Yelling "Freebird!" In Crowded Theaters "an astonishing phenomenon"

[matcom]

<snip>

One recent Tuesday night at New York's Bowery Ballroom, the Crimea had just finished its second song. The Welsh quintet's first song had gone over fairly well, the second less so, and singer/guitarist Davey MacManus looked out at the still-gathering crowd.

Then, from somewhere in the darkness came the cry, "Freebird!"

It made this night like so many other rock 'n' roll nights in America.

"Freebird" has been a rallying cry for fans of Southern rock since the 1970s. This exchange between Lynyrd Skynyrd's Ronnie Van Zant and an Atlanta audience introduces the version of "Freebird" from the 1976 live album "One More From the Road". That cut has been a radio mainstay since the album's release, likely inspiring many more shouts for "Freebird."

Bands don't always welcome the request, though. Mike Doughty had a suggestion for audience members yelling for "Freebird," as captured in this clip from the 2002 album "Smofe + Smang: Live in Minneapolis."

Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins tried to shame a "Freebird" heckler known as Ivan into changing his ways with this on-stage lecture, delivered during a 1993 show in Chicago. Note Ivan's proud self-identification as a KevHead.

<snip>

Somebody is always yelling out the title. "I don't know that I've ever seen a show where it hasn't happened," says Bill Davis of the veteran country-punk band Dash Rip Rock.

"It's just the most astonishing phenomenon," says Mike Doughty, the former front man of the "deep slacker jazz" band Soul Coughing, adding that "these kids, they can't be listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd."

Yelling "Freebird!" has been a rock cliché for years, guaranteed to elicit laughs from drunks and scorn from music fans who have long since tired of the joke. And it has spread beyond music, prompting the Chicago White Sox organist to add the song to her repertoire and inspiring a greeting card in which a drunk holding a lighter hollers "Freebird!" at wedding musicians.

Bands mostly just ignore the taunt. But one common retort is: "I've got your 'free bird' right here." That's accompanied by a middle finger. It's a strategy Dash Rip Rock's former bassist Ned Hickel used. According to fans' accounts of shows, so have Jewel and Hot Tuna's Jack Casady. Jewel declines to comment. Mr. Casady says that's "usually not my response to those kind of things."

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB111102511477881964-ZkAKwALO87RaHLbFJrSJSA_i9xg_20050415,00.html?mod=blogs

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. I always thought...

That was some funny shit. Especially when yelled during classical music concerts, operatic performances and political speeches. ;-)

[MikeG]

17. Having attended a wonderful classical music concert recently.

Where all of the musicians performed flawlessly, and the vocalist actually knew how to sing, yelling "Free Bird" would be like shitting on fine linen.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

21. Oh sure.

It's boorish and knuckleheaded as all getout. That said, the perverse little bastard that I keep tamped down inside of me does enjoy it.

What I would enjoy even more is if said classical orchestra would pick up the gauntlet and launch into the song. :D

[KinkyDem]

43. Thank you!

The last Dead show I went to there was a hearty call for Freebird and Phil tore into it! Great big shit eating grin on his face. THe place sort of fell silent and the burst into laughter.

[Wat_Tyler]

22. Sounds terribly boring and elitist to me.

[MikeG]

28. Since when are good manners elitist?

Most of the people at the concert didn't pay good money to hear that crap.

[Wat_Tyler]

39. No, I'm calling your attitude elitist.

'Where all of the musicians performed flawlessly, and the vocalist actually knew how to sing'.

Your comment implies that other forms of music are worthless. I don't care for that attitude myself.

[MikeG]

40. It's not elitist to expect performers to know how to play and sing.

Ask Billy Joel. He complains about it all the time.

I wouldn't call him an elitist.

[Wat_Tyler]

42. You are impying that non-classical artists cannot play or sing competently

That's an elitist attitude.

[MikeG]

44. No. I just don't want to hear someone cry "Free Bird" and ..

Ruin it for people that have better manners.

Lots of non-classical artists can play and sing competently.

It's just not a requirement.

[Krupskaya]

2. Even better during the sing-along Sound of Music...

...when Christopher Plummer picks up his guitar to sing "Eidelweiss."

[Scout1071]

3. I'm afraid that i yelled this once at a club after i may have been

slightly overserved. I cannot remember the name of the artist - one-hit wonder who sang the song thatwas called "rockaby" or "lullaby." you know the one that says something like "kinda like nashville with a tan' in reference to los angeles.

Anyway, it was a dead silent moment, perfect timing, i let it rip and the whole audience started laughing. Band didn't look like they thought it was so funny. I remember it perfectly and still think it's funny albeit a little rude.

[BlondieK143]

5. Shawn Mullins.

:D

[bigtree]

6. Mullins

one hit wonder? mebbe. But I sure dig his whole collection. Really takes me places.

[aden_nak]

4. The more concerts you go to, the less amusing it is.

I mean, imagine playing 12 shows a week, and having someone from EVERY audience yell "FREEBIRD!" into the silence halfway through. Every single damn time you do a show.

[Skittles]

8. it is very annoying

VERY

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. Heh heh - FReebird at a Florence Henderson concert!

I'm glad they included a mention of Hicks' incredible tirade. Too bad the writer didn't talk about it more, though, and how yelling "Freebird" signifies everything that is wrong with America, and a nice little bit about art and typical artless American fuckheads.

It's a truly beautiful tirade.

[mr blur]

9. Best response from te stage...

Someone shouted "Freebird" at a Richard Thompson gig - Thompson immediately came back with, "What, they put Charlie Parker in jail AGAIN?!"

[ghostsofgiants]

18. Brilliant

Makes me want to be a musician just so I can respond to Freebird shouts.

[auburngrad82]

10. I once yelled "Freebird" to a polka band at Oktoberfest

Of course it was after a few beers and brats and I was feeling feisty.

They didn't play it.

[peekaloo]

12. If there's a mariachi band roaming a Mexican restaurant I always

request it.

}(

[northzax]

11. ahh, but I've actually had it work

Phish at the Roseland in Portland April Fool's Day, 1993. they come out for the encore, a couple of people yell "FREEBIRD" or the Beavis and Butthead version "Play some Skynard, man!" and they segue from an acapella Amazing Grace into Freebird. and then back into Amazing Grace.

I was a stupid high schooler then, and was awed. never will I yell that again.

[ProfessorGAC]

13. And, You're OK With That?

I mean, really! Who needs to hear that song again?
The Professor

[northzax]

14. it was actually amusing

to see it acapella at the time. But it was 13 years ago...I'm over it. now it just bugs me.

[Freebird12004]

15. Some of us Free Birds just keep on rockin

into our golden years :toast:

[jswordy]

16. Yeah, now they got this guy singing a shitty-ass version of "Simple Man"

and trying to cash in on Skynyrd's popularity. I don't even know who the hell he is, he could even be a member of the "Lynyrd Skynyrd" band that tours today, but the joker has had his song played on rock stations, and it makes me want to puke. The man cannot even sing, he just screams out the words to a helluva good song, when sung with nuance. Sigh.

Speaking of today's "Lynyrd Skynyrd" band, they all swore after the plane crash that the band would never be reformed. But then, when you run out of cash, your principles tend to get shunted aside in idiot America.

But then...sigh...I have arrived at that age. Every frickin' time I turn on the TV, they have sold another awesome rock song to sell some bauble to the masses. Some piece of my existence has been chopped to fit a slogan.

I remember the day the plane crashed. Me and my buddies skipped school at SIU, drove out to Giant City State Park, cranked up Skynyrd on the car stereo as loud as we could and got wasted as we consoled each other.

Now I hear their tunes on commercials, too. :puke:

You younger folks, don't worry. When you get in your forties, you'll be hearing today's tunes that have so much meaning in your lives, broadcast to shill product. Count on it.

[RagingInMiami]

20. Nowadays, the usually cut out the period in between when the song

is authentic. Now they produce songs that can go straight to commercials, which is why it's hard to tell a britney spears song from a pepsi commercial.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

23. Well, that is a different kettle of fish...

And, if I could be persuaded, I could do a several-day solilliquy about said reformation and the incredibly bad behavior of some of the non-original members, towards old friends and family.

I could, but I won't. Right now.

[RagingInMiami]

24. To me, Lynyrd Skynyrd is the original band

I'm not even sure if the current band has recorded any new songs.

[jswordy]

25. Yes, they did a redneck song called "Red, White & Blue" that...

...got some Southern rock airplay.

We don't have no plastic L.A. Frynds,
ain't on the edge of no popular trend.
Ain't never seen the inside of that magazine GQ.
We don't care if you 're a lawyer, or a texas oil man,
or some waitress busting ass in some liquor stand.
If you got Soul
We hang out with people just like you

My hair's turning white,
my neck's always been red,
my collar's still blue,
we've always been here
just trying to sing the truth to you.
Yes you could say
we've always been,
Red, White, and Blue

There's more...but you get the idea...

When they lost Ronnie, they lost the heart of it. Rossington-Collins and all the other iterations didn't get the heart back, and using the old name hasn't either.

Skynyrd fans look here: http://www.geocities.com/ronnie_van_skynyrd/

[RagingInMiami]

26. Yeah, Ronnie was brilliant. He made that band.

He truly had soul. No doubt about it.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

31. He was a fine songwriter.

He hit some great "notes" in his song.

He was an incredibly violent individual. At the drop of a hat.

[RagingInMiami]

34. that's what i've heard

[jswordy]

35. Lots of people are, you know? I only knew him through...

...his songs, like I know so many celebs from their work only. Look at their rap sheets, and you see another story.

James Brown comes immediately to mind! Then there's Jerry Lee Lewis, and even maybe Bill Cosby of late, huh? And Juan Williams, formerly of the Washington Post and now resurrected as an NPR reporter. Wife beater. That's how he lost the paper gig.

Sigh.

[Radical Activist]

37. That has to be the worst song I've ever heard on commercial radio

Every time I hear that version of Simple Man played I can't believe its on the radio again. God its bad! It sounds like a really bad open mike night in a dive bar.

Hey, I went to SIU too. Years later though.

[jonnyblitz]

19. "freebird, the mantra of the moron" too funny, also

" Dash Rip Rock often plays "Stairway to Freebird," a mash-up of the Skynyrd epic and Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" that Mr. Davis boasts lasts "less than two minutes. ... You're finished before people get mad."

[DrGonzoLives]

27. If it pisses off

snotty little indie rockers, I'm all for yelling "Freebird!" at them.

[NashVegas]

32. Does It? Pretty Funny

Herein, from the article, lies the origin as I know it:

Longtime Chicago Tribune music writer Greg Kot says he remembers the cry from the early 1980s. He suggests it originated as an in-joke among indie-rock fans "having their sneer at mainstream classic rock."

I'm with Kot. Can't speak for Chicago, but when calls for "Freebird" were heard from the crowd at any of the Albany nightclubs hosting an alternative show in the '80s, that's exactly what it was all about and everyone knew it. It was a HUGE sneer.

[jswordy]

36. Sneer away...shows what yer like, doesn't it? Heh.

[progressoid]

29. Yep, that fukin hilarious......if you're 15

I'm surprised we haven't seen it used in a comercial for NASCAR or the Nashville Network yet.

[Dookus]

30. heheh

last year at an Aimee Mann concert, she wondered aloud what song to do next. Somebody, of course, yelled Freebird and she went into a long story about how the band doesn't know Freebird, but for some strange reason, knew "Sweet Home Alabama", so they did that. And it kicked ass, too.

[Tikki]

33. If you want to hear something amazing...call out "Day-O"....

...during a middle-school (Jr.High) cafeteria lunch period...and sit back and listen to 'at least' 10 minutes of fun.


Tikki

[antigone382]

38. Oh, they do that in high school, too...but they're still stuck on Hey-O.

My old snotty little Goth group started yelling "Hey-G," "Hey-S," "Hey-X," etc.

, I'd almost forgotten all the fun.

[CanuckAmok]

41. I onced yelled "FIRE" at a Pointer Sisters show...

...hours later, when I regained cosnciousness...