Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd

One of Southern rock’s greatest five-year runs began with this album. Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd was the work of a Florida band steeped in tough English guitar bands like the Who and the Yardbirds. The record is best remembered for the show-stopping “Free Bird,” which builds from proud, regretful ballad to all-out triple-ax flag waver. As it demonstrates, Skynyrd was able to work many moods, and the rest of Pronounced serves as an equally smart example. “Gimme Three Steps” is a funky shaggy-dog story that could perhaps only have come out of the swamps (or off a Coasters 45), while “Things Goin’ On” is the first of singer/lyricist Ronnie Van Zant’s gimlet-eyed social pronouncements. From here, they began winning fans across America, and not a few from the other side of the Atlantic – Pete Townshend, for one.