Lynyrd Skynyrd evolved from a high school band to a Southern rock powerhouse for their diverse and dynamic debut. The group had formed as the Nobel Five while Ronnie Van Zant and guitarists Gary Rossington and Allen Collins were students at Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville, Florida. They changed the name numerous times. Rossington recalls: "It was always the same band - we just kept changing the name...We used to play teen dens, church socials and stuff so the band's name didn't matter. We used to change our name every day, just for the heck of it, because we weren't known at all."
They were the One Percent for a year before they decided to name themselves after high school gym teacher Leonard Skinner who had sent members of the band to the office for violating the school's policy about long hair. The name stuck; but the spelling was changed. Lynyrd Skynyrd cut their teeth playing lots of gigs wherever they could until they were discovered by Al Kooper at a bar in Atlanta while looking for talent for his Sounds of the South label, an MCA subsidiary.
Van Zant would consider: “The whole idea of the group was decided in the very beginning. We’ve stuck with it ever since...To have fun, what else?...Talk about dues, we paid a damn ton of ‘em. So many that if things ever went too smoothly, it would ruin the group...If you ask me, we’re closer to the classic British rock groups like Free then anything else.”
'(Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd)' was produced and engineered by Kooper. The recording featured a lot of switching around with Leon Wilkeson leaving early on after playing on only two tracks. He would return to the group when the album was completed. The sessions at Studio One, Doraville, Georgia included Ronnie Van Zant on lead vocals and lyrics; Gary Rossington on lead guitar on "Tuesday's Gone", "Gimme Three Steps", "Things Goin' On", "Poison Whiskey", "Simple Man", rhythm guitar on the others, slide guitar on "Free Bird"; Allen Collins on lead guitar on "I Ain't The One" & "Free Bird", rhythm guitar on the others; Ed King on lead guitar on "Mississippi Kid", bass on all tracks except "Mississippi Kid" and "Tuesday's Gone"; Billy Powell on keyboards; Bob Burns on drums except on "Tuesday's Gone"; and Leon Wilkeson on bass for "Mississippi Kid" and "Tuesday's Gone"; with Al Kooper (Roosevelt Gook) on bass, Mellotron & back-up harmony on "Tuesday's Gone", mandolin & bass drum on "Mississippi Kid", organ on "Simple Man", "Poison Whiskey" & "Free Bird", Mellotron on "Free Bird"; Robert Nix on drums on "Tuesday's Gone"; Bobbye Hall on percussion on "Gimme Three Steps" & "Things Goin' On"; and Steve Katz on harmonica on "Mississippi Kid".
'(Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd)' established their triple guitar onslaught as the group moves easily from boogie to country to blues to progressive rock. The album peaked at number twenty-seven on the US album chart and eventually sold more than two million copies.
http://www.lynyrdskynyrd.com/
'(Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd)'
full album:
Side One
"I Ain't the One" (Gary Rossington, Ronnie Van Zant) - 3:53
"Tuesday's Gone" (Allen Collins, Van Zant) - 7:32
"Gimme Three Steps" (Collins, Van Zant) - 4:30
"Simple Man" (Rossington, Van Zant) - 5:57
Side Two
"Things Goin' On" (Rossington, Van Zant) - 5:00
"Mississippi Kid" (Bob Burns, Al Kooper, Van Zant) - 3:56
"Poison Whiskey" (Ed King, Van Zant) - 3:13
"Free Bird" (Collins, Van Zant) - 9:09
