(pronounced leh-nerd skin-nerd)

My favorite Album from skynyrd i love every song from them my favorite song on this album is free bird, but my other favs are simple man, gimme three steps, and tuesdays gone they have meaning, soul and heart and ohhhh yeah there inspiring i wish ronnie was still alive

Best hits !!!

you are a free bird

This group is really exciting! Throughout his career and marked his story with much emotion! always tempered with great songs, great guitar solos and powerful vocal performance, makes us always remember the good old rock and roll. For those who are fond of themes of freedom, seasoned with travel and landscapes of the South.
Andre Luiz .'.

"... to be able to see inside of albums..." I really like this type of virtuous approach to an artist's music, if this is what it truly is...? Would you believe that just this morning, as I was getting ready for work, I was reminiscing about certain cultural phrases from growing up, and I remembered the lyrics of a Skynyrd song that reminded me of a southern cultural phrase I'd heard from one of their albums. The lyrics came from a cultural phrase or expression used, I suppose, expressly by male
adolescents, who were, when Ronnie Van Zant wrote and added these lyrics, were,
and as Ronnie would say "...here it comes (referring to those chord killing guitar licks)..." uncircumcised southern boys. The lyrics from the song were "...skin your worm..." I learned from those lyrics that this cultual phrase, "skin your worm," was an adolescent discovery or post-puberty discvovery of the male sex organ that was still surrounded by foreskin, hence, "skin your worm." Now this type of uncircumcised discovery, in southern culture (or maybe other cultures, I don't know) was part of the boyhood charm of masculine discovery and becoming a man. A real man...knowing the qualities of his possessions with or without circumcision--this is how I'm able to see inside the albums--through the life and music of the artist.
Is it true that a musician's life is their music and their music life? Look, I know, there are all kinds of musicians (thank God) and music to fill every lifetime. "...I know, it's only rock ' n' roll, but..." Yes, I do. Oh, please let me know which Skynyrd song has those "...skin your worm..." lyrics. Thanx, Die Hards!!

Maryella

I'd like too be able to see reverse sides, and insides of albums.

@maryella:

Hey, mary ella: I pulled out my old, frayed album jacket cover and began to remember the concerts, the guitars, the old glory confederate flags, etc.

But when I started listening to "Simple Man," it was like hearing the song for the first time, again...what really impressed me on the song were the percussions and drumming. Did you hear that sensational cymballing? The percussions are so wonderfully searing, I thought about John Bonham's amazing percussions on his drumming...

Take a listen...

yes somethig else 4 my project

@avro683:

Hi, Avro:

Freebird is one of my faves from the album, too. When we first heard this cut from the album, we thought that the first part of the lyrics, "...if I leave here tomorrow...would you still remember me...," came from Ronnie's friendship with bluesman Curtis Lowe, the African American blues musician who played the Dobro, and one of Ronnie's childhood friends. Ronnie wrote a song about Curtis Lowe, "The Ballad of Curtis Lowe," released on Second Helping (1974).
Anyway, the original lyrics we thought about and compared to Ronnie's lyrics on Freebird came from a Black spiritual song we knew from Church and it sings something like "...if I die here tomorrow, will you miss me when I'm gone..." We've mused and thought that Ronnie and Curtis Lowe sang spiritual songs together, especially when Curtis Lowe was strumming the Dobro and influencing Ronnie's gifted vocal talents, and this is just one of the reasons Freebird is such a spiritually beautiful ballad. In Freebird, we understand that Ronnie juxtaposed his understandings of freedom and being--being who he was and the realities of who people wanted him to be--he was true to the knowledge of himself--as we all know--even when that truth took him into excessive drug use--he was true. He never made excuses, but gave us songs
that allowed us to know and love him as ourselves--a real man. Perhaps this is how you get those eternal connections in your spine...

Anyway, my other favorite ballads on the album are "Tuesday's Gone," and "Simple Man." The radio stations out here in the midwest started playing
Shine Down's cover of "Simple Man," and it just didn't sit well with us at all. First of all, we consider "Simple Man" by Ronnie very sacred--sacred to the southern tradition of Ronnie's love and devotion to his mother--"Simple Man" is one such ballad. When the stations began playing Shine Down's cover of the song, we called every station and requested the original from Skynyrd. Hey, just as we thought, most of the DJs stopped playing Shine Down's cover of "Simple Man" after they heard Ronnie's pining, soulful lyrics. Of course, we do appreciate Shine Down's attempt in approaching "Simple Man," but "Simple Man" is such an eternal ballad, I'm afraid the boys just couldn't touch it, because of its sacredness in Ronnie's soul, and as we know, as the Black folks say down in Jacksonville, who love Ronnie's song and legacy,
"...you can't touch that..."

What an incredible album from such an incredible band!!!

Mary Ella

@avro683: