835 Lynyrd Skynyrd - Second Helping (1974)

Studio Album - Blues Rock

About the Act:

Pronounced LEN-ard SKIN-ard, this southern blues rock band for Jacksonville, Florida started life gigging under under a variety of names from the mid-60s until settling on this name in 1969. They created 5 studio albums before a private charter plane crash in 1977 killed their frontman (and a backing singer), seriously injuring the rest. They reformed briefly in 1979, and then again in 1987 and are still going. Their fated lead singer, front-man and main songwriter was Ronnie Van Zandt.

About the Album:

This was the second studio album by the band. It was well-received. It contains the hit single Sweet Home Alabama.

My History with this Album:

None. I know Sweet Home Alabama, all of the other tracks were new to me.

Review:

Well I did NOT expect this to be a cross between rap and Celtic folk. I was right. I did expect it to be Southern Blues Rock. I was right. I did expect it to open with Sweet Home Alabama. Well, I did look at the track list.

Sweet Home Alabama is my second favourite Lynyrd Skynyrd hit, after Freebird. Actually I think they only had the two.

Right, down to business. Here's what to expect from the rest of this review: I will talk about the music, then about the lyrics, then about the delivery and production, and finally I'll tell you how I felt about it.

It's Southern Blues Rock. Actually, it's quite well done Southern Blues Rock, and not as pigeonhole-able as I'm implying. There are some long rambling tracks, and some shorter, more punchy tracks. There are shades of all sorts in here, at times it reminds me of Creedence Clearwater Revival or the Allman Brothers (no surprise really), but at times it reminds me of JJ Cale, or Eric Clapton, at times of Led Zeppelin, and even one track that brings to mind Jimi Hendrix. I mean it's all Blues Rock, but that's still quite a broad path, and stylistically the album wanders around that path. Musically, I would say I am satisfied.

The lyrics, well, there are some along the lines of "ooh baby I love you, what more can I say" which is always a safe area to be in, if a bit run-of-the-mill. Apparently, Sweet Home Alabama is a reply to a Neil Young song where he slags off Alabama. If you thought the habit of mutual dissing was a rap thing, then think again. Then there's a good line in the the track Don't Ask Me No Questions after the obvious cliché of "And I won't tell you no lines" several times, there is the inspired lyric "We can talk about fishing, I guess that'd be OK". There's a track about heroin called "the needle and the spoon". According to Wikipedia they were against it, which I hadn't picked up when listening.  In summary, not all clichés, but a good share of them here. I guess it kind of goes with the territory, this is Blues Rock after all, I didn't expect songs about going bald.

Vocal delivery, meh it's OK. Ronnie isn't a particularly memorable singer, either with voice or delivery. He's not bad, he's kind of average. It's more about the music really, to be honest.  The guitar playing is nice, and there's quite a lot of that. I guess when the band has three guitarists, you can expect quite a bit of guitar work. Also, you know, Blues Rock. The production isn't bad, in fact in 1974 this is not quite as good as it gets, but certainly at the top end. It's warm and hearty and a bit grunty, and that serves the thing well.  As a collection of songs in an album, it is respectable, so I guess I'll respect it.

So you probably have worked out the bottom line here. I enjoyed it musically, less bothered about it lyrically, it's my kind of thing, I feel at home here, although I live a million miles away really, I have listened to Blues Rock since my teens, consistently. This is pretty good in that company.

7.4/10

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/54V1ljNtyzAm053oJqi0SH

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZocC4vKMMdJLAMhTB5gi3gngLcjRwaWd

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Helping