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From the All Things Music Plus page on Facebook:

Lynyrd_Skynyrd_-_One_More_From_The_Road_(Front).jpg

ON THIS DATE (35 YEARS AGO)

September 13, 1976 – Lynyrd Skynyrd One More from the Road is released.

# All Things Music Plus+ 4.5/5

# Allmusic 3/5

# Robert Christgau (A-)

# Rolling Stone (see below)

One More From the Road is a live album by Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. It marked the band's first live album, and the only live album from the so-called "classic" era of the band (1970-1977) prior to the plane crash that killed lead singer/songwriter Ronnie Van Zant, as well as band members Steve Gaines and Cassie Gaines. The album was released in September 1976, just after the release of their fourth album, Gimme Back My Bullets.

The original 12 tracks include a cover of Jimmie Rodgers' "T for Texas" and a 14:10 version of "Free Bird".

The Deluxe Edition, released in 2001, is thoroughly remastered and contains additional performances from the Fabulous Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia.

ORIGINAL ROLLING STONE REVIEW

"Crossroads," the Robert Johnson-cum-Cream metallic raver included on this live album, deftly encapsulates Lynyrd Skynyrd's influences: Southern blues-rock diced with the sharp blade of British hard rock. Cream was based conceptually upon the guitar as the primary rock manipulator; Skynyrd has secured its large audience by maintaining that notion.

But Skynyrd has always relied more on a solid repertoire of rock material than on instrumental expertise. Their three guitarists -- Steve Gaines has joined to fill Ed King's old slot -- have a solid arsenal of fills and solo ideas, but none of them has ever created a readily identifiable style. Appropriately, the solos in "Crossroads" never stray too far from Clapton's on Wheels of Fire. And ironically, the album's inevitable finale, "Free Bird" -- the jam that make Skynyrd instant FM favorites -- fails to maintain its heavyweight status, because it sounds, after four sides of the same, like just one final exertion of heavy-metal power.

While pianist Billy Powell remains in a largely supportive role, Ronnie Van Zant's singing is always solid -- barroom-tough on rockers, properly vulnerable on two of the set's highlights, "Searching" and "The Needle and the Spoon." The only new song, "Travellin' Man," which is sung with effective and unobtrusive background singers, receives a similarly world-weary interpretation. The album's real surprise though is a rock-out version of "T for Texas."

Skynyrd has never aspired to be more than a tough rock & roll band, and their live set -- which draws more than half its material from their first two albums -- lives up to that. Penny for penny, One More from the Road offers a prime cut of guitar rock.

- John Milward, Rolling Stone, 11-4-76.

TRACKS:

Original Double LP

Side One

"Workin' for MCA" (Ed King, Ronnie Van Zant) – 4:38

"I Ain't the One" (Gary Rossington, Van Zant) – 3:37

"Searching" (Allen Collins, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, Van Zant) – 3:51

"Tuesday's Gone" (Collins, Rossington, Van Zant) – 7:39

Side Two

"Saturday Night Special" (King, Van Zant) – 5:30

"Travelin' Man" (Leon Wilkeson, Van Zant)– 4:08

"Whiskey Rock-a-Roller" (King, Billy Powell, Zan Zant) – 4:14

"Sweet Home Alabama" (King, Rossington, Van Zant) – 6:49

Side Three

"Gimme Three Steps" (Collins, Van Zant) – 5:00

"Call Me the Breeze" (J.J. Cale) – 5:27

"T for Texas" (Jimmie Rodgers) – 8:26

Side Four

"The Needle and the Spoon" (Collins, Van Zant) – 4:17

"Crossroads" (Robert Johnson) – 3:44

"Free Bird" (Collins, Van Zant) – 14:10

Remaster differences

The 2001 remaster of this album, produced by Ron O'Brien, slightly changed some of the original recordings. In addition to the album being completely re-EQ-ed, adding deleted tracks back into the set, the audience tracks being "beefed up" and a new mix being done to every track, many of the obvious overdubs were corrected and removed from the tracks, along with the album being resequenced into the correct set list order.

Changes include:

- Workin' for MCA

The opening to Workin' for MCA on the original cut featured just Rossington's guitar performing the solo somewhat off-beat while Allen Collins played the main riff with Steve Gaines. The remaster has removed the overdubbed guitar from Collin's part to reveal the dual lead at the beginning (which was how the song was always played live). Also removed is the slight delay put behind Gaines' solo mid-way through the song. The EQ on the solo has been changed somewhat to make the solo blend more with the rest of the band. It is likely that Gaines redubbed this solo using his Fender Twin amp rather than his Peavey Mace.

-I Ain't the One

There seems to be some additional dubbing to cover up Rossington's beginning mistake on the main riff just as Van Zant ad-libs "Let's pick it up!"

-Saturday Night Special

Various overdubs on Rossington's solos were removed.

-The Needle and the Spoon

Some slight re-arranging of instruments. Gaines' guitar is now in between right and center while Rossington is panned dead right, whereas before it was the opposite.

-Gimme Three Steps

The audio of Gaines tuning his guitar in between songs was removed.

-T for Texas

A slightly evident overdub on Collins' guitar is still present

-Sweet Home Alabama

The delay present behind Gaines' final solo on the song has been dramatically reduced, most likely by increasing the crowd noise.

-Crossroads

The overdubs on Collins' solos are still present.

-Free Bird

The master reel containing Collins' original (to the album) overdubbed solo was missing at the time of the remaster process. As a result, the track was remastered "as recorded" - the original live take is heard.

Edited by Jahfin
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  • 1 month later...

These guys were on the way to becoming superstars. That would have been perfect for the anti disco movement. To lose the guys at such a young age really sucked. I didn't get into Skynyrd until 86 when I was 19 years old at the time. When I was growing up there was a very big Skynyrd fan base. I was a fan of Skynyrd for about ten years, then I got into the ABB.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 months later...

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All Things Music Plus

ON THIS DATE (38 YEARS AGO)

April 15, 1974 – Lynyrd Skynyrd Second Helping is released.

# ALL THINGS MUSIC PLUS+ 5/5

# allmusic 5/5

# Rolling Stone (see original review below)

Second Helping is an album by Lynyrd Skynyrd, released on this date in 1974. It was the band's second album, and featured its biggest hit single, "Sweet Home Alabama", an answer song to Neil Young's "Alabama" and "Southern Man". The song reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in August 1974. This was the first Lynyrd Skynyrd album to feature the band's trademark triple guitar attack. The album reached #12 on the Billboard album charts. It was certified Gold on 9/20/1974, Platinum and 2x Platinum on 7/21/1987 by the R.I.A.A.

It was hard to believe that Lynyrd Skynyrd could possibly top its classic, near-perfect 1973 debut, Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd. However, the boys from Florida accomplished the near-impossible with their sophomore release one year later, Second Helping. It's hard to determine the better album of the two, but both proved to be a solid one-two punch that made Lynyrd Skynyrd one of the '70s' biggest (and unfortunately, most tragic) rock bands.

Second Helping also helped define and create the Southern rock movement, as proven by such tracks as the classic anthem "Sweet Home Alabama" (which include the now-famous dig at Neil Young), the cautionary rocker "The Needle & the Spoon," and the biographical tale of "Workin' For MCA." With its fine writing and playing, and scores of hard-hitting Southern rock riffs and grooves, Second Helping assured Skynyrd's ascendancy to rock stardom and FM radio immortality.

ORIGINAL ROLLING STONE REVIEW

This group is frequently compared to the Allman Brothers but it lacks that band's sophistication and professionalism. If a song doesn't feel right to the Brothers, they work on it until it does; if it isn't right to Lynyrd Skynyrd, they are more likely to crank up their amps and blast their way through the bottleneck. They do, however, play a solid brand of Allman-influenced blues rock, drawing on gospel and other components of southern music as well. Second Helping is distinguished from their debut LP only by a certain mellowing out that indicates they may eventually acquire a level of savoirfaire to realize their many capabilities.

~ Gordon Fletcher (July 4, 1974)

TRACKS:

Side One

"Sweet Home Alabama" (King, Rossington, R. Van Zant) – 4:43

"I Need You" (Ed King, Rossington, R. Van Zant) – 6:55

"Don't Ask Me No Questions" (Rossington, Van Zant) – 3:26

"Workin' for MCA" (Ed King, Ronnie Van Zant) – 4:49

Side Two

"The Ballad of Curtis Loew" (Allen Collins, Ronnie Van Zant) – 4:51

"Swamp Music" (Ed King, Ronnie Van Zant) – 3:31

"The Needle and the Spoon" (Collins, Van Zant) – 3:53

"Call Me the Breeze" (J. J. Cale) – 5:09

1997 CD reissue bonus tracks

"Don't Ask Me No Questions (Single Version)" (Gary Rossington, Ronnie Van Zant) – 3:31

"Was I Right Or Wrong (Demo)" (Gary Rossington, Ronnie Van Zant) – 5:33

"Take Your Time (Demo)" (Ronnie Van Zant, Ed King) – 7:29

Edited by Jahfin
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  • 3 months later...

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"Waiting for Curtis Lowe" by Wes Freed

This is from Wes' Facebook page, a piece of commissioned artwork he's been working on that is not for sale, he just wanted to show friends and fans what he's been up to lately. Wes is probably best known for the artwork he's done for every Drive-By Truckers album since Southern Rock Opera but he's also done work for Cracker as well as other artists.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Back when Drive-By Truckers were asked to open for Lynyrd Skynyrd, Gary Rossington was quoted as saying he found the Truckers album Southern Rock Opera to be "weird". Makes me wonder what he would have to say about Unknown Hinson...

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Nice photos but I can't imagine how painful it must have been to have to sit through 3 Doors Down and Retchin' Wilson. When I first saw that the name of this tour was "Gang of Outlaws" those are the very last bands I expected to see sharing the bill with the Top.

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Even though I've been a ZZ fan since I first got my hands on a copy of Tres Hombres back in the 70's I've only seen them in concert once and that was around 2003 or so when they headlined a triple bill in Raleigh that also included Kenny Wayne Shepherd and the Nuge. As great as they were, they seemed dwarfed by that huge ass stage. The whole time they were playing I couldn't help but think how kick ass it would be to see them in a hot n' sweaty bar (think the VH show at Cafe Wha? from earlier this year). I've got my fingers crossed that the new stuff is going to be less post-Eliminator and more pre-El Loco. I definitely liked what I heard on that Texicali EP they released a couple months back.

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I haven't used the words "selling out" at all but to my ears there was a very noticeable change in their sound circa Eliminator and it's one that they've pretty much adhered to ever since. Whether that was a conscious decision on their part or a natural evolution (or a combination of the two), I don't know. They've done some stuff since then that I really like (including some tunes from Eliminator, no matter how overplayed it is) but my preferences lie with the records they did up to and including El Loco. Same thing with Aerosmith except the cut off point for me would be Rocks. I liked Draw the Line and Night In the Ruts but there was clearly some sort of artistic decline taking place. Once they regrouped I liked a few songs here and there but stuff like "I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing" was the sound of a once great rock n' roll band scraping bottom. While ZZ Top never sunk to such depths I can't help but think they must have been affected somehow by their rise to popularity via MTV as well. They found a sound that sold well and they stuck with it. Every band has to make bank but I'll take "Have You Heard?" any day of the week over "Gimme All Your Lovin'" and I actually like that song. I just prefer the early material but then again, that's pretty much true of every artist I'm a fan of, it's not unique to just ZZ Top and Aerosmith.

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