Lynyrd Skynyrd

The first compilation to cover the entire career-all "thyrty" years-of the quintessential Southern rock band! That means tracks for the Atlantic, Capricorn and Sanctuary labels as well as the classic MCA material; includes Free Bird; Sweet Home Alabama; Gimme Three Steps; Saturday Night Special; Tuesday's Gone; That Smell; You Got That Right; Gimme Back My Bullets (live); All I Could Do Is Write About It; Workin' , and more, even an unreleased, 10-minute blues medley from 1970. Over 150 minutes available for a limited time only!

Gold & Platinum was compiled by Gary Rossington and Allen Collins, the two surviving members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, after the band's tragic plane crash of 1977. Though many years have elapsed since its 1979 release, the double-record set remains the best, most concise compilation of the groundbreaking Southern rock band. Over the course of two albums, all of Skynyrd's hits – "Sweet Home Alabama," "Free Bird," "Saturday Night Special," "What's Your Name," "You Got That Right" – are featured, as well as essential album tracks like "That Smell," "Down South Jukin'," "Gimme Three Steps," "I Know a Little," and "Tuesday's Gone." Some great songs like "Workin' for MCA" are missing, and the four-disc box set may be more comprehensive, but it's hard to imagine a better, more concise greatest-hits collection than Gold & Platinum.

On August 21, 1976, Lynyrd Skynyrd took the stage at Knebworth Park in England as part of a daylong festival. With Ronnie Van Zant on vocals and the Rossington/Collins/Gaines triple guitar attack, Lynyrd Skynyrd delivered an electric performance in front of a crowd estimated between 150,000 and 200,000, which has gone down as one of the band's greatest performances…

So named because this consists of Skynyrd's earliest recordings and was released after the tragic plane crash, thereby seeming to close the door on the band's career, Skynyrd's First and… Last is more than a simple historic curiosity, but not too much more. This music is more notable for being interesting - in how it's possible to hear Ronnie VanZant coming into his own as a writer, or hearing future Blackfoot leader Ricky Medlocke's early songs - than it is for being good, which it certainly is. Taken on its own, separated from the rest of the group's catalog, this would likely be seen as a great forgotten hard rock album from an obscure Southern outfit, but since Skynyrd went on to greater things, this winds up as a footnote - enjoyable, yes, but not quite necessary.

This limited Special Edition adds a second disc of bonus tracks, including live versions of J.J. Cale's "They Call Me the Breeze" and "Sweet Home Alabama." With their classic early lineup, anchored by the swagger, grit, and heart of lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, Lynyrd Skynyrd merged Allman Brothers guitars with barrelhouse piano (courtesy of keyboardist Billy Powell, a bigger part of Skynyrd's classic sound than most people realize), then tossed in a big dose of hard rock attitude and gave it all credence with a kind of blustering and cocky honky tonk sensibility. The original band just sounded so, well, right, and if its legacy in most casual listeners' minds is just "Sweet Home Alabama" and the ubiquitous "Free Bird," that's not a bad legacy to have, really.