In extended retrospect, it takes careful perusal of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s timeline to discern the significance of the band’s fourth studio album, the now fifty-year-old Gimme Back My Bullets (released 2/3/76).
After all, it was not as commercially successful as its predecessor, 1975’s Nuthin’ Fancy, or its successor two years later, Street Survivors. And not only is the latter a more readily accessible piece of work, but a stroke of tragic irony has elevated its prominence in Lynyrd Skynyrd’s long-term history.
Three days after it came out in the fall of ’77, a plane crash took the lives of three group members–vocalist/songwriter Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist/songwriter Steve Gaines, and Gaines’ older sister, backup singer Cassie. A crew member and the pilots also died, while other band members and some of the entourage were seriously injured.
In less profound terms, the live album One More From The Road is notable in retrospective chronology as well. The concert title came out just over six months after the 1976 studio album and stands as the first recorded document of Gaines, who would become prominent on the next year’s studio outing (his late sibling had recommended the band recruit him).
Sessions for that latter project had been originally overseen by Tom Dowd before the band took the reins themselves. But the man who had worked with Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, the Allman Brothers and Eric Clapton, among others, was the designated producer of Gimme Back My Bullets, a distinction that signalled Lynyrd Skynyrd had moved on from its alliance with Al Kooper (Blood Sweat & Tears, Super Session) who overseen their first three studio albums.
At this point, with Ed King having abruptly departed the lineup during a ’75 tour, only Allen Collins and Gary Rossington wielded electric guitars in the group. It thus stands to reason that riffs would dominate the material, most fittingly on the title song of the half-century-old album. In addition, though, the admiration the group shared (with its aforementioned mentor) for British rockers Free remains unmistakable on “Cry for the Bad Man.”
This no-frills approach is in line with the forthright lyrics of lead singer Van Zant. And the titular leader of Skynyrd had a blues-derived vocal delivery that maximized the pithy potency of his words on tracks like “Searchin'” in doing so, the expression of this down-to-earth attitude furthered the Lynyrd Skynyrd persona as it evolved through the group’s early success with “Sweet Home Alabama” and the emergence of “Free Bird” as its signature song.
But Ronnie’s not the only one who looks a bit woozy in photos in the twenty-four-page booklet and triple-fold package of 2006’s Deluxe Edition of Gimme Back My Bullets. The torturous cycle of recording and roadwork, plus some intraband dissension (among other factors), was taking its toll on the whole band.
So, if Van Zant sounds defensive on “Cry For The Bad Man”–even as Artimus Pyle swings and hammers away on his drums to buttress Rossington and Collins–he did evince some open-minded reflection during “Trust.” Composed with both fretboarders in one of a rotating series of songwriting teamups, that track, like the acoustic guitar and piano-based “Every Mother’s Son,” precedes what is essentially the pivot point for these nine tracks.
With Billy Powell’s rollicking piano noticeable even at the periphery of the arrangement (like his clavinet and organ elsewhere on the longplayer), this cover of J.J. Cale’s “(I Got the) Same Old Blues” is hardly the jaunty interpretation of the late Oklahoman’s “Call Me The Breeze” from the sophomore Lynyrd Skynyrd Second Helping. On the contrary, its relentless nature typified the general tenor of Gimme Back My Bullets.
In certain cases, like “Double Trouble,” with the dulcet tones of the vocal group The Honeycuts, the songs’ sentiments alternated between defensive and vulnerable. Nevertheless, candor underpinned the emotions throughout, as did the massive pulse of Leon Wilkeson’s bass in the audio mix.
Crucially, though, the sonics were not in line with the musicianship until Doug Schwartz digitally remastered the record for the double-disc version of Gimme Back My Bullets (produced by band historian Ron O’Brien). The significant alteration in the sound also made otherwise nearly subliminal traces of country music apparent on “Roll Gypsy Roll.”
And those roots became more overt through the use of an unidentified violinist, plus Barry Lee Harwood’s dobro and mandolin, on “All I Can Do Is Write About It.” The finality of that number is clear-cut, even in the acoustic demo, one of the half-dozen live cuts and alternate studio takes on the aforementioned reissue.
Those ‘bonus’ cuts accompany seven performances on DVD from Skynyrd’s November 1975 appearance on the BBC’s The Old Grey Whistle Test. But in the long run, Live At Knebworth ’76 is just as telling in its own way, if not more so, than the video from Great Britain’s television network.
The British festival performance features Gaines not only as part of a realigned three-man guitar team, but as a singer as well. In hindsight, that broadened presentation was a harbinger of what was to come: in the years that followed, various lineups of musicians worked under the name Lynyrd Skynyrd, even after all the original members had passed away. Whether or not that subsequent studio and live work upholds the now near-mythic tradition of the group, there’s no mistaking Gimme Back My Bullets as an enduring testament to that legacy.
