Lynyrd Skynyrd: Classic or Dud?

Richard Wood Johnson, you're a dick.

the user name would certainly suggest so.

classic all day long, esp. first two lp's.

S: "Working For MCA" and "Gimme Back My Bullets" and whole lot of others.

Richard Wood Johnson, you're a dick.

Eh. I'd rather be a dick than like SKYNYRD, DUUUDDE!!

the vision of drunk, toothless rednecks with confederate flags plastered all over their rusting pick-up trucks, air guitaring to "Gimme Three Steps" in white trash bars has cemented my hatred for this sort of country-fried nonsense forever. and i'm not just knocking the band for their audience, either. their music is pure, unadulterated bullshit cooked down to its purest form and smeared all over the last few vestiges of passable artistic taste that still exist in this world.

BAN RICHARD WOOD JOHNSON

Dud. I know there's not much point in posting negative opinion here, but really people - two words: "Free bird". RWJ OTM.

DOM OTM

Ban people who don't like Skynyrd. That's the kind of legislated sense of aesthetics that ILM really needs.

Ban people who don't like Skynyrd.

co-sign

people who don't like Skynyrd are one aesthetic step from not liking the Allmans, which in a just world would be a capital offense

Really, people, two words: THAT SMELL

I really am digging 'Simple Man' lately.

*puts 'Ban people who don't like Skynyrd' on a t-shirt*

RIP Billy Powell.

RIP indeed

play it pretty for atlanta

people who don't like Skynyrd are one aesthetic step from not liking the Allmans, which in a just world would be a capital offense

Gee, I guess that means we should make alcohol illegal too, since people who drink are one step away from smoking pot.

We should make pot legal because it makes the Allmans sound better.

res with the penetrating insight into a joke post

a year-old joke post

also, james polk otm

res with the penetrating insight into a joke post

you got whooshed dude

got any more awesome wikipedia links res

i found this one yesterday.

Poor guy just got off the Skynyrd criuse:

http://www.simplemancruise.com/smc2009/lineup.php

Rest in peace, Billy.

Looks like many of the posters here have never listened to a LS album all the way through. How novel. Four of their five original studio albums are great. I was just listening to Street Survivors. It's actually relatively delicate and pretty.

there's some crazy talk dissing the allman bros upthread.

'sweet home alabama' might be the most popular pop/rock song of all-time, and for good reason, it's fuckin perfect.

Classic. Some clueless (and classist and elitist) posts on this thread, especially the late "Richard Wood Johnson", who truly is a dick.

Street Survivors': so so so CLASSIC. I really dig the alternate verison of You Got That Right on the re-release.

But in general...killer lyrics, awesome vocals, that band was TIGHT AS HELL...how can they be anything BUT classic.

I thought this might get bumped to talk about the new album. Haven't heard it, but saw it in the store and was mildly, mildly curious. Judging by the genesis of the album title, God & Guns, they don't like Barack.

I will admit that I have a mental block when it comes to incarnations of Skynyrd post-crash. It just doesn't sound right without Ronnie singing. Plus all that feuding and infighting afterwards really turned me off.

Ultra classic when Ronnie was alive. The reunited version bad in about 1000 ways.

New Lynyrd Skynyrd thing in stores = flypaper for idiots.

"Whiskey botttle, brand new car, oak tree you're in my way"...talk about a great song opener.

Yeah, I don't count post-plane crash Skynryd.

xpost: new record is called "God & Guns". Yeesh

Yeah, kind of dumb. The real Skynrd at least had some subtlety to them, ie the anti-gun "Saturday Night Special"

"Working for MCA" totally beat both "EMI" and "Complete Control" for classic major label songs about major labels not being classic. And wasn't "Gimme Back My Bullets" actually about not landing on the Billboard charts? And "That Smell" was anti-drug in the darkest way possible. So: so classic. Also, actually one of the few acts whose "Essential" collection I play as much as the albums proper. I find it makes the album tracks pop out even more when I play the albums.

Yes, their Essential is fantastic.

I really like Platinum & Gold compilation (is that what it's called)?

All the eye-rolling over 'Sweet Home' and 'Free Bird' kind of bothers me. I know they've been played to death, and that they've become signifiers for something pretty far from what the band represented at the time...but it bums me out that everyone hears the cliche, rather than the actual songs.

Nah, the Essential is a two-disc collection that is relatively recent (okay, maybe turn of the century-ish?). Speaking of "Freebird", while waiting to pick up a prescription at CVS last night the store was playing some horrible adult-contemporary medley that went into the chorus from "Freebird" out of a Richard Marx song. It was pretty bizarre.

Does anyone have the Muscle Shoals Album? Recommended? Yes no? Want to expand my Skynyrd collection a little, and that one looked interesting to me.

xpost: "signifiers for something pretty far from what the band represented at the time"

OK, I'm a hater, but I'm genuinely curious, so tell me - what did the band represent at the time?

Yeah, I don't count post-plane crash Skynryd.

^^ is otm

the store was playing some horrible adult-contemporary medley that went into the chorus from "Freebird" out of a Richard Marx song

You sure that wasn't the legendary Will to Power medley of "Freebird" and "Baby I Love Your Way"?

As in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lxDwfMaQsc

That was indeed it! It was a Richard Marx song before the medley then.

^^hello 6th grade slow dance

I had honestly never heard that before in my life.

Gary and Ted were very different people. Opposite ends of the spectrum.

trying to think of higher praise that you could give someone

so tough

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx5gdTtBq90

the preeminent prog country band

I was caught off guard this morning by the mellotron on "Tuesday's Gone" and "Free Bird" before remembering this scientific fact

captain beyond might like a word but i get it

That respect thing says so much, don’t want to mess with it but summarizing or paraphrasing etc.

But=by

second helping was released 50 years ago today

turn it up

I'm *still* not sure of the politics of "Sweet Home Alabama." At the least it's probably the most maddeningly ambiguous/misunderstood/complicated song of its ilk aside from "Okie from Muskogee," with which is shares a lot of DNA. Even the band was inconsistent when talking about it.

Skynyrd are playing with ZZ Top not too far from me, but the line-up now is basically Ricky Medlocke, Ronnie Van Zant's brother and a bunch of random dudes. How they get to go out playing under the name is beyond me.

“SWA” is a good sophomore year high school talent show entry, just be prepared that the bass player will be the only one in the band who remembers the F-E-D turnaround

Ronnie was in his twenties when he wrote that and came from a very backward place. That song is well beyond him and his politics now. Anyway saying the governor’s true in that situation is pretty reprehensible.

“All I can do is write about it” is his best defense of the south.

Disney Skynyrd ride when

yeah 'watergate does not bother me/does your conscience bother you' is pretty straightforward

but the Swampers

“Now watergate has got the swompers”

“Now we all did what conscience do”

I've got to admit, as a simple man, that I've never had any idea what "watergate does not bother me/does your conscience bother you (tell the truth)" was meant to convey.

I think he’s questioning whether the average citizen should feel guilty about the behavior of their elected representatives.

Or is it kind of the same idea as Randy Newman's "Rednecks"? Like, you get all righteous about misbehaving politicians, but maybe you secretly harbor similar beliefs? ("Tell the truth")

You can't read too hard into these lyrics, folks.

https://i.imgur.com/wvB32jh.jpeg

Or is it kind of the same idea as Randy Newman's "Rednecks"? Like, you get all righteous about misbehaving politicians, but maybe you secretly harbor similar beliefs? ("Tell the truth")

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, April 18, 2024 12:19 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

different in that Randy gets to say the n-word cuzza he's such a Smart Guy