies appear because the song needs them. Strings arrive not with “look what else we can do” but “look what this deserves.” Al Kooper occasionally deposits an ugly Hammond chord exactly where an ugly Hammond chord belongs. He plays keyboards like a rhythm guitarist. “Gimme Three Steps” is even more revealing. Van Zant is telling a story about having a gun pointed at him, a situation that could quite easily have ended with him dead on a barroom floor, and the entire band treats it as an amusing occupational hazard. The song struts before he has even started singing. Van Zant is absurdly laid-back, and everybody behind him sounds equally entertained by the memory. This isn’t trauma being revisited or danger being inflated into drama. It’s band folklore: look, this is what happens when you’re Lynyrd Skynyrd. The fact that the story could have ended very badly only makes their refusal to solemnise it funnier. “Simple Man” starts to sound almost like the album explaining itself. Simplify yourself until you know who you are. Lynyrd Skynyrd have done precisely that to their music. This simplicity is not primitive. They have worked very, very, very hard to achieve it. They are Kenny Rogers’ Gambler turned into a band: knowing when to hold back, when to step forward and when to spend everything. Their Southernness is similarly unvarnished. “Things Goin’ On” is something like a political manifesto written by the Dukes of Hazzard: environmental concern, suspicion of war and technological progress, politicians detached from ordinary life and that dangerous suggestion that there are things happening which we aren’t being told about. It’s grievance rather than coherent politics — dangerous to ignore and dangerous to accept at face value. Elsewhere there’s that peculiarly Southern mixture of repentance and unashamedness: people behave badly, drink too much, run from trouble and nevertheless decline to crawl. Even the straightforward blues of “Mississippi Kid” demonstrates judgment. The whole band steps backwards. Mandolin, harmonica and guitar make something intimate out of material that hardly needs another demonstration of virtuosity. The demonstration is integration itself. Then somebody shouts “Play ‘Free Bird!’” Oh. They actually do. Hearing “Free Bird” inside this album rather than underneath fifty years of cultural baggage is revelatory. Its opening is almost apologetically restrained: spectral rhythm guitar concentrated high on the strings, selected notes left ringing, Van Zant at his most laid-back. This is the song everybody remembers as guitar excess beginning with the band refusing to show off. And then Van Zant lets them. Suddenly they get a whole single’s length of vinyl to show off in. Even at maximum density there is still profusion without confusion. The guitars blend rather than compete. The pressure seems to rise like a Shepard tone, finding another level and then another before that final chugging minute. After an album spent using their heads extraordinarily well, the band finally permit themselves some completely corporeal pleasure. The fade-out might as well say: come and see us live; we’ve got another fifteen minutes of this. Forty-three years after mentally filing Lynyrd Skynyrd under “music for people who refuse to cut their hair”, I’m giving their debut five stars without reservation. Nineteen-year-old me would have assumed I’d lost my tiny fucking mind.

Pretty great!

No misses to be found on this on

Ok... this one's getting 5 Stars because it's the band's first album and somehow there are at least 4 all-time hit songs on it. Does this mean I'm a Lynyrd Skynyrd fan? Probably not, but how many artists make this type of showing right out of the gate? Not many.

The album rocks, I saw Freebird which I know but a lot of the album is pretty good and it's a decent listen from start to finish

Another true classic!

First 5 in a minute. Revolutionary for the time.

Lynyrd Skynyrd – (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd) (1973) On Day 247, I experienced an absolute landmark in rock musicianship. "Free Bird" is a total classic, the second-half guitar solo crushed so hard it felt like a clinical performance. "Tuesday's Gone," "Simple Man," and "Gimme Three Steps" stood out as incredible storytelling tracks, and the album opens perfectly with "I Ain't the One." Additionally, the demo tracks "Mr. Banker" and "Down South Jukin'" from the expanded edition were low-key peak. A non-stop masterpiece of Southern rock craftsmanship. An undisputed 5/5.

own

Просто восторг, и вечные хиты, и незаезженная годнота, великолепно от корки до корки. Единственное слабое место альбома - его название. Нильсон Шмильсон был смешнее

Какой у них прикольный лор. Альбом очень классный.

5*s for Free Bird alone

amazing

Banger after banger. Haven’t listened to this whole album straight maybe ever? But wow no skips. Some of the greatest rock guitar of all time however corny that take is