Album of the Day — July 24
Lynyrd Skynyrd — Second Helping
Lynyrd Skynyrd — Second Helping
24.July.2020
Lynyrd Skynryd
Second Helping
1974
A few amorphous variables may depend on how you feel about Lynyrd Skynryd.
Me? I like them.
Even if you only have basic knowledge of the band then you know about the plane crash in 1977 that killed lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, along with backup singer Cassie Gaines (Steve’s older sister), and three others.
The band would lay mostly dormant for ten years (The Rossington Collins Band notwithstanding).
The re-incarnated Lynyrd Skynryd re-surfaced in 1987 with Ronnie Van Zant’s younger brother Johnny taking over his older brother’s vocal duties. For the next 30 + years the band would release nine additional albums to their library, including one Christmas album — Christmas Time Again.
However, it would be those seminal first five albums that would enable the band to fill amphitheaters and arena’s over the years:
(Pronounced ‘Lĕh-’nérd ‘Skin-’nérd) — 1973
Second Helping — 1974
Nuthin’ Fancy — 1975
Gimme Back My Bullets — 1976
Street Survivors — 1977
Even up until today as the band marches towards retirement their setlist is largely made up of songs from these albums.
While there may be stereotypes that follow Lynyrd Skynrd and their fans, the one thing that is not talked about nearly enough is just how fucking good this band was on those first five albums!
No disrespect meant to the later incarnations of the band and their work.
When the band released their debut, (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-’nérd ‘Skin-’nérd), Southern Rock as a genre was just beginning to blossom. The Allman Brothers had cracked the egg and Lynyrd Skynrd mixed it up … and the genre that followed was filled with bands each making their kind of omelet.
In 1973, the band went on the road opening for The Who in support of that debut album (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-’nérd ‘Skin-’nérd) and earned a lot of new fans. They are alleged to have repeatedly outperformed the headliners — who were then at the peak of their powers.
Second Helping was not ironically named or food-themed — it was the band’s second album. And it arrived just eight months after their debut. Imagine any band today banging out a second album that quickly … rather, imagine a record label allowing a band to do that.
The album does only has eight songs, but there isn’t a bad one on the album.
And yes, this is the album that contains the song with what is one of the most recognized guitar intros in rock music — “Sweet Home Alabama” (I bet you just heard it)
The first single was “Don’t Ask Me No Questions” which plays to the band’s working-class Jacksonville, Florida roots. However, they created a simple and sweet song about their working life. Sure, after the first record they were bona fide rock stars and had a little money … but if you believe the lyrics, it was still just a job. And who among us wants to spend our spare time talking about our jobs?
Outsiders looking in may have glamorized their life, they did not:
Don’t Ask Me No Questions
Well every time that I come home nobody wants to let me be
It seems that all the friends I got just got to come interrogate me
Well, I appreciate your feelings and I don’t want to pass you by
But I don’t ask you about your business, don’t ask me about mine
Well it’s true I love the money and I love my brand new car
I like drinkin’ the best of whiskey and playing in a honky-tonk bar
But when I come off the road, well I just got to have my time
’cause I got to find a break in this action, else I’m gonna lose my mind
CHORUS
So, don’t ask me no questions
And I won’t tell you no lies
So, don’t ask me about my business
And I won’t tell you goodbye
That’s right
Well, what’s your favorite color and do you dig the brothers, is drivin’ me up a wall
And every time I think I can sleep, some fool has got to call
Well don’t you think that when I come home, I just want a little peace of mind
If you want to talk about the business buddy, you’re just wastin’ time
CHORUS x 1
I said don’t ask no stupid questions and I won’t send you away
If you want to talk fishin, well I guess that’ll be OK.
Releasing a fun song downplaying the life or a rock star is an interesting choice for a first single. My guess is that explains why it didn’t have an impact or register with listeners.
However, the second single sure did register!
That was “Sweet Home Alabama” — which became a Top Ten Hit and legendary song. So much has been written about the song, I’m not going to bother. It’s one of the crown jewels of rock music.
In addition to the pure musical mastery of the band, the diversity of their songwriting was astounding. That a band could go from a lazy song about fishing to a marginally rebellious song to the CinemaScope lyricism of “The Ballad of Curtis Loew” seems unthinkable … and was unparalleled at the time.
“The Ballad of Curtis Loew”, written by Van Zant and guitarist Allen Collins, pays homage to Van Zant’s hometown of Jacksonville, Florida. The country store the narrator sings about was Claude’s Midway Grocery and while there was not specific Curtis Loew, there were several that Van Zant grew up around.
There is no need to dig deep on the lyrics, they read like a short story … almost as if Harper Lee had written it.
The Ballad of Curtis Loew
Well, I used to wake the mornin’
Before the rooster crowed
Searchin’ for soda bottles
To get myself some dough
Brought ’em down to the corner
Down to the country store
Cash ’em in, and give my money
To a man named Curtis Loew
Old Curt was a black man
With white curly hair
When he had a fifth of wine
He did not have a care
He used to own an old Dobro
Used to play it ‘cross his knee
I’d give old Curt my money
He’d play all day for me
CHORUS
Play me a song
Curtis Loew, Curtis Loew
Well, I got your drinkin’ money
Tune-up your Dobro
People said he was useless
Them people all were fools
’Cause Curtis Loew was the finest picker
To ever play the blues
He looked to be sixty
And maybe I was ten
Mama used to whoop me
But I’d go see him again
I’d clap my hands, stomp my feet
Try to stay in time
He’d play me a song or two
Then take another drink of wine
CHORUS x 1
Yes, sir
On the day old Curtis died
Nobody came to pray
Ol’ preacher said some words
And they chucked him in the clay
Well, he lived a lifetime
Playin’ the black man’s blues
And on the day he lost his life
That’s all he had to lose
CHORUS x 1
In just under 40 minutes and only eight songs, the band manages to:
Write a career-making and genre-defining song — “Sweet Home Alabama”
Write a love song — “I Need You”
Take the piss out of their job — “Don’t Ask Me No Questions”
Antagonize their employer — “Working for MCA” (their record label)
Paint a heartbreaking story of loneliness — “The Ballad of Curtis Loew”
Thumb their noses at city slickers — “Swamp Music”
Address drug addiction — “The Needle and the Spoon”
Cover a J.J. Cale song — “Call Me the Breeze”
Love them or hate them, that is sheer talent.
CRITICS:
Robert Christgau gave the album a B- in his initial Creem Magazine review saying: “Still a substantial, tasteful band, but I have a hunch they blew their best stuff on the first platter.” In 1981 he re-visited Second Helping and upped the grade to A- saying: “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.”
Stephen Thomas Erlewine at AllMusic said: “This is the part of Skynyrd that most people forget — they were a great band, but they were indelible because that was married to great writing. And nowhere was that more evident than on Second Helping.”
The Houston Press named it #2 on their Five Essential Boogie-Rock Albums list.
The legend behind Lynyrd Skynrd often overshadows the skills of the band. The musicians in and out of the band, the lawsuits, the plane crash, the drugs, the addictions, etc. so on and so forth. Just paying attention to the legend is a mistake.
Today they’re often associated with an image that doesn’t necessarily align with some of those songs on the early records. The band doesn’t do much to push back against the association. I mean, if you sing a song like “The Ballad of Curtis Loew” against the backdrop of a confederate flag, it robs the song of its beauty and power.
To be fair, they’ve only played that song live a few times. Only once with Ronnie Van Zant and a few others with Johnny Van Zant. That said, the flag has been imagery they have embraced throughout their career. Here’s hoping they drop the use of the flag in whatever live performances they have in the future … and play “The Ballad of Curtis Loew”.
Second Helping is exactly what the title suggests. The album kept the Lynyrd Skynrd band on the upward trajectory and continued to highlight the band’s growth, both commercially and as artists.