1. That’s How I Like It
2. What Your Name
3. I Know A Little
4. Pick ‘Em Up
5. Simple Man
6. That Smell
7. Red White And Blue
8. Down South Jukin’
9. Gimme Back My Bullets
10. Double Trouble
11. The Ballad Of Curtis Lowe
12. Tuesday’s Gone
13. Mississippi Kid
Disc Two:
1. Workin’
2. Gimme Three Steps
3. Call Me The Breeze
4. Sweet Home Alabama
5. The Way
6. Freebird
This is a fantastic 2-CD set of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Vicious Cycle Tour
which celebrates 30 years for the band. Formed in Jacksonville Florida in
1966, they epitomized regional pride that stressed boisterous hard rock.
Amazingly this group only charted in the UK with one single : Sweet Home
Alabama / Double Trouble alternatively listed as the Freebird EP.
Originally released in September 1976, it became a jukebox favourite at
my teacher training college student union bar. Alabama was extremely
popular, but somehow Freebird, which turned up on various single releases
around the same time (yes, it was very confusing, and still is tracking
down the formats ) became the cult Rock record of the time.
Then when I
saw them play Freebird live in America, probably on the Old Grey Whistle
Test (before most of the band were killed in a plane crash in 1977) and
I was smitten by them, as it contains one of the greatest guitar solos
of all time. Stalwarts of the American touring scene, these 19 hot
tracks recorded in Nashville Tennessee in July 2003 catches them on top
form. Including two original members, Gary Rossington (guitar) and
Billy Powell (piano) Johnny Van Zant, brother of deceased original
singer Ronnie, they take you through 30 years of their best work and is
the perfect CD for ‘ musos’ or ‘ air guitarists ‘.
Charismatic frontman
Johnny Van Zant shows his rugged vocals off to perfection all through
the show. In essence they are a subtle Southern Blues outfit, and even
though they can rock it up a bit, they never forget their roots and
influences such as That Smell and Red White And Blue. But there’s also
power ballads like Tuesday’s Gone, which features glorious guitars,
harmonica, strings and backing vocals. Of the 19 tracks, highlights
include Freebird, (obviously) Sweet Home Alabama, Tuesday’s Gone and
That’s How I Like It – and so do the crowd !
Instrumental highlights are the arrangements (particularly strings and
brass section), Billy Powell’s piano work, and Blues lead guitar and
bottleneck by Rossington.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
