Now before I get the awkward eye from alot of viewers, this isn't Lynyrd Skynyrd's entire Muscle Shoals recordings. To get that you must also get The Best of The Rest, which has 2 more MS recordings not released anywhere else. Those songs are Gotta Go and I've Been Your Fool. That then is complete. As for what's on here, this is the motherlode of Skynyrd pre-Pronounced days. Awesome renditions of Simple Man, Thing's Goin' On, One More Time, and Gimme Three Steps. All better and superior versions than what would later end up on offical Skynyrd releases. Was I Right or Wrong, Wino, Comin' Home, and The Seasons are also excellent displays of Skynyrd's fine songwriting. But the truly amazing recording is without a doubt, Free Bird. Much different than the one recorded later on Pronounced, it is truly awesome and powerful. Any fan of Skynyrd, who has not gotten this, must buy it now as it is like getting a new studio album from the Ronnie Van Zant era 22 years later. Fly on...

It doesn't matter what you think you know about Lynyrd Skynyrd.
It doesn't matter what you think you know about Southern Rock.
It doesn't matter what you think you know about music at all.
You have NEVER heard anything this amazing!

Sure, the sound quality is a little lacking, and the instrumentals aren't quite as perfect as they became later, but this album is still quite possibly the greatest album ever made. If possible, I'd give it 10 stars. It deserves it. When I heard this CD for the first time, it was on my car CD player. Free Bird started and I thought that it sounded pretty good. Then Ronnie started singing. I literally had to pull my car over to the side of the road to keep from losing control and wrecking. I was so stunned by the beauty of his voice. I opened my mouth to speak, but words wouldn't come out. I gasped out loud. Then, a few seconds later, I gasped again. It actually brought tears to my eyes. I'm not embellishing. This is Ronnie before all the late nights and the drinking and the drugs. Pure, unspoiled Ronnie Van Zant. Absolutely amazing.

The rest of the band is great too. It's a raw sort of sound that really reveals a lot of Skynyrd's character. The grittiness that they made famous is expanded here and it's incredible. But I must digress, Ronnie steals the show. He was always great, but here he's really great. Imagine the most beautiful star in the night sky. Now imagine that for one brief moment, all the clouds are lifted and it shines ten times as bright. You can't take your eyes off it. That star is Ronnie and the cloudless night is this album.

And so, I ask that everyone listening to this CD to be careful. If you're going to listen to this album, make sure there's nothing around they may require your attention for awhile. You won't be able to focus on anything but the music. Your house could catch on fire, and you wouldn't even realize it. This album cannot be summarized in words. You've just got to hear it.

If you don't have this buy this.This is Skynyrd's first album, and it sounds so cocky as if they knew what they were going to be. This is the album the last verse of "Sweet Home Alabama" was about.

I can see why you might be thinking "but I have almost all of those songs!"
But you don't. Well, yes, you probably do have "Free Bird" and "I Ain't The One" and "Gimme Three Steps" and most of the others, but these aren't the versions found on "Pronounced 'leh-'nérd 'skin-'nérd", "Second Helping" and so on. This album is (mostly) identical to Lynyrd Skynyrd's uinissued pre-MCA Muscle Shoals album, and this lean, piano-driven (and previously unreleased) "Free Bird" is significantly different from the later one. "I Ain't The One" and "Gimme Three Steps" sound much more basic and simple in these three-chord gararge rock renditions, and much more raw as well, especially "Steps". And these powerful, riff-driven, and somewhat slower 1972 versions of "Trust" and "Things Goin' On" almost eclipse the ones which was later released on "Gimme Back My Bullets" and "Pronounced" respectively. Bare-bones garage rock at its finest, just some amazing vocals, a series of gritty riffs and solos, and plenty of room for the backbeat of drummer Bob Burns to breathe.

Some of these songs have appeared as bonus tracks on the relatively recent (late-90s) reissues of Skynyrd's MCA albums, although not necessarily in identical versions. One of the album's best songs, "Was I Right Or Wrong", for instance, is also on the remastered 1997 edition of "Second Helping", but this version is superior, one of the true gems of Skynyrd's catalogue. A wonderful original take on "Down South Jukin'" is here as well, simpler and more organic than the bonus track on the remastered "Pronounced", but just as great. And the soulful country-rock of "Comin' Home" is finally available elsewhere than on the 1991 "Essential" compilation.

The sound here is leaner and less dense (and the playing is perhaps slightly less accomplished) than on the "real" Skynyrd albums, but that doesn't make these songs lesser, just different. There are several tremendous guitar solos and wonderful instrumental interplays here. And Ronnie van Zant is terrific, versatile and expressive.
A few songs don't really sound particularly Skynyrd-like, including three songs penned and sung by then-drummer Rickey Medlocke (the ballads "White Dove" and "Ain't Too Proud To Pray", and the semi-acoustic country rock of "The Seasons"), the slightly stereotypical early-70s hard rock of "You Run Around", and the riff-rocker "Wino", which is an obvious Cream-knockoff. But if Lynyrd Skynyrd weren't yet so indelibly "southern" back in 1971, they were really no less great.
There are a few lesser numbers here, sure, but song for song this is some of the strongest material on any Lynyrd Skynyrd release, and you're really getting your money's worth here, with 17 songs and about 78 minutes of music on the little silver disc.
A find for any and all Skynyrd fans!

Amazon's review says "While ongoing personnel shifts are in evidence (only Ronnie Van Zant, Albert Collins, and Gary Rossington from the classic lineup appear throughout)..." Hello! It's ALLEN Collins, not Albert. Allen Collins was a white rock guitarist. Albert Collins was a black blues guitarist. Kinda hard to confuse the two if you know anything about music.