Lynyrd Skynyrd: Gold And Platinum: The Very Best Of Lynyrd Skynyrd
Lynyrd Skynyrd - hard drinkin', hard playin', hard lovin' no nonsense purveyors of Southern boogie rock. Nobody really quite like them was there? Lord above they could play too. Their knew their blues and they mixed that with a Southern rock whiskey-sodden sass to perfection. That said, on a personal level, I have always thought that they were never quite as good as many others considered them to be, outside of a few obvious killer songs - Alabama, Free Bird and Tuesday's Gone. Give me Free or Bad Company all day long.
I will still approach this review fairly, however. Now - turn it up!!!!
The collection begins with a non-album rocker in the uptempo bar-room boogie of Down South Jukin'. It's a fine introductory number that expresses the very essence of Skynyrd.
Saturday Night Special is a solid, brooding rocker with some nice percussion backing up the trustworthy riffs. Gimme Three Steps is a riffy, chunky rocker with a huge, heavy bass sound that pounds straight out of your speakers with a huge thump. Lyrically, it has some of the wry humour that Skynyrd often injected into their songs. They even diversify the drum sound to include some congas too, surprisingly.
What’s Your Name is a brassy rocker with a bit of a loose, easy edge to it, You Got That Right is a stomping slice of bar-room boogie, while Gimme Back My Bullets is the usual reliable bluesy rock.
Now for the big one - Free Bird. Over nine minutes of classic seventies, Southern rock. It has all the ingredients - a brooding build to the anthemic “I can’t change” chorus parts, killer guitar and finally rock-out ending with the drums on fire and the band rocking full pelt. No arguments here. Classic fare. Skynyrd never really changed that much, either before or after their tragic accident. You knew what you were going to get. Fine by me.
That Smell, horrible in its prescience, is a broody, bluesy number that tells that “the smell of death’s around you”. Check out the great guitar solo on it, however, despite its eerie coincidence it is a corker of a track.
On The Hunt is straight-ahead heavyish rock. This is quite away from the whole Allman Brothers Southern rock feel. I Ain’t The One is a typical chugging piece of Skynyrd bluesy rock of the sort they would make a career on. Whiskey Rock-A-Roller is, as the title suggests, full of bar-room riffs. It is no-nonsense rock from a largely no-nonsense album (1975's Nuthin' Fancy). You knew what you were going to get here, didn't you?
Simple Man is also the name of a Bad Company song and funnily enough this could easily be one. You could easily imagine Paul Rodgers singing this and instrumentally it sounds similar too, with that big, slow rumbling bass driving it inexorably along.
I Know A Little is a different sort of number for the band, being a lively boogie-woogie blues that rocks from beginning to end.
Tuesday’s Gone is the first example of the slow-burning, anthemic rock ballad that the band would do so well. It has vibe of The Rolling Stones’ bluesy material from Beggar’s Banquet about it, but with that uplifting, rousing BIG chorus too. The bit at 3:21 when it slows down slightly and the piano comes in is archetypal Skynyrd. The dénouement of the song is thoroughly wonderful and everything that was great about this band. They could take you to rock heaven. It is truly a magnificent song.
The album ends with the huge rock ballad Comin' Home, a track which was, I believe, released posthumously (after the tragic plane crash).
Strangely, only Alabama is on here from the classic 1974 Second Helping album. No place for Call Me The Breeze, Workin' For MCA or Don't Ask Me Questions, which is a bit odd.
Anyway, those big wheels keep on turnin'.....
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