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The Genesis of "Freebird"!!!!
- Thread starter MJ_Sotti
- Start date
I didn't think anybody really started it, the song was really really popular before the plane crash. Listen to the live Skynyrd album "One More from the Road" and in the break before they play Freebird, the crowd is chanting "Freebird"; Ronnie asks what song is it they want to hear, and the crowd screams "Freebird". (That live album helped the trend feed on itself)
In the late 70's and early 80's there realy were a ton of folks who loved the song and legitimately wanted to hear it, I heard "Freebird" shouted out at gigs back then. Skynyrd was still very hot then and most any Synyrd song would be go over well {if it was played halfways decently).
In the late 70's and early 80's there realy were a ton of folks who loved the song and legitimately wanted to hear it, I heard "Freebird" shouted out at gigs back then. Skynyrd was still very hot then and most any Synyrd song would be go over well {if it was played halfways decently).
Just last week, some guy yelled "Freebird" at us. I politely said, "Sorry, this is a no Freebird zone and if we played that song, it would take up half of the next set; but, we play some other Lynyrd Skynyrd songs" and proceeded to play Gimme Three Steps and he was happy.
We are going to write a song and call it freebird. Morons yell for freebird they are getting our original
when people ask for freebird, we flip them off. there's your freebird. people laugh and we play something else. usually people say it to get a reaction, and we give them one. never had a problem with it, because it is generally one of our drunken friends......
I have no idea where or when it started but people would call in out at bar gigs all the time and sometimes still do.
When my son played guitar with his HS marching band at home games, they did Freebird with him taking the lead. When I would see him moving to the front before the song I would start calling out "Freebird" and soon others would do it. I laughed when I found out some thought "Freebird" was my son's nickname.
When my son played guitar with his HS marching band at home games, they did Freebird with him taking the lead. When I would see him moving to the front before the song I would start calling out "Freebird" and soon others would do it. I laughed when I found out some thought "Freebird" was my son's nickname.
Tat2dHeart
Only two strings away from an attitude problem.
The band leader of a cover band I play with has a strange compulsion that anytime someone in the crowd yells Freebird, he has to play it. I've asked him to just let it go sometimes, but he just can't! It's like a bizarre superstition for him... 
After all these years, I still love playing Freebird. It's hard as heck to play it right. If you can play the bass to it note for note with all the incredible little nuances then you are an amazing Player IMO. If you fake it and hack it up like 99% of bass players that I've seen do it then I can see why you don't like it.
We say there is usually a designated Skynyrd yeller in the crowd who always screams "Skynyrd" not necessarily "Freebird". When I hear "Skynyyyyyyrd", I will ask them, "Don't you want the Lynyrd part, just the Skynyrd part a song"?
The Kevin Matthews Invalid Link Removed is pretty widely repeated as the source of calling for Freebird as a form of heckling.
I saw Yes in concert about 3 or 4 years ago, and some slob yelled Freebird! I wanted to strangle the idiot, but I was too far away.
Yea but back in the day when I was too young to be playing in the joints in our neck of the woods there were two songs you BETTER know by heart. If more than two bikers showed up in the crowd then "Gimme Three Steps". Would usually keep the brotherly love flowing between the rednecks and the bikers. But if you heard glass breaking you better be ready to cut immediately into "Freebird" on the one. And if anybody was yelling "Freebird" is was a demand, not a request. I remember playing it at least five times one Saturday night.
I thought there was either a Saturday Night Live bit or maybe there was a movie scene that started this up, but I couldn't remember it. Maybe it was Beevis and Butthead...
I've read probably unsubstantiated sources that said the original request was for Whipping Post by the Allman Brothers' Band, after the guy who yells it in the At Fillmore East album.
