The birthday of my beloved betrothed is but six short weeks away. I have made it 10 months without the real sustained MITUSA gift-buying test I will face in December. I need your help.

I need to find a great gift. Something Made In The USA. Something amazing. Or at least Made In The USA.

To that end, I am holding the first-ever MITUSA girlfriend gift giving contest in which you, dear reader, can win fabulous prizes. How? By simply suggesting great Made In The USA gifts for my fiancee’s birthday.

What can you win? How about one of the finest southern rock records of all time, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s 1973 debut album, (pronounced ‘lĕh-’nérd ’skin-’nérd).

This vintage vinyl LP record contains such phenomenal cuts as “Tuesday’s Gone,” “Gimme Three Steps,” and “Free Bird,” plus a few others that you’re sure to recognize even if you don’t know them by name. I listened to this very record yesterday, and with the exception of a tiny little skip during the intro to Free Bird, it’s flawless.

Here’s how to win:
1. Submit your MITUSA gift ideas in the comments section below.
2. Have the best MITUSA gift idea as judged by me. (Or, alternatively, have the only MITUSA gift idea submitted by some arbitrary deadline yet to be determined by me.)
3. Sit back and wait for your spiffy Lynyrd Skynyrd MITUSA record album to arrive via USPS.

Easy, right? So enter to win today. No limit per household. Void nowhere. Please help–even if you don’t want to win a record. Good luck!

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Morning.  I’m in the mood for some southern rock this morning so let’s just get right to it.  I promise not to inflict “Free Bird” on you, but if you’re talking southern rock on a Tuesday, then you’re still talking Skynrd:

Say what you will about the genre or Skynrd themselves, but any way you cut it that’s a great song.  For the record, the title’s “Tuesday’s Gone” and it’s on the band’s 1973 debut Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd, which surely is the only album with the word “nerd” in the title that any self-respecting redneck wouldn’t be embarrassed to own.  Not only are “Free Bird” and “Gimme Three Steps” (a song I don’t really care for, but a hit for the band) on this record, but this gem as well:

It’s somewhat of a shame that “Simple Man” is probably most widely recognized as the soundtrack to a beer commercial these days, because that’s another really good song.  I like when Skynrd plays at this tempo.  It’s almost power-ballad territory, but with a working-class mentality instead of the latter day rock ballads that more often than not expressed the regret of a lost lay.  There’s a purity to the sound as well.  Those guitars sound like guitars plugged into amplifiers, not computers.  Despite having heard these songs on the radio pretty much my entire life I still find them refreshing every now and then, and more so as I get older and modern rock moves further away from this sound.  On the other hand, I basically can’t listen to CCR at all anymore though, so take this assessment for what it’s worth.  Nor do I really care for the Drive-By Truckers, who have found recent critical acclaim and a huge following these days all while wearing their love for Skynrd on their dixie-flag sleeves.  Here’s a similarly minded song from Molly Hatchet though that I wasn’t familiar with and am digging at the moment.  This is “Fall of the Peacemakers” (great title) from 1983’s No Guts…No Glory:

“How many times must good men die?”  Excellent question, Molly.  All right, that’s all for today.  If you need me I’ll be listening to Mastodon.  More tomorrow…

Titolo: Simple Man
Autore: Lynyrd Skynyrd
Album: Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd (1973)

Ecco un altro gruppo non semisconosciuto o alternativo. Però la canzone che propongo, estratta dall’album d’ esordio del 1973, Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd, è di sicuro meno blasonata di Sweet Home Alabama o dell’assolo di chitarra di Freebird. E’ uno di quei casi in cui, solo ascoltando l’attacco, mi chiedo perché non ho imparato a suonare qualche strumento. Almeno la chitarra.

I Lynyrd Skynyrd, originari della Florida, sono ormai un classico dell‘hard rock/southern rock e vengono ricordati anche per le sfortunate vicende di cui sono stati protagonisti. Nel 1977 infatti, tre membri del gruppo, tra cui il cantante e compositore Ronnie Van Zant, morirono in un tragico incidente aereo. Il gruppo si sciolse e scomparve dalla scena musicale fino alla fine degli anni 80, per poi ricostituirsi con il fratello minore di Van Zant, Johnny.

Simple man è dedicata a una madre che tenta di dare consigli di vita al proprio figlio (take your time…don’t live too fast, troubles will come and they will pass. Go find a woman and you’ll find love, and don’t forget son, there is someone up above).Il racconto si snoda attraverso una struttura melodica ricca (il gruppo si serve di tre chitarre) ed equilibrata. Senza dimenticare la componente emotiva.

Link: sito ufficiale; testo della canzone