Concert-goers out there must surely be familiar with the “tradition” of somebody in the back of the crowd shouting “Free Bird” as a joking request to the band. This obviously refers to the Lynyrd Skynyrd tune “Free Bird” but where did this tradition start and why?
TC
Chicago
Because drunken southern guys would yell out “Freeeee Birrrd!” at Skynyrd concerts in an honest attempt to get them to play the song. It sounds so goofy that now at other bands’ concerts, when people are shouting out actual songs by that band, some drunken guy will yell out “Free Bird”. This is now usually followed by somebody cleverly yelling out, “Play what you want!” in some misguided attempt to ingratiate himself with the band.
“Freebird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd and “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin were staples of FM radio in the 1970s, and when I was in high school, you couldn’t listen to an FM rock station for an hour without hearing one of them. Radio DJs were constantly deluged with calls requesting those songs.
On Lynyrd Skynyrd’s popular live album “One More From the Road,” you can hear constant calls from the crowd for “Freebird!” At the very end, singer Ronnie Van Zant asks coyly, “What song is it you wanna hear,” and the entire stadium erupts with a cry of “Freebird!”
Any time a cover band played at a bar or nightclub, you could bet there’d be stoners calling for “Stairway to Heaven” and a redneck or two yelling “Play some Skynyrd, man” or “FREEBIIIIIRD!”
After a while, it became predictable, and it eventually became sort of a joke among rock fans. It seemed funny to yell “Freeeeebiiird” to cocktail lounge piano players, or wedding singers, or polka bands.
But I grant you, it’s gotten old, the joke has worn a little thin, and EVERY band has probably heard it a few thousand times.
WOO HOO! I’ve always wondered what the shouting of “Free Bird” was all about (I didn’t even know it was connected with concerts). Thanks to both of you.
I always thought that it was a joke because Skynard ALWAYS played it at the end of EVERY show they have ever done. Like, it wasn’t an option, it was just what was done.
So yelling “FRRREEEBBIIIIRRRDDD!!!” was akin to asking “Dude, do you think I’ll get laid?” while walking into a whorehouse on payday…
-Tcat
All the above, and… Back in my squidly days (the beginning of the alternative rock scene), whenever we went to the club to see a band, and they played U2, etc., inevitably some drunk good 'ol boy would shout “Play Freebird!!”, or the alternative “Play Cocaine!!”, or even “Dang, play some rock-n-roll”. It became our mantra whenever we’d see a band and didn’t get into their music someone would shout “Play Freebird”, and of course reduce us all to giggles. Of course, in some places we got thrown out 'cuz of that, but that’s another story.
BF said, "Back in my squidly days (the beginning of the alternative rock scene), whenever we went to the club to see a band, and they played U2, etc., inevitably some drunk good 'ol boy would shout “Play Freebird!!”
Heck, if you did that at a Replacements concert, they’d play it. (Ahhh, the 'Mats…when they played my alma mater, a small rural college, they ended their set with rousing renditions of “Green Acres” and “If I Only Had a Brain.”)
I have a tape with the Mats’ drunken attempt at “Iron Man” on it – excellent stuff!
Damn. I wanted to quote from the episode of the Simpsons where Homer makes BTO play “Takin’ Care of Business” twice in a row, and then tells them jump straight to the “good part,” but that’s the section SNPP jumps right over.
OK, as you were. 