Gimme Back My Bullets offers further conclusive evidence that Lynyrd Skynyrd continues to lead the Southern "boogie band' sweepstakes with deceptive ease. Maybe it's because they've always lived the hard-edged, gritty life-style they sing and play about to the hilt. Wether it's Ronnie Van Zant's ominous deep-south vocals or the shrieking funk of Gary Rossington and Allen Collins' guitars, every measure of their music bespeaks an authentic feel of having "been there." Or as Ronnie puts it - with custumary terse directness - in a tune entitled All I Can Do Is Write About It: You can take a boy out of old Dixieland but you'll never take old Dixie from the boy."
Unlike many of their regional counterparts, Skynyrd thankfully resists the temptation to "sweeten" up the music with string sections, blaring brass or overworked synthesizers. An occasional backing chorus, slipped in with muted efficiency - Double Trouble - and the slightly toned-down but more focused production of Tom Dowdare the heaviest concessions they make to stylistic progression. The Rossington - Collins guitar combination provides a perfect sense of balance within the thrust of the instruments; the triad guitar fireworks of earlier LP's was exciting but occasionally proved to be too much of a good thing. The Lynyrd's rhythm section is up to the best of the traditional southern standards; full and bottomy, with crisp accents on top; simple perfectly appropriate rhythm patterns that are invariably dead on the beat. Van Zant still brings a rich measure of personal conviction to his atmospheric lyrics about contemporary southern livin'. This time he seems to be singing with more maturity and hard-edged wisdom, the fire and anger is somewhat channeled.
The title tune, Gimme Back My Bulletscontains a reasonably delicate "play on words" with implications extending into the hard-ridin' life on the road and coming to terms with the concrete realities of the record industry. Other tracks like Roll Gypsy Roll, Cry For The Bad Man and Trust illustrate the fact that Lynyrd Skynyrd stays true to their "roots," mining traditional southeastern blues and rock 'n roll modes with admirable resoucefulness and fire.
