The 25 Greatest Lynyrd Skynyrd Songs of All Time (2023)

Of all artists to emerge from the southern United States, Lynyrd Skynyrd is perhaps oneIsformative band, although they were successful in their own way.

Fusing the fire of British blues-rock with southern country and folk sensibilities, the group cooked up a hard-hitting gumbo that resonated with audiences across the US and beyond.

Frontman Ronnie Van Zant's autobiographical lyrics were a big part of his appeal: tales of his alcoholic escapades stood in stark contrast to the Tolkien-esque lyrics of the prog scene, which was booming by the time of Skynyrd's 1973 debut.(pronounced 'lĕh-'nérd 'skin-'nérd).

But the band's other USP was their treble guitar onslaught, consisting of Gary Rossington, Allen Collins and first Ed King, then later Steve Gaines, which propelled the band to legendary status, especially onfree bird, one of the greatest rock music epics of all time.

Here we pay tribute to the legends of southern rock by ranking their greatest songs, with memories from Rossington and King of how they created some of the most iconic rock songs of all time.

25. Honky Tonk Nachtmann

Album: survivors of the road(1977)

I like his version of JJ Calecall me the breezey Robert Johnson/Creme'sCross, Lynyrd Skynyrd reinvented the design of Merle HaggardHonky Tonk-Late-Night-Mannin an original way that he printed it as his own despite tipping his hat off to a hero.

"We made this song to show our love for Merle and all country music," says Gary Rossington. And like everyonesurvivors of the road, the song was enlivened by dynamic rendering by Steve Gaines.

"Steve did a fantastic solo here and it was a live debut," says Rossington. "He just knew it was a G progression and he went out and played an amazing solo. He barely knew the song, but he played it to the max. We stood in the control room with our mouths open and he walked in and said, "How did it go?" We told her to go home and call it quits because we knew she couldn't be any better. ”

24. Giftwhiskey

Album: (pronounced 'lĕh-'nérd 'skin-'nérd)(1973)

Despite, or perhaps because of, many members of Lynyrd Skynyrd's addiction problems, Ronnie Van Zant has never shied away from confronting the evils of excess. FromWhiskey poisonson his first album forthat smellInsurvivors of the road, Van Zant addressed the dangers of excess directly. Van Zant and Ed King wrote the song in one fell swoop.

"We sat on his couch after dinner one night and wrote it," King recalled.

This spontaneous composition was typical of Van Zant. "Ronnie felt that if you had to write something down to remember it, it couldn't have been good," says Gary Rossington. “Who knows how many songs got dropped because of that? I was constantly texting in the shower, going for walks, wherever.”

23. Rock-a-Roller de Whisky

Album: Nothing special(1975)

Skynyrd's purest romanticization of the musicians' vagabond lifestyle - Boosin', Cruisin' and Lady Choosin' - was a vehicle for Ed King's Stratocaster and Billy Powell's Johnnie Johnson's straight-forward piano riffs. It's a take on easy rock 'n' roll that resonated with the group's party-going fans.

So it's no surprise that the song became a concert staple, ending up on side two of the pre-Crash line-up's only live album, albeit with Steve Gaines playing King's parts. All three guitarists supported Peavey at the time, as a little preview showsanother one on the wayThe back is extensive. Gaines and Rossington used the Peavey Mace on stage, a versatile two-speaker combination long out of production.

22. Sumpfmusik

Album: a second serving(1974)

In addition to his southern heritage, Skynyrd also shared with the Allman Brothers a penchant for harmonized guitar parts.

That's evident in the chorus to this Ed King and Ronnie Van Zant number from the band's hit second album, when King and Gary Rossington engage in a falling melody line that adds an extra hook to the chorus. King sets the tone with his snappy Stratocaster tone, and Rossington provides the guitar break with a little more punch from his Les Paul.

Along the way, Van Zant conjures up an idyllic fantasy version of the rural South as an escape from big city life, naming Delta Blues icon Son House and longing for long days of hunting with his hounds. Van Zant was a keen outdoorsman, so the howling of the dogs was probably music to his ears.

21. Coming home

Album: The first and... the last of Skynyrd(1978)

This is another track recorded during the band's early studio sessions in Muscle Shoals in 1971-72 and released posthumouslyThe first and... the last of Skynyrd(ySkynyrd's First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Album) and 1998The essential Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Return home, an original track written by Allen Collins and Ronnie Van Zant, has more of a country/rock feel than many of the heavier, bluesy tunes recorded during those sessions, and shows the influence of late '60s West Coast rock bands like Youngbloods and Quicksilver. messenger service.

Collins' arpeggiated, flat-picked guitar part has a fingerpicked banjo feel, embellished with country-style piano fills. The heavier, classic Skynyrd feel comes right into the song's powerful chorus, accented by Rossington's melodic and bluesy guitar licks. The guitar solo section takes things up a notch with a classic, powerful solo by Allen Collins, after which the song settles back into a more sedate verse arrangement.

20. Was he right or wrong?

Album: The first and... the last of Skynyrd

I was right or wrongis a song recorded during the band's early recording sessions in 1971-72 at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama. The songs recorded during these sessions were first released in September 1978, about a year after the tragic plane crash in October 1977, whenSkynyrd's first year... Last, and later re-released in 1998 asSkynyrd's First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Album.

with guitars andlowTuned in half, the lead rhythm guitar arpeggiates through the D5/D7-G5-C5 chord progression in steady sixteenth notes during the verse sections, over which Ronnie Van Zant sings an Appalachian blues/folk tune while guitarist Gary Rossington adds a subtle slider Standard tuned guitar fill.

The music's simple, plaintive feel is reminiscent of one of the band's biggest influences, British band Free, featuring legendary guitarist Paul Kossoff.

The song then changes at 2:32 and locks into agive me three steps-Type feel, with rhythmic parts similar to those of the Rolling Stonescan't you hear me calling.

A demo of this song is also included as a bonus track on the 1997 reissuea second serving, and the track was later included on the 1998 compilation as well,The essential Lynyrd Skynyrd.

19. Don't ask me questions

Album: a second serving

Gary Rossington and Ronnie Van Zant wrote this song while on a fishing trip, escaping the pressures of the band's increasingly complicated business. Rossington's big, screeching chords and Ed King's slide guitar deliver his message about the music industry's dishonesty with unabashed power, but the song is also an anthem for anyone willing to put up with bullshit to keep a job.

The tune is part of a canon of Skynyrd tunes satirizing "the man" that is also includedMr. Bankerand of course,works for MCA. It was released as a single in April 1974 and faltered, but after thatSweet Home Alabamafollowed in June and cracked the top 10, Skynyrd would carry a big stick in subsequent deals with the brass label.

18. Give me back my bullets

Album: give me back my bullets(1976)

As the title and opening track of the band's fourth studio album, released in early 1976,give me back my bulletsrefers to some of the trials and tribulations the band was going through at the time, mostly as a result of excessive partying and substance abuse.

Ronnie Van Zant, who was trying to get clean at the time, sings in the chorus, "I ain't messin' cause I had so much fun... I will't see no more damage done." He adds in the last verse : "I was at the top and it seems like I lost my dream... But I got it back and I feel better every day."

With the departure of guitarist Ed King, Skynyrd was now a two-guitar band, and Rossington-Collins' lead and rhythm roles are better defined on this release. On this particular track, Collins lays down rhythm guitar while Rossington adds incisive bluesy fills, punctuated by pinch harmonics with a punchy Billy Gibbons-esque delivery.

17. Tuesday is over

Album: (pronounced 'lĕh-'nérd 'skin-'nérd)

Although Lynyrd Skynyrd is known for its rockin', aggressive attitude, some of the biggest, deepest, and most profound moments happened on slower tunes; No one could make a better power ballad as illustrated inTuesday is gone, a melancholic song that cries out to be played in front of an arena full of lighters.

"We've always loved making songs beautiful," says Gary Rossington. "I mean, we grew up with the Beatles."

Perhaps more relevant than the Fab Four's approach to Van Zant on ballads is Ed King's comment, "Ronnie was really a country singer in a rock 'n' roll band." songs likeTuesday is goneThey illustrate the extent of Skynyrd's influence in Nashville, with its acoustic guitar driving the melody over a steady backbeat, with a surging string section and rousing piano flourishes setting the bed for a muscular guitar solo.

16. On the hunt

Album: Nothing special

in searchwas recorded during the tumultuous sessions leading up to the band's third album in 1975Nothing special; Just before entering the studio, original drummer Bob Burns left the band to be replaced by Artimus Pyle, and shortly after recording both producer Al Kooper and guitarist Ed King quit working with the band.

However, the album was the first to reach the top 10, peaking at number 9 and quickly reaching gold status, despite not featuring any of the band's best-known songs.

in searchIt clearly illustrates the band's three-guitar attack, as two harmonized lines played by Allen Collins and Ed King join Rossington's note-driven main intro/chorus riff. The heavy rock feel of the tune is reminiscent of Mountain and Free with a beat very close to that of the Rolling Stones.slave, which was also recorded in 1975.

15. The needle and the spoon

Album: a second serving

Gibson's players focus on these: Gary Rossington on his Les Paul and Allen Collins on his right-arm guitar, a 1964 Firebird I, who provides the transitional riffs and fat wah-wah colored leads.

The guitar featured a mini humbucker in the neck slot and a P-90 in the bridge for a growling, raspy tone. And you can also hear Collins tugging on the custom vibrato tailpiece he had fitted to the instrument.

The song is another of Ronnie Van Zant's drug warning stories. And hypocritical too, considering it's his own earnings, as recounted in Mark Ribowsky's history of the bandWhiskey Bottles and New Cars: The Fast Life and Sudden Death of Lynyrd Skynyrd– was notoriously amazing.

14. Ballad by Curtis Low

Album: a second serving

Featuring Ed King and Gary Rossington alternating slide guitar melodies and producer Al Kooper on piano, this is the sonic centerpiece of Skynyrd's classic line-up: the story of an old black blues guitarist who inspires a young white man to pursue a life in music. However, according to King, they only performed the song on stage once, at a concert in a hotel basement.

However,low CurtisIt became a staple of the band's revived version, fronted by Johnny Van Zant, and remained in their repertoire through later reunions. Perhaps that's because the song's theme is actually a combination of various musicians Skynyrd's crew knew growing up, including current guitarist Ricky Medlocke's father, Shorty Medlocke.

The elder Medlocke wrotetrain, train, which became a 1979 Top 40 hit for Medlocke's former group, southern rock smashers Blackfoot.

13. Down South Jukin'

Album: The first and... the last of Skynyrd

This Rossington/Van Zant original is another song recorded during the band's fledgling Muscle Shoals sessions in 1971-72 and released posthumously in 1978The first and... the last of Skynyrdand reissued in 1998 asSkynyrd's First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Album.

The song combines the rhythm ofgive me three stepswith guitar riffs and a very similar chord progressionWhat's your name. This song provides a perfect example of the band's signature closed-pitch dual guitar parts, executed to perfection by Rossington and Collins.

Country solo licks based on a series of slanting bends (two- and three-note figures in which one of the two or three notes is bent while the others are fretted in a more conventional manner) played over most chords will serve to bring elements of the country. and blues/rock music together, a definitive signature of the Skynyrd sound.

12. Working for MCA

Album: a second serving

After Skynyrd held up that musical middle finger as the first song on a set they played for representatives of the MCA label in Atlanta, it became their regular concert opener.

The classic line-up of Les Paul, Firebird and Stratocaster from the band of Gary Rossington, Allen Collins and Ed King defines the connection between Pete Townshend Bash and Chooglin' ​​Boogie, while Ronnie Van Zant unfolds lyrics that are half band biography and half protest what looked like a record company. contract as their debut album sold out and the band members were struggling against poverty.

Rock legend Al Kooper, who produced the first three albums and discovered Skynyrd at a bar called Funocchio's in Atlanta, is the "Yankee pulsator" on the lyrics, and they actually signed their $9,000 deal with MCA.

11. I know a little

Album: survivors of the road

"This song encapsulates what Steve Gaines, who wrote it, meant to the band," says Gary Rossington. "He was a great songwriter and singer and an incredible guitarist. I've never heard of anyone, not even any of us, playing their pick role well.

“Steve was very involved in writing and arranging this album and his playing was so good that it really inspired us. When he came in, we were kind of calm. We still sold a lot of tickets and records, but we were getting bored with the music. We needed a spark of inspiration and Steve provided it. It brought us back to the state of mind we were in at the beginning; We started getting together in the evenings and playing.

“Steve was so good, he was a freak of nature. He always pissed us off because he could do so many things that Allen and I couldn't. Every time I went to his house or his hotel room, he was wearing his black Les Paul. He ordered room service and ate with his guitar. He would sit and talk and not play for an hour, but he was held. I would watch TV with it and play during commercials. It was like his third arm."

10. You are right

Album: survivors of the road

Lynyrd Skynyrd was a bit stuck at the time of their fourth album, 1976give me back my bullets. Ed King was gone, and the band lacked their three-guitar attack.

The solution was obvious in the form of Steve Gaines, showgirl Cassie's younger brother.

Gary Rossington recalls, "She asked me if she could improvise and I said 'Fuck no!' But he convinced us to give it a try. So one night he came on stage with us, no rehearsal or anything, and as soon as he started playing, Allen and I just looked at each other and our jaws dropped. We offered him the job and he left his band that night and joined the band the next day. He could play it all: chopsticks, country, blues, hard rock."

Gaines animated everythingsurvivors of the road, Butyou're righthe can put his stamp on everything; In addition to his usual big guitar picking, he wrote the song and sang it as a duet with Van Zant.

9. Call me the breeze

Album: a second serving

The late Oklahoma guitarist and singer J.J. Kale wroteAfter midnightjCocaine, which became hits for his friend Eric Clapton. Lynyrd Skynyrd decided to play the role of Cale on a whim.call me the breeze.

"We liked J.J. stop and listenBrokenOne night we were sitting in the house and Ronnie said, 'Let's go!'” says Gary Rossington, who wrote an entirely new arrangement for the relaxed shuffle.

"It didn't work for us the way he did: a real random combination," says Rossington. "If we had changed the lyrics, it would have been a completely different song. We did the same with Merle Haggard.Honky Tonk-Late-Night-Mann.“

8. I'm not the one

Album: (pronounced 'lĕh-'nérd 'skin-'nérd)

Ed King played mostly bass on Skynyrd's debut album, temporarily filling in for Leon Wilkeson, so the three-guitar line-up that helped the band make history wasn't in place when this song was originally released.

But many of the group's trademarks, like the twin guitar intro to that tune that opened the first album, were.

Sharing the bluesy main riff, Gary Rossington and Allen Collins mix fills between their Les Paul and Firebird, but Collins takes the lead, picking out brilliant sprays of coldly chiseled notes punctuated by stutters on his guitar's custom whammy bar. It's a big, rocking slab of prototypical Southern Fried Boogie, made even bigger with the addition of King's replacement Steve Gainesanother one on the way.

7. Saturday Night Special

Album: Nothing special

Deep down, this is a bluesy song built on a random beat and ignited by Ed King's E minor pentatonic solo played on his '60 Strat, likely hooked up to a Fender Twin.

But Skynyrd made it a top 40 hit by bolstering structure with his top tempo attack. The band begins on the second beat of the second bar, which puts tension on the melody from the start.

Add in the tale of eager murder with a cheap gun, and it's a dark and stormy look into the black heart of America's gun obsession that is perhaps even more relevant today than it was when King and Ronnie Van Zant wrote it in 1974 .

6. Give me three steps

Album: (pronounced 'lĕh-'nérd 'skin-'nérd)

Like many of Skynyrd's best songs,give me three stepsIt was based on something that actually happened to Ronnie Van Zant.

Gary Rossington says: "Ronnie went into a bar looking for someone and Allen and I were too young to go in so we waited for him outside and he ran out with this big guy who was chasing him and screaming. He had started dancing with this girl and this guy came in and was about to hit him and Ronnie said, "Just give me three steps and I'm out." The guy had a gun and he was a redneck and he was drunk. - an ugly combination of things - and Ronnie said, 'If you shoot me, it's going to be in the ass or the elbow.'

"And he was gone like a bat from hell. We got in the car and we broke up and he told us what happened and we laughed and wrote the song right there and went to Allen's house and got his guitar and finished it."

5. What is your name?

Album: survivors of the road

Though Skynyrd had hits, those hits were always on its own sonic terms.

What's your name, inspired by the sexual and alcoholic adventures in the lives of touring rock stars, is the most overtly pop song in their catalogue. Hold on to one of Gary Rossington's fat, hooky riffs complemented by Steve Gaines' snap.Stratocasterand carried by Allen Collins' Firebird solo midway through the song, the melody was calculated; Rossington and Ronnie Van Zant consciously set out to write an upbeat hit with a lighter sound, and it peaked at #13 on the pop chart.

Unfortunately, Van Zant never managed to make his experiment a success, as the song was released a month after the October 20, 1977 plane crash.

4. That smell

Album: survivors of the road

Gary Rossington's alcohol and drug fueled exploits inspired Ronnie Van Zant's lyrics and the song's dark, short-tempered attitude made the song what it issurvivors of the roadSessions lengthen. Van Zant nicknames Rossington "Prince Charming" and sings about the night the guitarist crashed his new Ford Torino into a tree and a house.

But Rossington's musical redemption comes in the violent reaction and loud scream of his Les Paul, which rivals the barrage of songs from Steve Gaines' Stratocaster. Rossington's fat intro grabs you from the first note to the perfect feedback trail. And the lines warning that "the smell of death surrounds you" and that "tomorrow may not be for you" seemed chilling, if generally prescient, as the band's plane took off three days after the album's release crashed and killed Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines and backing vocalist Cassie Gaines.

3. Simple man

Album: (pronounced 'lĕh-'nérd 'skin-'nérd)

Simple man, co-written by Ronnie Van Zant and Gary Rossington, has become one of the group's trademarks. The epic power ballad about a heartfelt message from a working mother to her hard-working son starts slowly and builds to a powerful Rossington solo; The music hammers out the message, which continues to resonate.

"Ronnie was a great storyteller," says Rossington. "He wrote about things that happened, things we saw every day, and people that were involved and still are involved.

According to Ed King, the group had to struggle to record the song.

“When we were about to finish editing the first album, we playedSimple manto [producer] Al Kooper, and he said, "You're not going to record this song," says King.

"So Ronnie took Kooper to the parking lot, opened the door of Kooper's Bentley and said, 'Get in.' Kooper was behind the wheel, and Ronnie closed the door and said, 'When we're done cutting, we'll call you. We cut the whole tune without him. When a band knows what they want to do, they have to go with their heart and not listen to people on the outside."

2. Sweet Home Alabama

Album: a second serving

"I knewSweet Home AlabamaIt was a classic when we wrote it," said guitarist Ed King, who was primarily responsible for the song's music, particularly its defining riff. He wrote it on his first day as the band's guitarist.

King had met Lynyrd Skynyrd when his band opened Strawberry Alarm Clock for them. When bassist Leon Wilkeson abruptly left the band, they asked King to replace them. When Wilkeson returned, King switched to the Strat and his dual guitar line-up became a triple threat. Gary Rossington developed a simple and impressive D, C, G fingerpicking progression that he calls "the banjo/steel guitar part" and when he felt he was hitting something he played it over and over again.

"Gary was playing his riff for 15 minutes when I came in and threw mine to bounce off what Gary was doing," King recalled. "That was what you know as thatsweet homeriff, and when Ronnie heard it he locked himself in and wrote the words."

"I had all the lyrics in an hour," says Rossington. "We used to travel a lot around Alabama and on back roads and just marveled at how pretty it was and how nice the people were. And Neil Young was and still is one of our favorite artists, well when he came outsouthern manjAlabamaWe criticized the South and said, 'Well, what does he know? He's from Canada!” So ​​we dropped that line about him over there.

"Some people told us to cut out the parts about Neil Young and [former Alabama Governor] George Wallace, but we were like, 'Hey, it's just a song. And we're going to record it the way we wrote it.'”

“I wrote the backing vocals and everything right down to Billy's piano solo. It was a collaboration of three as my role inspired Ronnie and I would never have been inspired to write my role without Gary's input," added King.

"Right after we wrote it, Ronnie said to me, 'Well? there is ourshomeless person.‘“

1. Free bird

Album: (pronounced 'lĕh-'nérd 'skin-'nérd)

Guitarist Allen Collins came up with the music for itfree birdvery early in the band's songwriting process. But while everyone recognized the grace of the chord progression, Ronnie Van Zant couldn't find a vocal melody to match.

Gary Rossington recalls: 'Allen had the chords to start with, a good chunk for a full two years, and we asked Ronnie to write something down and he told us to forget it; he said there were too many chords not to find a melody. He thought it had to change with every chord.

Then one day when we were rehearsing Allen started playing those chords again and Ronnie said, 'Those are nice. Play them again. He said, 'Got it,' and he wrote the lyrics in three or four minutes, the whole damn thing!"

Ifstairway to Heaven, one of its main contenders for the unofficial title of most epic rock song,free birdIt starts out as a ballad before turning into a solo rocker. That wasn't intentional, Rossington recalls: "When we started playing it in clubs, it was just the slow part. Ronnie said, "Why don't you do something at the end so I can take a few minutes break?"

“I ended up coming up with these three chords and Allen and I swapped solos and Ronnie kept telling us to make it longer; We played three or four sets a night and he wanted to fill it up and take a break."

The structure offree birdit was repaired, but one last element was missing; the graceful piano intro written by then-roadie Billy Powell. "One of our roadies told us to listen to this piano part that another roadie wrote as an introduction to the song," says Rossington. "We did, and Billy went from roadie to member in that moment."

The original album version of the song ran nearly 10 minutes, and according to Rossington and Ed King, MCA had objections to putting such a lengthy song on the band's debut album. A 3:30 radio edit was cut and the single at 4:10 became a Top 20 hit.

"MCA said we couldn't put a 10-minute song on an album because nobody would play it," King recalls. "Obviously that was the song everyone was drawn to!"

On Skynyrd's first live album, 1976another one on the way, Van Zant can be heard asking the crowd, "What song would you like to hear?" The overwhelming response leads to the legendary 14-minute version of the song. Although Van Zant often surrenderedfree birdfor Duane Allman, contrary to urban legend, it was not written for him.