Lynyrd Skynyrd – Album Of The Week Club Review: Second Helping (1974)

From loudersound.com

The album that introduced Lynyrd Skynyrd’s three-guitar attack and provided many with their first sweet taste of Southern Rock…

Few bands have followed a great first album with an equally great second, but Lynyrd Skynyrd did.

Second Helping introduced the three-guitar attack that would become the band’s signature, with Ed King promoted from stand-in bassist. And King was co-author of the album’s three key tracks: the satirical heavy hitter Workin’ For MCA, the self-mythologising boogie Swamp Music, and the band’s biggest hit, Sweet Home Alabama.

Famously, the latter was Van Zant’s riposte to Neil Young’s civil rights protest song Southern Man. And although Van Zant’s defence of the south was bullish,Young later said, “I’m proud to have my name in a song like theirs.”

“Every song was brilliant, and the album was really diversified,” Winger and Whitesnake guitarist Reb Beach told us, talking about the albums that changed his life. “You’ve got honky-tonk stuff, rock stuff, funky grooves, and the guitar solos are insane. I didn’t know which guitarist was doing what, but it didn’t matter. Here was a big guitar band with a huge sound, doing stuff that was too complicated for me to even attempt to play.”

Every week, Album of the Week Club listens to and discusses the album in question, votes on how good it is, and publishes our findings, with the aim of giving people reliable reviews and the wider rock community the chance to contribute. Join the group now.

Here’s what we learned about Second Helping!

Background

The oft-told, star-crossed saga of Lynyrd Skynyrd has been portrayed as the convergence of opportunity, preparedness, talent and luck. What were the chances of Dylan associate, Blues Project founder and producer extraordinaire Al Kooper walking into an Atlanta dive in the summer of 1972 and spotting this band?

Kooper had just persuaded MCA records to bankroll his Sounds Of The South label in an effort to compete with Phil Walden’s Capricorn Records (home of the Allman Brothers). He was bowled over by Skynyrd’s professionalism, arrangements, guitar work, and mostly by short and stocky lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, who showed up in a black T-shirt and droopy jeans.

In Kooper’s eyes, Lynyrd Skynyrd were his Allman Brothers – the jewel in the southern rock crown. Skynyrd transcended the southern rock genre with their swaggering, dangerous music that conjured the dark fury of betrayal, perfidy or just plain orneriness and hopelessness over the diminished prospects in the rural south.

But Skynyrd was always more influenced by second wave British invaders (Eric Clapton, Free, and the tough, garagey thud of the Stones, Kinks and Yardbirds) than the jazzy, free-falling improvisation of the Allmans. With their tales of beautiful losers, thwarted romance and dashed ambition, Skynyrd were a more menacing bunch. Peace, love and understanding never made it to Jacksonville. 

Van Zant’s lip would curl into a surly half moon as he spat out the lyrics to Working For MCA, a song he wrote for the Sound Of The South launch party held at Richard’s in Atlanta on Sunday July 29, 1973, where the band played in front of jaundiced record executives, radio programmers, disc jockeys, promoters, rock critics and T.Rex’s Marc Bolan, all of whom flew in on MCA’s tab.

What they said

“This group is frequently compared to the Allman Brothers but it lacks that band’s sophistication and professionalism. If a song doesn’t feel right to the Brothers, they work on it until it does; if it isn’t right to Lynyrd Skynyrd, they are more likely to crank up their amps and blast their way through the bottleneck.” (Rolling Stone)

“Great formula here. When it rocks, three guitarists and a keyboard player pile elementary riffs and feedback noises into dense combinations broken by preplanned solos, while at quieter moments the spare vocabulary of the best Southern folk music is evoked or just plain duplicated. And any suspicions that this substantial, tasteful band blew their best stuff on the first platter should fall in the wake of the first state song ever to make top ten, which will expose you to their infectious putdowns of rock businessmen, rock journalists, and heroin.” (Robert Christgau)

“Of course, the band had already developed their own musical voice, but it was enhanced considerably by Van Zant’s writing, which was at turns plainly poetic, surprisingly clever, and always revealing. Though Second Helping isn’t as hard a rock record as Pronounced, it’s the songs that make the record.” (AllMusic)

What you said

Maxwell Martello: From start to finish I think that this is a better album than the first one, BUT the peaks of the debut are unreachable (Simple Man, Tuesday’s Gone and Free Bird). Apart from the now obvious and FM ubiquitous Sweet Home Alabama, my personal favorites include the dirgy ballad I Need You (killer licks spread all over the song), the total Clapton worship of The Needle and the Spoon (courtesy of the late Allen Collins) and the savvy, ballsy, badass Working for MCA (check out Raging Slab’s version retitled as Working for RCA). In my book, another 10/10. God bless Ronnie and the boys.

Uli Hassinger: I’m a great Skynyrd fan and I love all of their albums. But the Pronounced album is way cooler than their follow-up. The best songs of this album are in fact the ballads Curtis Lowe and The Needle and the Spoon.

Tony Collins: My favourite album by my favourite band of all time. Never tire of listening to this. Includes some of there best ever songs. Swamp Music, Working for MCA, Needle and the Spoon and the best cover ever, Call me the Breeze.

StuPop Huepow: What an amazing album. Its got all the swagger of slide, honky tonk and blues, and you can boogie to it. And what a voice! This made me work harder on my guitar… who didn’t want to sound like these guys? 

Jim Linning: Genuine classic. Has worn remarkably well, and raises the bar way above where any of today’s so called “southern boogie” bands could hope to reach.

Richard Cardenas: It defines an era, represents a unique quality of musicianship, etc. etc… but it’s much more than that. It’s southern music that connects with the souls of people from all walks of life. Too often – and sometimes rightfully so – the south is identified with some horrific qualities. The music here represents all that is good in life.

John Edgar: Being from the Southern United States, this album put down deep roots in my musical psyche, long ago. It’s a collection of some of the finest Southern Rock ever recorded, but for me, it also defines a specific time in my life. This album, along with Nuthin’ Fancy were both soundtracks to that period in which one moves from junior high school to high school. As a result of this, I still cannot listen to either of the albums (and I do still listen to both regularly) without thinking of specific people and specific events. 

The songs on this album have definitely taken on a life of their own. Another aspect of this album is just how much I heard it played for the first year after it’s release. It was 1974. It was springtime. It was The South. Everyone that enjoyed rock music owned this release. It played in friends’ bedrooms, it played at parties, it played outside at the lake and it was blasting from the rolled-down windows of every teenage driven car that passed you. This album is wonderful in every way, and it is ingrained my my Southern Fried Soul.

Ed Brown: “As much as I didn’t want to I did anyway. No sir, I don’t like it. Nope. I know it’s going to piss a lot of people off because I have discussed my disgust of this band many times before, and anyone who loves them genuinely gets pissed at me. Sorry but not sorry guys. Next.”

Matthew Graham: Overall I felt it a more consistent album than the first. The production seemed more even-handed, and it really works as a whole… but then it was my first Skynyrd album, and you know how those albums become more special because of it. One of my essential albums.

Michael Piwowarski: Sweet Home Alabama is one of those songs you either love or hate, but you can’t deny the high quality musicianship that was a part of it, and the whole album. Second Helping lives up to its name, as a “second helping” of delicious southern rock that was served in Pronounced. My absolute favorite tracks are Don’t Ask Me No Questions and Working for MCA, not only because of their unapologetic hard rock style, but also their lyrics inspired by the band members’ lives as musicians. All five Skynyrd albums are southern rock classics and an essential part of any record collection.

Mike Knoop: I generally know/like the Skynyrd hits, and Second Helping doesn’t change that much. Sweet Home Alabama is still catchy even though I’ve heard it infinity times and Call Me the Breeze is great boogie rock. But kind of ambivalent about the six tracks in between. I did get a better appreciation of Ronnie Van Zant as a lyricist, especially on The Ballad of Curtis Loew and The Needle and the Spoon. But overall, not an album that I will play much after this week.

Matias Paniagua: Greeeeat album, love No Questions, Needle and The Spoon and Curtis Loew plus their greatest hit Alabama. I found in Ronnie Van Zant one of the best frontmen in rock history, great lyrics and his voice is so honest you believe every story he sang. And guitar works are amazing of course, what a band.

Lynott Sykes: A milestone in the discography of the greatest southern rock band of all time. But i still prefer the peaks of the first album. Even if Second Helping contains the unforgettable Sweet Home Alabama and a bunch of all-time classics, I think I Need You doesn’t live up to Simple Man or Tuesday’s Gone, and Don’t Ask Me No Questions doesn’t reach Gimme Three Steps. That said, some of their best songs are on here, Workin for MCA, Needle and the Spoon, Swamp Music and a fantastic cover of Call me the Breeze, with amazing guitar and piano solos.

Bradley Mabbutt: Listening to Second Helping has made me realise how stuck I had become in listening to just the “Hits”. As an album it shows there is more to Skynyrd than Free Bird and Sweet Home Alabama (great as those songs are). Thoroughly enjoyed this one.

Roland Bearne: This really is a life soundtrack album. Every song is a gem. The production is such that the sound is a cohesive whole yet lets every instrument shine through. The guitars almost literally sparkle. Still can’t listen to Curtis Loew without goose bumps. Wonderful.

Mike Bruce: So much for “difficult second album” syndrome. Skynyrd knock it out of the park here. The only thing that lessens the impact is the ubiquity of Sweet Home Alabama today. But it’s like a lot of life’s pleasures, if you go back to it after a fast; magic!

Pete Mineau: I remember I was in high school when this album came out. I had not heard of Lynyrd Skynyrd yet. Their first album came and went without any notice from me or my friends. Of course, we lived in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan… about as far away from the Southern Rock scene as you can get. (To us, Southern Rock was Ted Nugent, The MC5, The Stooges and anything else coming out of Detroit! We were/are isolated on this side of the Mackinac Bridge!) 

One day, my buddy Bill came to school with the album Second Helping and said, “You gotta check these guys out!”. My first question was, “How do you say their name?” (Guess I should have checked out their first album for that one!) My other buddy, Bruce, walked up and said “Oh cool… you brought it! Me and Bill were playing it all night long last night! I think you’ll dig it!”. I asked, “What do they sound like?” Bill said, “Kinda like The Allman Brothers…” “…But kind of country-rock too.” , chimed in Bruce. “But not like The Byrds or Eagles! Kind of heavy country-rock!” I was intrigued and couldn’t wait for school to end so that I could hear this new discovery that my buds were touting! 

I recall studying the album cover on the way home. I wasn’t really all that impressed by the front picture. It looked to me that a kid my age designed it in his high school art class. Although, it did sport a couple of pot leafs on it which scored big points with my fifteen year old self! The back sported photos of the band… a bunch of your typical long-haired freaks of the day, so… more points for that! (Anticipating the parental disgust factor if they should happen to catch a glance of it!)

From the first song I was blown away! “They are cutting down Neil Young and George Wallace in this song! Who do these guys think they are!?! I mean George Wallace… yeah, he’s an asshole, but Neil Young… he’s as cool as you can get! And his songs, Alabama & Southern Man are anti slavery/segregation tunes! Does that mean Skynyrd was for those things?” My teenage brain was overloading!

As I got to Working For MCA, my young mind began to overwork it’s self again! “Now they’re singing about MCA records. Isn’t that the label that Neil Diamond, Cher, & Olivia Newton-John are on? These guys are proud to be in those ranks?”

Then came Needle And The Spoon. “Wait a minute…didn’t Neil Young come out with a song a couple years ago called The Needle And The Damage Done? First they’re saying they “don’t need him around”, then they’re stealing song ideas from him!?!” Again I was freaked out by the audacity of these guys!

I listened to the album a few more times that night and realized that I really did like the music regardless of the “controversies” I had conceived in my barely developed cranium. The next day, me, Bruce, and Bill discussed my findings and rehashed our thoughts of the album. By the end of the day, we had decided that we had a new favorite band to follow…Neil Young be damned! 

As it turns out, you couldn’t go to a party while I was in school without hearing a Lynyrd Skynyrd album being played… especially Second Helping! Real Southern Rock had finally made it up north. 

I graduated high school in 1977 and joined the Navy in August of that year. The plane crash was in late October of ’77. I came home on leave that December for Christmas. While I was home, Bruce, Bill, myself, and two other buddies (Jim and Tim), got together to mourn our fallen heroes. The tragedy was still very fresh for us. We smoked, drank and listened to Second Helping, (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd), Street Survivors, and One More From The Road straight through. I still have pictures somewhere of that night!

On a personal note: I have never to this day, listened to a Lynyrd Skynyrd album that didn’t include Ronnie Van Zant in the line-up, and don’t intend to in the future.

Lynyrd Skynyrd Second Helping (1974)

From classicrockreview.com

After their acclaimed, classic 1973 debut album, Lynyrd Skynyrd returned with the equally impressive Second Helping, where they continued to forge the emerging genre of Southern-fried rock. Like the first album, this record was produced by Al Kooper, who followed the same basic formula but with a little more leanings toward the geographic roots music which influenced the young band. For this album, the group grew to seven members as original bassist Leon Wilkeson returned to the lineup and Ed King moved from bass to become the third guitarist, giving the group a nearly unprecedented mixture and chorus of rock textures.

Kooper got his start in the music business as a fourteen-year-old guitarist for The Royal Teens in 1958. As a low level session man seven years later, he improvised the famous organ riff that marked that classic song. Kooper later started many groups, including Blood, Sweat, & Tears, and eventually started the Sounds of the South label in affiliation with MCA. In 1972, Kooper signed Lynyrd Skynyrd after catching a club gig in Atlanta and personally took the reins in producing their first few albums, starting in 1973.

Led by the direct, storytelling lyrics of composer and front man Ronnie Van Zant, the group entered the studio in early 1974 determined to avoid the “sophomore slump” after their stellar debut. Musically, the tracks were composed by King along with original guitarists Allen Collins and Gary Rossington, who each used remarkable restraint in avoiding competition for the limited space in the mostly standard-length tracks on this eight song LP.

The album kicks off with “Sweet Home Alabama”, a simple song has become indelible over its 40 years of existence. Unlike everything else on the album, this track was recorded in Georgia in late 1973 with just King, Wilkeson, and drummer Bob Burns laying down the basic backing track (with full band overdubs to follow later). The famous opening riff was one of the first King developed after switching from bass to guitar. With a great locked-in bass line, fantastic dual guitars, and plenty of other sonic candy, Van Zant’s vocals tell stories of contemporary and historical importance, including both tributes and scorns. One of the more famous comes at the beginning of the second verse with a literal calling out of Neil Young in response to his songs “Alabama” and “Southern Man”, which Van Zant (a close friend of Young’s) felt unfairly indicted a whole culture and region.

The moody “I Need You” is like a continuation of the “Tuesday’s Gone” and “Simple Man” tracks from the 1973 debut album. This long and slow blues ballad contains screaming and whining guitar leads by the trio of guitarists. “Don’t Ask Me No Questions” is direct rocker with a crisp, blended guitar riff, composed by Rossington. Kooper added some horns for effect on this popular track with a great and direct hook that is easily catchy. The original first side winds down with “Workin’ for MCA”, which seems at once to be a tribute and indictment of the group’s record label. This jam-based rocker literally tells story of group’s signing two years earlier and features a great electric piano lead by Billy Powell, followed by trade-off leads by each of the three guitarists.

The original second side of Second Helping starts with one of the best tracks on the album, “The Ballad of Curtis Loew”. This touching tribute to an unsung blues man contains calm and moody country guitars by Collins and, although the song gradually builds with more rock-oriented arrangement, it maintains its pure vibe all the way along until the slowing slide guitar in the outro. While the song is based on a composite of people, it paints a vivid picture of Van Zants’ original neighborhood in Jacksonville, Florida and the inspiration to play music. “Swamp Music” is pure Southern blues, with an upbeat, underlying rhythm, This song never really deviates from its basic structure and contains good, short jams with vocals mocking the guitar licks. “The Needle and the Spoon” may be the weakest song on the album, as it sounds like a shallow knock-off of “Sweet Home Alabama” in riff, rhythm, and melody but probably could have developed into something better if it had been given the time to grow. The only cover on the album is J.J. Cale’s “Call Me the Breeze”, which worked out to be a really good fit for Lynard Skynard. Powerful double riffs, the return of the horns, an upbeat rhythm by Wilkeson and Burns, blues-based jamming by all three guitarists, and a honky-tonk piano Powell all shine on this upbeat album closer.

Second Helping reached #12 on the Billboard album charts and was certified Gold within a few months of its release, eventually reaching Platinum status. This turned out to be the high-water mark of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s commercial success. Subsequent years were marked with lineup shifts and personal tragedy, making these few years of the band’s original existence all the more precious and important.

Lynyrd Skynyrd Second Helping (1974)

From dailyvault.com

The phrase “sophomore slump” is tossed around here at “The Daily Vault” more often than a football at training camp. Usually, whenever an artist or band experiences any kind of success with their debut album, they always feel some kind of pressure to outdo that success – and in turn, release an album that disappoints critically and/or commercially.

In the case of Lynyrd Skynyrd, their dictionary must have left that phrase out, because Second Helping, their 1974 release, could well be one of their best albums, sitting on the shelf next to Street Survivors for that honour. Bringing back bassist Leon Wilkeson into the fold after Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd was recorded, the group was firing on all cylinders and had learned many lessons, both from that first album and the acclaim that followed. (Note: I’m reviewing my ancient vinyl copy; the album has since been re-issued on CD with three bonus tracks.)

You can sum up Second Helping in three words: “Sweet Home Alabama”. Quite possibly the most recognized song in Skynyrd’s catalog (next to “Free Bird”), this song captures the band’s Southern roots while holding onto their rock sensibility the best. It’s been 27 years since this song was recorded, and with the exception of the Watergate references, this track doesn’t seem to have aged at all. It still crackles with energy, and the wrong-key solo from guitarist Ed King (he admitted later down the road he played it in “G”, when the song was in the key of “D”) is still an amazing slice of six-string work.

But Second Helping is so much more. Continuing on the “mind altering substances are bad” theme started by “Poison Whiskey,” “The Needle And The Spoon” delivers a powerful anti-drug message that is still meaningful today. “Workin’ For MCA” could be seen as a bitch-slap against their label at the time or as a partial praise for someone taking a chance on them; either way, it’s a fun song to listen to, even today when the band is long removed from those days.

Lynyrd Skynyrd even dares to use a song written outside of the band – thus giving J.J. Cale’s “Call Me The Breeze” new life, and calling attention to a songwriter you might not have otherwise heard about, Eric Clapton’s covers notwithstanding. Billy Powell’s piano work helps to seal the deal, both on this song and “Sweet Home Alabama”‘s outro.

The lessons concerning the blues from Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd are well learned on Second Helping, from their cover of “Call Me The Breeze” to the funky down-home style of “Swamp Music”. Two words: well done! “I Need You” isn’t strictly a blues song, but it definitely has soulful moments which suck the listener in. It might not be the band’s best-known song, but it’s still a powerful piece of work.

Yes, I could still talk about the two songs we haven’t mentioned, “Don’t Ask Me No Questions” (dealing with fame when the boys came home) and “The Ballad Of Curtis Loew” (detailing how the love of music was instilled in our heroes), but I think you get the point. Second Helping is a solid album from note one to the last drum fill that closes the disc.

If I could only have one Lynyrd Skynyrd album in my collection, I’d have a very hard time choosing between Street Survivors and Second Helping. In fact, I don’t want to choose. I want them both. Bury me with them. Is this album that good? Oh, yeah.