SORRY - SOLD OUT
Mobile Fidelity - UDSACD 2104 - SACD Hybrid Stereo
Mastered by Kreig Wunderlich from the Original Master Tape at MFSL
Numbered Limited Edition - Plays On All CD Players
Mastered on the Mobile Fidelity GAIN 2™ Mastering Technology for Ultradisc SACD
Sound 89% Ken Kessler Hi-Fi News - Sounding so good here that you won`t feel cheated if you don`t buy the LP
The overall sound is so much more clean and dynamic, you just can’t turn this one up too loud. You haven’t lived until you hear the reverb-laden guitars on “Freebird.” -Jeff Dorgay Toneaudio
Lynyrd Skynyrd Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd on Numbered Limited Edition SACD from Mobile Fidelity The South Rises Again: Bluesy, Hard-Rocking 1973 Debut Raised Southern Rock Flag Forget, for a moment, “Free Bird.” Consider, instead, the authentic down-home rowdiness, distinctive first-person narratives, searing triple-guitar front, gritty vocals, and bluesy boogie bluster. And the undeniable youthful hunger pumping through the subtly witty songs, all strongly rooted in Southern heritage and working-class values. Independent of the most-requested tune in history, Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd bleeds red, white, and blue and encapsulates the wondrous dichotomies of Southern rock.
Mastered from the original master tapes this SACDl edition of the Floridian group’s ground-shaking debut is the equivalent of having access to the band’s amplifiers and producer Al Kooper’s control boards in the studio. Affording palpable spaciousness to each of the instruments, expanding the dynamic range, and clearing away previous tonal congestion, this version presents the septet’s raw, honest tunes in the most direct, hard-hitting sound they’ve ever enjoyed. It lays waste to all prior reissues—none of which on LP went back to the master tapes. Months before Lynyrd Skynyrd enjoyed the privilege of recording its debut, the band entered its seventh year of playing juke joints and assorted dives in a bootstraps effort to land a deal. During a residency at a hardscrabble Georgian club, the group’s rambunctious rock, swaggering attitude, blue-collar determination, and country-reared cadence caught the ear of producer/musician Al Kooper. The rest is history. Kooper inked the ensemble to his new imprint and hustled everyone into a Georgia studio for sessions that occurred March through April 1973.
It’s at the Studio One space that Lynyrd Skynyrd flashed scampering tempos, cutting give-and-take riffs, loose barroom lines, and off-the-cuff vocalese that entirely separated its approach from that of the more jazz-styled affairs of the Allman Brothers Band. Confederate flags, empty whiskey bottles, cocked pistols, rotgut habits, scorned women, and prodigal drifters populate the songs, nearly all written from first-person perspectives that add to their genuineness. Prophetic touches—twinkling piano notes, soaring mellotrons, a one-off harmonica—provide ideal complements to the intertwined guitar melodies and singer Ronnie Van Zant’s comfortable gruffness and way of expressing local customs.
Whether it’s the them’s-fightin’-words edginess of the humorous albeit entirely believable Southern-etched yarn “Gimme Three Steps,” which sails on a triple mast of six-string exchanges and clicks heels to a trotting percussive beat that doubles as the sound of cowboy-boot heels, or the spiritual pleas and lived-in wisdom echoed on the barbed-wire balladry of “Simple Man,” Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd burns with forthright and freewheeling desire, rebellious and sincere earnestness. Seen from either a lyrical, musical, or performance perspective, there’s not a wasted second or awkward moment to be found.
Then, of course, there’s the sugary drip of Van Zant’s political ragtime-referencing affair “Things Goin’ On,” bluegrass-tinted swing of “Mississippi Kid,” and swampy get-go of “Poison Whiskey.” They all lead up to the epic “Free Bird,” a greasy slide-guitar anthem that no matter how many times it’s played or requested in jest, never loses its power to grip the listener’s emotions like an iron vice. What a record.
Lynyrd Skynyrd built the genre of Southern Rock, brick by brick, with clever songwriting, badass lead guitar playing (with three lead guitarists), and sheer grit. Legendary producer Al Kooper created a masterpiece here, and it finally gets the treatment it deserves.
The gold band at the top of the record jacket, marked “Original Master Recording,” means the original master tape was used for the reissue. It only takes a cursory listen to an early MCA pressing, which sounds like a CD in comparison, to hear the increase in sound quality on this MoFi edition. Much like early Van Halen records, there is almost a non-existent bass line in the original, now replaced by a big, fat sound that anchors the rest of the rhythm section and provides a proper foundation. And yes, there’s more cowbell too.
It might have been easier to dismiss this band if listening to the poorer original, but with so many sonic treats liberated from the mix, it’s great fun finding all the tidbits you’ve never heard over the years. The bongos in “Gimme Three Steps” are but one example. The overall sound is so much more clean and dynamic, you just can’t turn this one up too loud. You haven’t lived until you hear the reverb-laden guitars on “Freebird.” -Jeff Dorgay Toneaudio
Get out your lighter and boogie. Do it.
Bass – Leon Wilkeson
Drums – Bob Burns
Guitar – Allen Collins, Ed King , Gary Rossington
Keyboards – Billy Powell
Lead Vocals – Ronnie Van Zant
Producer, Engineer – Al Kooper
Lynyrd Skynyrd Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd Track Listing:
1. I Ain’t the One
2. Tuesday’s Gone
3. Gimme Three Steps
4. Simple Man
5. Things Goin’ On
6. Mississippi Kid
7. Poison Whiskey
8. Free Bird
Mobile Fidelity believes that mastering systems should be neutral and transparent. The essential idea is to unveil all the detailed musical information on the original master recording without adding deterioration, coloration or other sonic artifacts.
It is worth noting that Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab stands out as one of few record labels that independently invests in research and development of audio technology. With proprietary innovations such as GAIN 2™, general music enthusiasts and audiophiles alike have reaped the benefit of a higher consumer audio standard without investing in costly new hardware. Mobile Fidelity is pleased to work with a variety of engineering legends and companies including Tim de Paravicini, Ed Meitner, Pass Labs, Theta Digital and Sony Electronics.
Our joint efforts to seek out the ultimate audio experience, has resulted in significant advances for the technology of music reproduction.
GAIN 2™ Mastering Technology for Ultradisc UHR™ Hybrid SACD and Ultradisc II™ 24kt Gold CDs
For over twenty years, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab has continually searched for the ultimate audio experience. During this search MFSL engineers and associates created The GAIN™ System, a proprietary mastering technology which brought warmth and ambience to the compact disc format. A few years ago - with higher resolution formats on the horizon - the vision of GAIN 2™ began. As it stands today, GAIN 2™ is one of the greatest technical advancements in analogue and digital technology in the last ten years. It consists of a series of critical modifications and new components to Mobile Fidelity's proprietary mastering chain.
We feel that GAIN 2™ has come extremely close to meeting this goal. The key accomplishments of GAIN 2™ System are 1) the ability to extract all the musical information as possible through the Ultra High bandwidth analogue tape playback system with proprietary custom tape playback heads, reproducer electronics and 2) transparently capturing and storing that information with the Direct Stream Digital recording system.
