Lynyrd Skynyrd Album: “Skynyrd's First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Album”

It doesn't matter what you think you know about Lynyrd Skynyrd.

It doesn't matter what you think you know about Southern Rock.

It doesn't matter what you think you know about music at all.

You have NEVER heard anything this amazing!

Sure, the sound quality is a little lacking, and the instrumentals aren't quite as perfect as they became later, but this album is still quite possibly the greatest album ever made. If possible, I'd give it 10 stars. It deserves it. When I heard this CD for the first time, it was on my car CD player. Free Bird started and I thought that it sounded pretty good. Then Ronnie started singing. I literally had to pull my car over to the side of the road to keep from losing control and wrecking. I was so stunned by the beauty of his voice. I opened my mouth to speak, but words wouldn't come out. I gasped out loud. Then, a few seconds later, I gasped again. It actually brought tears to my eyes. I'm not embellishing. This is Ronnie before all the late nights and the drinking and the drugs. Pure, unspoiled Ronnie Van Zant. Absolutely amazing.

The rest of the band is great too. It's a raw sort of sound that really reveals a lot of Skynyrd's character. The grittiness that they made famous is expanded here and it's incredible. But I must digress, Ronnie steals the show. He was always great, but here he's really great. Imagine the most beautiful star in the night sky. Now imagine that for one brief moment, all the clouds are lifted and it shines ten times as bright. You can't take your eyes off it. That star is Ronnie and the cloudless night is this album.

And so, I ask that everyone listening to this CD to be careful. If you're going to listen to this album, make sure there's nothing around they may require your attention for awhile. You won't be able to focus on anything but the music. Your house could catch on fire, and you wouldn't even realize it. This album cannot be summarized in words. You've just got to hear it.

Amazon's review says "While ongoing personnel shifts are in evidence (only Ronnie Van Zant, Albert Collins, and Gary Rossington from the classic lineup appear throughout)..." Hello! It's ALLEN Collins, not Albert. Allen Collins was a white rock guitarist. Albert Collins was a black blues guitarist. Kinda hard to confuse the two if you know anything about music.

If you're a Skynyrd fan, you'll really like this CD. It's stripped of a lot of fancy production value, but in a good way. Hear them in a raw and natural way, at the beginning of their career. Its obvious from these early songs that they were destined for greatness. The sound quality isn't that of a regular cd by a big lable, but its perfectly acceptable and dynamic enough for what this is. If you're not a big fan, pass on it and buy one of their later CD's, but if you already have Ponouced, Second helping, Bullets, or others, you'll enjoy this very much. No disappointment here.

If you're a collector of Southern Rock and enjoy early versions of songs that became huge hits, then don't pass this one up. I have every Skynyrd LP, plus the original version of this album, but this album has songs on it that aren't even close to anything on the other albums. "White Dove," a Rickey Medlocke tune on this album, is hillarious to listen to, just because it sounds so unlike Skynyrd. He sings with a high falsetto, sort of like sixties bubble gum rock.

Allen Collins And Rossington AT there Best Man

Things Goin on is Way to Cool to

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