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"...Mister Saturday Night Special..."
I can recall thatat the time Lynyrd Skynyrd's 3rd studio album "Nuthin' Fancy" wasgreeted with favourable press reviews all round (Billboard called it their bestand most mature work) - but after the absolute Southern Rock 'Sounds Of TheSouth' highs of "Pronounced" in 1973 and especially 1974's brilliant"Second Helping" - fans initially felt the new album was a let down.
On first listenit wasn't as immediate as the previous two - lacked that first-flush sparkle(years honing the material) and had that very obvious hurried done-on-the-hooffeel with an equally humdrum front sleeve and screw you message on the rear(Keyboard Player Billy Powell giving two fingers to the camera). A body mighthave gotten the impression that Alabama's finest triple-guitar band reallydidn't give a skunk's turd for what was on the record and were already showingsigns of being burnt out after years of relentless touring. As Ron O'Brien'ssuperb liner notes tell us - "Nuthin' Fancy" initially charted big atNo. 9 with a bullet (went Gold) but had no legs and left the charts a mere 20weeks later. After the top-ten 7" single peak of "Sweet Home Alabama"at No. 8 the year prior - the album's lone 45 "Saturday NightSpecial" stalled at No. 23 Stateside in July and didn't chart at all inthe UK. By autumn 1975 the LP was all but forgotten and only years later becamea permanent bargain bin fodder item in secondhand record shops everywhere…
But time and fanshave warmed to this 'unadorned' little gem – this simple man and his stories LP- and I personally prefer it to the over-praised debut with"Freebird" (a sacrilegious and scurrilous statement I know). It alsohelps that Doug Schwartz's 1999 CD Remaster is just right - punchy and alive –and beautifully clear without ever being overdone or over trebled. Here are theMade In The Shade details...
UK releasedNovember 1999 (August 1999 in the USA) - "Nuthin' Fancy" by LYNYRDSKYNYRD on MCA 112 024-2 (Barcode 008811202422) is an 'Expanded Edition' CDRemaster of their 3rd album from 1975 with Two Bonus Tracks that plays out asfollows (49:12 minutes):
1. Saturday NightSpecial
2. Cheatin' Woman
3. Railroad Song
4. I'm A CountryBoy
5. On The Hunt[Side 2]
6. Am I Losin'
7. Made In TheShade
8. Whiskey Rock-ARoller
Tracks 1 to 8 aretheir 3rd studio album "Nuthin' Fancy" - released 24 March 1975 inthe USA on MCA Records MCA-2137 and May 1975 in the UK on MCA Records MCF 2700.Produced by AL KOOPER - the LP peaked at No. 9 and No. 43 in the US and UKalbum charts.
BONUS TRACKS:
9. Railroad Song(Live)
10. On The Hunt(Live)
Tracks 9 and 10are Previously Unreleased - recorded 27 April 1975 live at Bill Graham'sWinterland in San Francisco, California
LYNYRD SKYNYRDwere:
RONNIE VAN ZANT -Lead Vocals, Lyrics and More
ED KING - LeadGuitars (Fender Stratocaster and Gibson SG)
ALLEN COLLINS -Guitars (Gibson Firebird) and Backing Vocals
GARY ROSSINGTON -Lead Guitar (Gibson Les Paul)
BILLY POWELL -Keyboards
LEON WILKESON -Bass (Fender) and Backing Vocals on "Saturday Night Special","Railroad Song" and "I'm A Country Boy"
ARTIMUS PYLE -Drums and Percussion
GUESTS:
AL KOOPER -Keyboards, Backing Vocals and Percussion
Moog Synths on"Saturday Night Special", Organ on "Cheatin' Woman" andPiano on "Made In The Shade"
Backing Vocals on"Railroad Song", "Am I Losin' and "Whiskey Rock-ARoller"
Percussion on"I'm A Country Boy"
JIMMY HALL -Harmonica on "Railroad Song" and "Made In The Shade"
BARRY HARWOOD -Mandolins & Dobro on "Made In The Shade"
DAVID FOSTER -Backing Vocals on "Whiskey Rock-A Roller"
The 12-pagebooklet is nicely laid out - very in-depth and accurate liner notes and photocontributions from RON O'BRIEN - the usual reissue credits (good names likeAndy McKaie and Beth Stempel coordinated the reissue) - but it drops the balljust a little. Fans will know that American copies of the LP had an inner sleevewith a photo-collage on one side and lyrics/credits on the other (Britishissues had an insert with the same). The photos turn up on Page 3 but thelyrics are AWOL - a bit of a dumb oversight really and especially on an albumwhere the songs are so Van Zant personal. And frankly the two supposed BonusTracks feel very substandard to me in audio quality despite being recordedliterally one month after the LP's release and Ronnie's praise of the BillGraham audience. But all of that goes out the window when you return to themusic of the album proper - now fitted out with wickedly good new audiocourtesy of restoration and transfer from DOUG SCHWARTZ (he did two of the hugeStax Box Sets and a lot of work for Capitol Records).
"SaturdayNight Special" was recorded April 1974 and was the only song in the canfor the new LP – so the other seven had to be written as the band arrived inthe studio in January 1975 – only days after a near yearlong touring gruel."Saturday..." kicks off the album in high boozy bar-brawlin' style –a hooky riff with that distinctive Lynyrd Skynyrd sound. "Cheatin'Woman" is the first of the new stuff and is the kind of LP nugget thatgets overlooked – a fabulous slinky guitar groove anchored but a superb AlKooper keyboard funk as Ronnie gets all angst-in-his-pants about his woman'sless than angelic ways. Jimmy Hall gives it some Harmonica as "RailroadSong" chugs into life like a freight train carrying our hero – cold, tiredand dirty – a hobo being run out of town by the hoi polloi of Hicksville whowant their town respectable. Ronnie rages against concrete in "I'm ACountry Boy" song - and as he sings "...Big city town don't botherme...don't like smoke chokin' up my head..." - it goes into a very coolmiddle eight.
Side 2 opens withanother rocker - the attacking guitar riffage of "On The Hunt" - andagain the Remaster is amazing - the band sounding like Free at their Seventiesbest. The Acoustic Rock of "Am I Losin'" is a 'drinking wine with oneof my friends' song and feels very "Mardi Gras" Creedence in itsstyle and longing. The coke-crates Jug Band Americana sound to "Made InThe Shade" is deliberate and works so well. "Whiskey Rock-ARoller" is just a good old boys raunch - the kind of 'suitcase by my side'boogie tune Lynyrd Skynyrd gargled for breakfast.
It's funny howsome albums grow into something great despite the circumstance that surroundedtheir making. It's said the band thought "Nuthin' Fancy" only 'ok' -lacklustre even compared to what had gone before. But fans have taken itswarm-hearted personality and simplicity to heart and over the decades it’sbecome the fave for many. And on this cool sounding Remaster - it's easy tohear why...
