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Rating:
"This album was done for the love of music and for the love of those who are in Rock'n Roll Heaven".
Thus reads the passionate dedication found inside the booklet of "1991", an album that marks the return to the scene of Lynyrd Skynyrd, naturally referring to Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, and Cassie Gaines, the three members who tragically passed fourteen years earlier in the Gillsburg plane crash, and to Allen Collins, who was taken by pneumonia in 1990.
The reunion of the band actually dates back to 1987, and initially, the intention of the "new" Skynyrd was to tour for a series of tribute concerts playing only repertoire tracks: only later did they decide to return to the studio to record an album of new material. The daunting task of succeeding the never-too-mourned Ronnie Van Zant as singer and principal songwriter falls to the brother of the frontman, Johnny, with more than decent results, keeping in mind the impossible challenge of living up to the predecessor. The rest of the band consists almost entirely of historical members: we joyfully find Gary Rossington and Ed King on guitars, Leon Wilkeson on bass, Billy Powell on keyboards, and Artimus Pyle on drums.
The musical recipe of Lynyrd Skynyrd remains virtually unchanged: the choice that brought so much success in the past of using three guitars is confirmed, with the newcomer Randall Hall joining the aforementioned two, and the keyboards and female backing vocals still play a vital role, capable on several occasions of softening the atmosphere of the tracks. The sound remains firmly anchored to the tradition of Southern Rock, in continuity with everything the band had pursued until 1977. This results in particularly successful tracks like "Smokestack Lightning", energetic and engaging, as well as "Southern Women" and "It's a Killer". Naturally, ballads are not missing, as is Skynyrd's best tradition: "Pure & Simple" and "Mama (afraid to say goodbye)" succeed in their intent to move the listener, although certainly not at the practically unrepeatable levels of a "Freebird" or a "Tuesday's Gone."
The album is ultimately good, a particularly admirable initiative by great musicians eager to challenge themselves with a new and ambitious project. Of course, the magic of Lynyrd Skynyrd's early works is missing, but not the authenticity and the great desire to make music, always in remembrance of the friends who passed too soon to entertain the audiences in rock heaven.
Tracklist and Lyrics
02 Keeping The Faith (05:17)
Are you a saint then don't be a stranger
Were you sent down from Heaven to show me the way
And if you ain't then I see a danger
You better take a minute and hear what I've got to say
(chorus)
'Cause I'll keep on tryin' to put it straight to you
You better give it straight to me
'Cause most women seem to have a good time
Makin' a fool out of me
I'm keepin' my faith I've made up my mind
I've got nothin' left to lose just lay it on the line
I'm keepin' my faith yea I'll find the one
Who won't steal me blind who won't turn and run
I'm keepin' my faith I'm trustin' in you
So don't treat me like those other ones do
Ain't no gettin' 'round it tell me to my face
Do you think I'm a fool for keepin' my faith in you
I'll treat you right I'll do you better
I won't disappoint you I won't make you cry
My friends tell me if you let her
She'll empty your pockets she'll spend you dry
(repeat chorus twice)
05 I've Seen Enough (04:30)
(G. Rossington, J. Van Zant, K. Custer, R. Johnson, M. Lunn)
You got to lock your doors, keep the world out
We're closin' ourselves in
If you watch the news it'll scare you to death
To Hell and back again
The only justice here's at the wrong end of a gun
Got the criminal makin' the laws got the good men on the run
I've seen enough
We don't own anything we've got we've givin' it all away
But that don't make no sense to me you know who's gonna pay
It's the man in the factory workin' twelve hours a day
The woman workin' in the restaurant with another kid on the way
(chorus)
Isn't anything in this life sacred anymore
We can't lose what we've got it's worth fightin' for
I've seen enough, I've seen enough to make a grown man cry
A man's standin' by the road a sign in his hand
He don't want your charity he says I ain't no begger man
All I need is a chance to get back on my feet
But we just pass him by well it could be you or me
I've seen enough
I ain't the kind to just sit back and watch the world go 'round
It's not too late to change let's turn this shit around
(repeat chorus)
06 Backstreet Crawler (05:30)
(R. Hall, E. King, G. Rossington)
I snuck around the corner he had his guard down
I threw the first punch that's when he hit the ground
To survive in the street you gotta win the first round
'Cause if you want eat you gotta be the baddest one around
I'm a backstreet crawler
Daddy paid for college I earned a degree
Got a job up on Wall Street
Where I learned to make the little man bleed
That's when I got stomped like a cattle stampede
Had a nervous breakdown all my friends and family left me
(chorus)
Yeah I'm a backstreet crawler
When you see them on the concrete it's their spirit that's harder
Yeah I'm a backstreet crawler
Where your ego meets defeat and your pride can't get no smaller
Yeah I'm a backstreet crawler
Yeah I'm a backstreet crawler
(repeat)
I guess you might say it sure is a shame
I used to have everything oh how my life has changed
Yeah I'm broken and torn I've never been free
Lost everything that meant a thing to me
(repeat chorus)
11 End Of The Road (04:40)
(T. Cerney, E. King, G. Rossington, J. Van Zant)
It was a late night show in Georgia
We were on the 'ol highway
We know we've lost some friends
And family on the way
But you know we all feel better
And it makes it worth our time
To know our bus is rollin' towards
That Mason-Dixon line
(chorus)
Oh we can't seem to find the end of the road
Roots never grow on the seeds that we sow
We've still got our music and so many miles to go
You know we can't seem to find the end of the road
We know we've got a legacy that's hard to live up to
But there's still a lot of reasons
Why we play these songs for you
It's a family tradition and as long as we're around
That Freebird keeps on flyin' and it never will come down
(repeat chorus)
Oh we can't seem to find the end of the road
Roots never grow on the seeds that we sow
We can't seem to find the end of the road
No matter how far we travel it always seems to slow
We still got our music and so many miles to go
You know we can't seem to find Lord the end of the road
The end of the road
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