Lynyrd Skynyrd Albums Ranked

The reunited Lynyrd Skynyrd has released nearly twice as many studio albums as the original band before the tragic plane crash. It's easy to overlook this fact in light of the classic lineup's legacy: five albums in less than five years, and dozens of great songs. And as you'll see in the list below of Lynyrd Skynyrd Albums Ranked, those five LPs are mostly the ones we turn to first.

That doesn't mean the nine records the band has made since singer Johnny Van Zant stepped in for his late brother Ronnie, who died in the tragic 1977 accident that also claimed the lives of guitarist Steve Gaines, his backing vocalist sister, a road manager and two pilots, should be automatically discounted. There are moments of enlightenment to be found here and there.

But for the most part, those five albums — starting with the 1973 debut, (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd), and ending with 1977's Street Survivors, released just three days before the crash — are the ones to start with.

READ MORE: Top 25 Southern Rock Albums

It's here that Lynyrd Skynyrd helped form the template that pretty much every southern rock band has followed since. The Allman Brothers Band may have gotten there first, but Skynyrd gave the music and the South a conscience. Ronnie Van Zant didn't shy away from the region's sins, often crashing into them head-first, looking for reason and possible salvation.

And he was just as introspective when it came to other sociopolitical issues, like gun control and drug abuse. That set him apart from his peers, as well as from his brother, who guided Skynyrd into more conventional and conservative territory when he joined the reformed group on its 1991 record. Our list of Lynyrd Skynyrd Albums Ranked shuffles through their knotted history and musical achievements.