I can’t imagine that this question has side-stepped The Straight Dope crowd, but I have to ask it - I’m new, so please bear with me.
Anyone who has been to more than a couple concerts in their life knows the infamous call-out request for Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Freebird.” It carries somewhat of a stigma and depending on the the artist, it can either be taken lightly or as a complete insult. So, the question is - where has this originated from and how has it become such a staple? Some say it goes back to the Elizabethan era of theatre and others claim it as related to Charlie “Bird” Parker, but I’m talking about a specific reference to a specific song that has truly become quite more than a cliche in the last 10-15 years. Can the progression of this trend be tracked? Obviously it most likely started at a Skynyrd concert, but not as a mock - surely not as a joke. How did it go from an honest request to a overdone, overused cliche?
I think you can probably trace the modern origins back to the mid-1970s, when “Freebird” eclipsed “Stairway to Heaven” as the most requested rock n’ roll radio song.
As vaguely recalled from Stephen Davis’ Hammer of the Gods.
I know a lot of younger people who wouldn’t know much about Lynyrd Skynyrd saw it on a “Beavis and Butt-head” style clip (from the guy who made Beavis and Butt-head, drawn in the style, but before they had their own official show). There’s a short film that showed on MTV’s Liquid Television about why related people shouldn’t intermarry, that revolves around a band playing the same song over and over, and one redneck-looking guy yells out “Play Freebird!” and then gives the finger.
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I yell it cause it’s something to yell, thus considering the stupid traditions handed down to me by my forefathers. I’m also the guy who gets the “Woo!” going around the arena (this may be a strictly Southern thing). You know, one person yells “Wooooooo!”, someone else picks it up, and so on…
FTR, this also appeared in a Beavis & Butthead episode, in a dream sequence where B&B imagined themselves as rock start onstage – only without instruments. They “played” by doing air guitar and mouthing “dun-da-da-dan-da-da-dun-da-da-dun-nuh!” (or something like that). Cut to an inbred-looking yokel in the audience: “Play some Skynyrd, man!”
I watched way too much Beavis & Butthead back in college.
Part of the reason is probably because on Skynyrd’s live album, the intro to ‘Freebird’ starts with with crowd chanting, “Free Bird! Free Bird!”. Ronnie Van Zandt yells, “What song is it you want to hear?” And the entire audience screams, “FREE BIRD!”.
That song got played to death on FM radio, and the live version was very commonly played. So people heard that exchange a LOT. Enough that it entered the common consciousness of rock fans.
According to ST:TNG, the tradition lives on to the 23rd (or whatever it is) century: Riker in in the holodeck playing trombone, he calls for requests, and Deanna hits him with that, much to his dismay.
FWIW,Not long ago NPR did a piece about a guy who yells this at every concert he goes to irregardless of the artist. He was at a jazz show when he yelled out “Play Freebird!”. It took him quite a while to realise that the trumpet player was indeed playing a free verse version of the song.
Actual episode, but I’m not enough of a fan of the series to tell you the title or even which season. I’m sure it wasn’t season one (Will has a beard in my mental picture) nor season two – Dr. Crusher is there in the holodeck, too, and questions Deanna as to what’s going on and Deanna says something about Will never being able to make it all the way through. Meanwhile Riker has grimaced and gotten ready to start the request when a Red Alert or something goes off, saving him.
I think all of this was basically the bit that gets shown before all the credits and such and the episode really starts.
(Wow, I’m amazed I was able to dredge all that out of my memory of a single viewing. I’m sure any bona fide Trekkie could fill the rest in.)
Oh, and they’re all in Ten Forward, not the holodeck. it’s the ep where the crew discovers the Riker was duplicated in a transporter incident eight years previously.
Seven or eight years ago I dropped in at this bar in San Francisco where a local punk band (the real thing, two guitars and a drum set) was playing. I paid the $2.50 cover and headed to the relative safety of the wall to watch. I was about 50 at the time, and not up for the pit. Anyway, the band took an on stage smoke and whiskey break. Sure enough, some guy yelled “Play Freebird”. All three of the band came flying off the stage and chased this dude down and pseudo-stomped his ass. The guy may have been a shill, but the incident was funny as hell.
Peace,
mangeorge
I remember seeing a club cover band, with an acoustic guitar, a bongo, and a base player, where it got yelled out…ok I yelled it out. I guess they were used to it and broke out into the song. Even to the extended guitar solo (I know, Lynard was a dueling guitar solo). The acoustic guitar and the bongo jibed quite well.
