#FREE BIRD MEANING FOR FREE#
#FREE BIRD MEANING FREE#

Or maybe yelling 'Freebird' is considered a shout-out to the band itself, which has suffered many losses over the years, including the deaths of Ronnie Van Zant, the lead singer on 'Freebird,' and other band members in a 1977 plane crash. On this Aol Radio list, it comes in at No. It's an epic sound consistently named one of rock's greatest songs.

#FREE BIRD MEANING FREE#

It starts out as an almost-ballad, a song about a man who's getting out of a relationship because he's 'as free as a bird,' and builds to a rousing battle between two lead guitars. It could be because of the song itself - a nine-minute piece in the studio version, but often 14-plus minutes when Skynyrd (as the band is known to fans) performs it live, as they do to this day. Just remembered that somebody yelled “FREE BIRD!” Last night at the Iron & Wine concert and Sam Beam actually started playing it.What makes people (some call them obnoxious morons, rednecks, hicks or worse) request 'Freebird' at indie-rock concerts, churches, President Barack Obama's youth inauguration ball, baseball games, even classical performances - all inappropriate places people report having heard 'Freebird' hollered from the audience to musicians who aren't likely to have the song in their repertoire? Yelling Free Bird has become such a tradition that some folks yell it out at live events that aren’t concerts, such as at speeches or ceremonies. In the 1990s, the jam-band Phish performed a cappella versions of the song, including the guitar solos, and Nirvana once briefly riffed on “Sweet Home Alabama,” another Lynyrd Skynyrd staple, at a performance in response to a heckler.

#FREE BIRD MEANING FOR FREE#

While many bands roll their eyes at newbie, ironic, or just plain drunk concertgoers’ clamors for Free Bird, some have cheekily embraced it. The tradition likely just started with fans of the song who’d cry out for it at Lynyrd Skynyrd shows, where the song makes for a perfect closer. The origin of the tradition is unclear, though radio personality Kevin Matthews claims to have invented the chant to heckle bad singers at concerts in the 1980s. In 1977, three of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s original members, including Ronnie Van Zant, died in a tragic plane crash, making Free Bird even more powerful and poignant for fans-and the surviving band members.įree Bird has since become something of a real-life meme, with people jokingly shouting out for other bands to play Free Bird at live concerts.

Indeed, Rolling Stone named it as one of the 500 greatest songs of all time.įree Bird is the quintessential ballad for those who just can’t seem to settle down, a true rock-and-roll spirit reflected in the song’s hook (and epic double guitar solo during its sultry jam out): “But, if I stayed here with you, girl / Things just couldn’t be the same / Cause I’m as free as a bird now / And this bird you cannot change.” She had asked him, as the song puts it, “If I leave here tomorrow / Would you still remember me?” The two would eventually marry, with their fight living on in one of the greatest rock songs ever written.

The opening verse is believed to come from an argument between Allen Collins and his then-girlfriend, Kathy Johns. Live versions famously surpass 14 minutes. Too complicated, until Van Zant was struck with inspiration when he overheard Collins playing them when the band was recording their 1973 album and allegedly wrote the lyrics in under five minutes-almost half the length of the studio song, which clocks in at nine minutes. As the story goes, guitarist Allen Collins wrote the initial chord progression but vocalist Ronnie Van Zant thought it was too complicated for a melody. Southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd created a cultural phenomenon when they penned Free Bird in the early 1970s.

Free bird meaning