Nuthin' Fancy [Extra tracks, Original recording remastered]

Lynyrd Skynyrd | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 3, 1999)
• Original Release Date: 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
• Label: Mca
• ASIN: B00000JNO1
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,991 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #56 in Music > Classic Rock > Southern Rock

Editorial Reviews

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: LYNYRD SKYNYRD
Title: NUTHIN' FANCY
Street Release Date: 08/03/1999
Domestic
Genre: ROCK/POP

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Welfare Music, November 2, 2002

By 

James F. Colobus (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nuthin' Fancy (Audio CD)

When I first started purchasing music back in the mid to late 80s, I bought my share of what Brian Henneman of The Bottle Rockets calls "welfare music". I never had much spending money as a teenager so to get as much music at a time as possible, I'd go to the K-Mart across town and root through the bargain cassette bin. The bin was a large metal basket filled with tapes piled several feet high, consisting mostly of country, southern rock, and oldies if I recall correctly. My southern rock collection benefited greatly from these trips to the bargain bin and I soon had my share of 4-dollar cassettes by the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Marshall Tucker Band.

One of the tapes I rescued from that bargain bin at K-Mart was Lynyrd Skynyrd's often overlooked classic, Nuthin' Fancy. With the exception of the opening cut, "Saturday Night Special", which made a bold stance against handguns and still gets played on classic rock radio today, Nuthin' Fancy is devoid of the hits that made Skynyrd popular outside the South. Instead, what you get is great music that refreshingly doesn't sound like it was created just to get played on the radio like the songs on many other 70s rock albums.

Stylistically, Nuthin' Fancy is all over the place. After the hard southern rock crunch of "Saturday Night Special", Ronnie gives one of his blues-iest vocal performances on "Cheatin' Woman". "Railroad Song" and "Made in the Shade" are fine slices of traditional American music, though they are probably my least favorite tunes on the album. "I'm a Country Boy" is a southern rock kiss-off to big city life, a common theme in Ronnie's lyrics over the years. "Am I Losin'" is a catchy mid-tempo song chronicling how Ronnie's relationships with some of his friends became strained once he started making lots of money. "Whiskey Rock-A-Roller" is a barroom classic in which Ronnie boasts like a rapper about the female company awaiting him in every town including one special Memphis "queenie with long brown curly hair". Yes, lyrically it might put off some listeners, but "Whiskey Rock-A-Roller" is still a damn catchy song. Probably my favorite song on "Nuthin Fancy", though, is "On the Hunt", the hardest song Skynyrd ever recorded. This song, which describes Ronnie's empathy for a groupie who regularly hangs out near his hotel, sounds metal enough that it wouldn't feel that out of place on Corrosion of Confomity's Deliverance album.

If Nuthin' Fancy was Skynyrd's only album, I'd give it 5 stars and move on, but since they set the standard so high with their previous albums, Nuthin Fancy rates `only' a very strong 4 stars. Still, if you enjoy their classic earlier albums, Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd and Second Helping, you're almost surely going to like Nuthin Fancy too. It is damn sure impressive for an album that K-Mart considers 'welfare music'.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Somethin' Wicked, April 11, 2002

By 

Novalis (US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nuthin' Fancy (Audio CD)

In a way this album is more a measure of Lynyrd Skynyrd than the previous 2 albums. It is my understanding that the songs on this record were not part of the initial catalogue the band developed (most of which can been heard on "Skynyrd's First"-good album). For this reason the album feels more like a blues album rather than a rock record. "Cheatin Woman" is a low-down blues song, complete with all the heart Ronnie Zan Vant could supply. "I'm a Country Boy" and "On the Hunt" are both strongly guitar-driven songs. "Am I Losin" may be the best song on the album which includes an excellent finish- features some nice acoustic guitar. "Made in the Shade" is a bluegrass number...you will find yourself singing it. If you liked "Mississippi Kid" off of PRONOUNCED you will like this song. "Whiskey Rock-A-Roller" is a hell of a song and a top notch education in how to be a southern rambler (if you're interested). Basically don't underestimate the B-side, Skynyrd could write songs...even in a pinch. This album is no follow-up disappointment...give Skynyrd some credit.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TWO FEETS THEY COME A CREEPIN, March 9, 2006

By 

wally gator "the only" (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Nuthin' Fancy (Audio CD)

Skynyrd did something very early on in their career that very few bands do. They released an AMAZING first album, and then followed it with a just as equally AMAZING second album (Pronounced, and Second Helping respectively.) With these two records the southern Skynyrd boys could have called it quits and still went down as legends, but fortunately MCA demanded more records.
Skynyrds third album NUTHIN FANCY, is not the absolute triumph that the first two albums were (perhaps the band recognized this when giving it the title?) but it ain't no waste of resource either.
It was 1975, and rock music was generally getting to be louder and louder all around. Hard rock bands were taking ques from the metal pioneers and cranking up the sound. This can easily be noticed on the opening track SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL and the albums first single ON THE HUNT. These songs lose a little of the heart felt personalities of the first records but are both completely pisser, and kept the band well seated at the front of the seventies Hard Rock board.
The rest of the album takes on a more down home southern style, than even the first two. Closer to an Allman Brothers feel than a Skynyrd feel, but again, this is not a bad thing. The bluesy ballad CHEATIN WOMAN is memorable, as is the moving, tonky, WHISKEY- ROCK-A-ROLLER. Other goods on this plate as well.
Some may say that this is nothing but an album of filler SKYNYRD stuff, but I can't agree with that. This is great stuff, just not as legendary as what preceeded it. Its classic rock music, from a classic rock band, its just that it prides itself in bein' NUTHIN FANCY.
I gave this one four and three fourth stars... but we can just say I gave it five.