What is it about Freebird?

[Steve French]

I dont get it. Like I dont get the worship of Stairway to Heaven. Is it something that resonates among the L-S fanbase? Is it (wait for it) part of "the southern thing"? Whats with people shouting the name out for bands that a) arent Lynyrd Skynyrd, and b) aren't covers bands? Help me out people, I'm a stranger in a strange land over here......

Lynyrd Skynyrd (IMHO of course) wrote about ten songs that are better than Freebird. Shit, even "That Smell". (see what I did there) but if I had to pick my top 3 are Sweet Home Alabama, Simple Man, 3 Steps.

not that anyone asked or anything. And dont get me wrong, its not a bad song. per se. but I do not understand its near worship by a bunch of people. I like the version with the pianner on it too. the alternate take one.

[Zip City]

I'm no Skynyrd expert, but here's a shot in the dark:

A power ballad about death resonates deeply in the fans when the writer of the song died tragically

['Scratch]

I'm no Skynyrd expert, but here's a shot in the dark:

A power ballad about death resonates deeply in the fans when the writer of the song died tragically

This has a lot to do with it. And it was the first real ballad of its type that I'd heard as a yout' so it struck a deep and lasting chord. That wailing guitar is forever engraved in my mind along with the line "if I leave here tomorrow....will you still remember me?"

Freebird and pre-teen angst. Perfect together.

[Clams]

I never really thought about this before, but here's how I see it: Freebird is really a perfect rock song. Its main "problem" is that it's too perfect. Lyrically, its story is simple and easy to relate to. Musically, it starts slow, gradually builds to a great crescendo, and then rocks ridiculously hard til the end. It squarely fits into the hard rock genre, which is important because (a) it doesn't reach the point of heavy metal (which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, but would definitely reduce its widespread appeal) and (b) it gets around the cheesiness of a power ballad. And as Zip mentioned, the whole Skynyrd/Van Zant/plane crash thing definitely gives the band and the song a certain mystique. So my point is that it's an awesomely great song, so great that it's become overplayed and overloved and overworshipped to the point that it's become a parody of itself.

[Beebs]

air guitar

[Kudzu Guillotine]

I think "Freebird" took on the life it has now well before the plane crash. Totally unrelated to that point but I remember when a friend gave me a copy of Pronounced way back when that I barely even noticed "Freebird" at first. It wasn't until the radio started playing it a lot and the live version from One More From the Road took off that I really sat up and took notice. I still enjoy listening to it myself (same as "Stairway") but not 1000 times a year. Ever since I got XM back in the mid 00s I have to go out of my way now to listen to either of those two songs.

[Lurleen McQueen]

Tough one - here's my 2 pennies...

Picture the scene -

Impressionable, rebellious young girl sitting on a stool in the back shop of her parents' newspaper talking with the long-haired stoner teenager who runs the print machine - whom her father has forbidden her to "bother"

She flirtatiously flips her long brown hair over her shoulder and asks, "What's your favorite song?"

Petulant young man replies, "Well damn girl - Freebird of course! That's the best song ever written."

She remembers flipping through albums at the farmhouse of some family friends with another fine long-haired hippy boy and vividly remembers these covers...

and


and she remembers the scary story about the crash and the flames on the album cover...

Since the coolest album her parents own is "Pick up the Pieces" by the Average White Band, she has to go home and make a call to WZZQ and ask her favorite DJ to play Freebird so she can listen to the lyrics again and decide for herself if stoner boy was right.

Stoner DJ reassures young girl, yes, I'll play it for you honey, and yes, it is the greatest rock and roll song ever written.

Young southern girl decides right then and there that she really, really likes Freebird.

Fast forward to mischevious young girl sitting around after school with two cute young boys from her church who form a BAND - that's right boys & girls - a drummer and a guitarist and she's got a big ole crush on both of 'em and you KNOW what song they learn to play first!!!!!!!

That's the best I can figure for the roots of why it "took."

Then, there's also the allure of the "the one you just can't hold down." That long-haired stoner boy is a Freebird and he just can't be tied down.

Silly, I know, but there you have it.

[beantownbubba]

Lurleen, darlin', tell me that you were dressed as slutty nurse or slutty cop while you were flipping thru those albums or hangin' w/ the band and my life will be complete

[beantownbubba]

Monsieur francais, w/out doubt your answer is somewhere in the mix of the above answers (excepting my post of course). People here know their shit.

Oh, and the reason people shout at "Freebird" at random musical events is because they can, and probably because their friends probably dared and double dared 'em to. My demented historical take is that yelling "whipping post" got old and "freebird" seemed like the right replacement given the allman-skynyrd progression. And yelling "whipping post" started 'cause of the famous shout out on the Allmans' Live at Fillmore East album.

[dime in the gutter]

sold out shows and platinum records, new york critics and redneckers

[Swamp]

sold out shows and platinum records, new york critics and redneckers

What dime said

[oilpiers]

I remember it being big long before the crash. It was pretty clear in my parts. The guitars. Ran side by side with Green Grass by the Outlaws, but over time started to parralel Stairway in reverence.

[Flea]

Monsieur francais, w/out doubt your answer is somewhere in the mix of the above answers (excepting my post of course). People here know their shit.

Oh, and the reason people shout at "Freebird" at random musical events is because they can, and probably because their friends probably dared and double dared 'em to. My demented historical take is that yelling "whipping post" got old and "freebird" seemed like the right replacement given the allman-skynyrd progression. And yelling "whipping post" started 'cause of the famous shout out on the Allmans' Live at Fillmore East album.

I like to yell "Freebird" at non-musical events.

[Slipkid42]

Picture this young stoner boy. He goes to see the The Who w/his stoner buddies. Some opening act w/a fucked up name is playin'. On the way to the show we are bemoaning the fact that if this Lynyrd dude wasn't playin', the Who could get more stage time (in-between tokes of our combustibles, of course). We forget all about him, really; in our giddy anticipation to see our rock gods.
Down go the house lights & out pops these dudes who looked like us (long-haired rednecks). They break right into some boogie shit & we all look @ each other & go like whoa daddy-o. They had swagger, they had charisma & they could play them guitars. I doubt I ever saw a band get 20,000 new fans as quickly as Skynyrd did that night. I don't know whether I was so stoned or they were so good, but @ one point I even forgot the fuckin' Who were comin' up next. They closed w/this power ballad that ended in a guitar frenzy. The Cap Center was all atwitter during the intermission. Superlatives were being bandied about concerning the opening act.
Flash forward to the next day. My buddy Craig & I were talkin' about the show (while we were passin' a joint, of course). He was the 1st person I heard say that Skynyrd was better than The Who. I didn't agree w/him, but I could see where he was coming from. He especially talked up that 'Freebird' song (oh yeah, that was what that song was). We agreed that it was some killer shit & we would have to get that bitch soon. I think it was the next day I heard it on the radio. It was the story of this cool dude who loved his old lady, but couldn't be tied down (or so it sounded to my 16 YO 1/2 ass way of hearing lyrics). It was the cold hard truth, but it was tenderly done. It was perfect. 1,000 listens later & I still feel that way (though I now think it was about something else).

Freebird & Stairway were both legends in their own time.

(*note* any resemblance to Lurleen's post was somewhat intentional)

[Smitty]

What is it about rock n roll?

[Slipkid42]

What is it about rock n roll?

It's gotta be Rock & Roll music (if you wanna dance with me).

Rock & Roll will steal your soul.

It's been a long time since I Rock & Rolled.

Rock & Roll will never die.

Long Live Rock!

[Kudzu Guillotine]

What is it about rock n roll?

It's gotta be Rock & Roll music (if you wanna dance with me).

Rock & Roll will steal your soul.

It's been a long time since I Rock & Rolled.

Rock & Roll will never die.

Long Live Rock!

Rock n' roll means well...

[GW in IA]

Rock n' roll means well...

Sometimes I wonder...?

[Kudzu Guillotine]

[one belt loop]

What is it about rock n roll?

It's gotta be Rock & Roll music (if you wanna dance with me).

Rock & Roll will steal your soul.

It's been a long time since I Rock & Rolled.

Rock & Roll will never die.

Long Live Rock!

Rock n' roll means well...

Rock 'n' roll won't save you from yourself
But if you're lucky it'll save your soul

[Smitty]

Rock 'n' roll won't save you from yourself
But if you're lucky it'll save your soul

The late, late nights
The early day jobs
Rust on the strings
Blood on the knobs

I’m still holding onto rock ‘n’ roll
Holding onto rock ‘n’ roll

[tinnitus photography]

Monsieur francais, w/out doubt your answer is somewhere in the mix of the above answers (excepting my post of course). People here know their shit.

Oh, and the reason people shout at "Freebird" at random musical events is because they can, and probably because their friends probably dared and double dared 'em to. My demented historical take is that yelling "whipping post" got old and "freebird" seemed like the right replacement given the allman-skynyrd progression. And yelling "whipping post" started 'cause of the famous shout out on the Allmans' Live at Fillmore East album.

I like to yell "Freebird" at non-musical events.

I like to yell "Freebird" at staff meetings.

[Iowan]

Best. Solo. Ever.

The climax of the guitar duel in Freebird is one of those rock and roll intangibles. It feels like your heart is about to kick out the front of your sternum.

[RevMatt]

My "Freebird" story starts in 1978. I was an eighth grade nobody; cut from the basketball team, C-minus student, too much of a stoner for the nerds, too cerebral for the stoners and a complete joke when it came to girls. I had a paper route, a Schwinn three speed (when everyone else had a ten speed), a nine o'clock curfew on the weekends, a handful of other oddballs and outcasts who would hang out with me and a serious obsession with music. I mean a one to two album a week habit. I could also play piano but so could one out of every three kids in my school.

One day while delivering papers I sat down on the curb, lit up a Marlboro and purused the classifieds. There was an ad that changed my life forever. Somebody was selling a Sound City electric piano for $100. I had about that much in my savings account. Over my parent's objections ("Why would you need that when we have a ten thousand dollar Steinway in the living room that you can play anytime you want?") I bought my first ax.

It was a few months after the plane crash that took the lives of Ronnie Van Zandt and Steve and Cassie Gaines. The live version of "Freebird" was played more often on WPLJ than any other song at that time. The changes were real easy to pick out and thanks to the three years of piano lessons the arpegios posed no problem. Every garage band HAD to have "Freebird" in their repetoire. But there was only one guy within three towns who had the gear to play it and that guy was me. There wasn't a basement jam session that went down that I wasn't invited to. Thanks to "Freebird" I went from being an eighth grade nobody to a rock musician. I went from never getting invited to a single party to playing every kegger that had a band. When I showed up at a music store and saw a bunch of 15 year old wannabe guitar slingers standing around I went over to the keyboard section, turned on an electric piano and played the opening chords to The Bird. They immediately stopped playing and came over, offering me on the spot the keyboard slot in their just forming bands, bands with names like 200 Proof, Southern Comfort, Mad Dog 20 20 and, my all-time favorite, Whiskey Bong.

In 1979 me and two of my buddies went to see The Outlaws with Boston and Mahogany Rush at Giants Stadium. This summer I saw The Outlaws with those same two guys. This time I was playing keyboards in the opening act. "Freebird" changed my life.

[Penny Lane]

Monsieur francais, w/out doubt your answer is somewhere in the mix of the above answers (excepting my post of course). People here know their shit.

Oh, and the reason people shout at "Freebird" at random musical events is because they can, and probably because their friends probably dared and double dared 'em to. My demented historical take is that yelling "whipping post" got old and "freebird" seemed like the right replacement given the allman-skynyrd progression. And yelling "whipping post" started 'cause of the famous shout out on the Allmans' Live at Fillmore East album.

I like to yell "Freebird" at non-musical events.

[blackwll]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8hxgfO3R1g

Jackson Browne Solo Acoustic "Free Bird" Nov 11 2009 in Durham NC