Second Helping


Second Helping is the second studio album by Lynyrd Skynyrd, released April 15, 1974. It featured the band's biggest hit single, "Sweet Home Alabama," an answer song to Neil Young's "Alabama" and "Southern Man". The song reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in August 1974. This L.P. was the last to feature Bob Burns on drums.
The album reached #12 on the Billboard album charts. The RIAA certified it Gold on September 20, 1974, and Platinum and 2x Platinum on July 21, 1987.

Background

After the success of their debut album, , Lynyrd Skynyrd's fan base continued to grow rapidly throughout 1973, largely due to their opening slot on the Who's Quadrophenia tour in the United States. Second Helping features King, Collins and Rossington all collaborating with Ronnie Van Zant on the songwriting, and cemented the band's breakthrough.

Critical reception

Reviewing for Rolling Stone in 1974, Gordon Fletcher said Lynyrd Skynyrd performs a consistent style of Southern music-influenced blues rock similar to the Allman Brothers Band but lacks that group's "sophistication and professionalism. If a song doesn’t feel right to the Brothers, they work on it until it does; if it isn’t right to Lynyrd Skynyrd, they are more likely to crank up their amps and blast their way through the bottleneck." Fletcher concluded that Second Helping is distinct from ' "only by a certain mellowing out that indicates they may eventually acquire a level of savoirfaire to realize their many capabilities".
Robert Christgau was also lukewarm in Creem, saying Lynyrd Skynyrd is "still a substantial, tasteful band, but I have a hunch they blew their best stuff on the first platter."
Christgau warmed to the album later, however, reappraising it in ' ; he observed "infectious putdowns of rock businessmen, rock journalists, and heroin", and "great formula" in general: "When it rocks, three guitarists and a keyboard player pile elementary riffs and feedback noises into dense combinations broken by preplanned solos, while at quieter moments the spare vocabulary of the best Southern folk music is evoked or just plain duplicated." In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine said Second Helping "replicated all the strengths" of the first album's expert Southern rock "but was a little tighter and a little more professional." Houston Press named it in #2 on its list "Five Essential Boogie-Rock Albums."

Track listing

;Lynyrd Skynyrd
;Additional personnel
Chart Peak
position
-