Thyrty: The 30th Anniversary Collection [LIMITED EDITION]

Lynyrd Skynyrd

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 12, 2003)
• Original Release Date: August 12, 2003
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Limited Edition
• Label: Utv Records
• ASIN: B0000ALFWZ
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #38,638 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Poorly assembled collection loses the impact of a great band, August 28, 2003

By	Andrew Goldman "northshorecowboy" (Salem, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Thyrty is a very poor representation of one of the world's greatest bands. If you are looking to get a variety of Skynyrd in one fell swoop, skip Thyrty and go for a couple of the original albums -- Pronounced, Second Helping, Street Survivors, One from the Road -- instead. It will cost the same and there will be no letdowns.

There are several flaws in this album. The most glaring is the song order. It starts out great with Sweet Home Alabama, but instantly nose dives with an obscure outtake that while not bad is also very mellow and not the signature Skynyrd sound. This is followed by another obscure, slow blues number that is also an outtake. There is a reason these songs never made it onto an album. They should have been saved for much later in the collection or a different collection of similar matrial. By the time the blues cut ends, 15 min. have passed and the momentum and kick of typical Skynyrd is totally gone. Down South Jukin starts the momentum again but once again the next song is an obscure acoustic tune. Finally, the first CD rocks out with 5-6 tunes from Pronounced and Second Helping only to end with another outtake.

The second CD starts out great, but here is the next flaw. Most of the tunes on this CD are from the reunion tour in 87 and the "new" Skynyrd fronted by Johnny Van Zandt. There is no way to know this until you open up the CD. The flow also sucks on the second half of this CD.

Thyrty could have been incredible if the song order had been done differently - either cronological or by simply putting the outtakes together on the second CD along with the newer stuff.

Take my advise and get the original albums. They rock beginning to end!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thirty Years of Great Southern Rock!!, August 12, 2003

By	Louie Bourland (Garden Grove CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Lynyrd Skynyrd commemorates the 30th anniversary of their debut album with the release of "Thyrty", a collection that spans Skynyrd's entire career from 1970 up to the present including music from every album the band has ever released.
"Thyrty" includes such Skynyrd classics as "Gimme Three Steps", "Workin' For MCA", "What's Your Name", "That Smell" and the immortal "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Free Bird". There are also tracks from the recent years of the band with Johnny Van Zant as vocalist. It's truly amazing to hear the similarities between the voices of Ronnie and Johnny. One would almost think it was the same person singing all the songs on this compilation.
For die-hard Skynyrd fanatics, "Thyrty" includes one unreleased track from 1970 entitled "Blues Medley" which is a 10-minute stellar blues jam featuring a youthful Ronnie Van Zant singing his heart out along with some jaw-dropping guitar work from Allen Collins and Gary Rossington. This compilation is almost worth it for this track alone.
This latest Lynyrd Skynyrd compilation is a definitive retrospective of Jacksonville, Florida's greatest band. If you don't own any of the other many Skynyrd compilations out there, "Thyrty" is definitely one to have. You get music from every era of the band plus an rare unreleased track and a CD booklet loaded with great photos and a brief but detailed history of the band. Definitely Essential.

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Yet Another Lynyrd Skynyrd's Greatest Hits!, August 28, 2003

By	highway_star (Hallandale, Florida United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This latest Lynyrd Skynyrd 2-cd collection simply called "Thyrty" includes some hits and some rather odd choices for this "Limited Edition" compilation. The same old songs are rehashed over again such as "Sweet Home Alabama", "I Ain't The One", "Tuesday's Gone", "Gimme Three Steps", "Call Me The Breeze", "Freebird", "Workin' For The MCA", "Saturday Night Special", etc. There are "live" versions of "Whiskey Rock-A-Roller", "Simple Man", "Coming Home", "Swamp Music", "Gimme Back My Bullets" and "We Ain't Much Different". Universal Records was trying to put together a collection representing Lynyrd Skynyrd's career output from 1973 to 2003 (hence the title "Thyrty") but they fall short by adding a number of poor choices such as "Need All My Friends", "Blues Medley" (never released until now), "The Ballad Of Curtis Lowe", and "All I Can Do Is Write About It" (acoustic version). Better choices would have been "Don't Ask Me No Questions", "I'm A Country Boy", "On The Hunt", "Searchin'", and even "Traveling Man". Universal also blunders by adding only seven songs from Skynyrd's output from 1991 to 2003 such as "Smokestack Lightening", "The Last Rebel", "Things Goin' On (live), "Talked Myself Right Into It", "We Ain't Much Different"(live),"Workin'" and "Mad Hatter" (a tribute to bassist Leon Wilkeson who died recently). Where is the hit "Red, White And Blue" from their latest cd "Vicious Cycle"? If Universal Records wanted to release a more complete "Thyrty" year collection then this should have been a triple disc set. My suggestion, if you already own "The Essential Lynyrd Skynyrd" which is also a 2-cd set, remastered and contains all the classic hits (including several of the "live" tracks that are on this cd) without the later stuff, skip this collection altogether.