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WIkipedia 7:to love and wikipedia |
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Well heres another entry put in by my gold grubbingself just to get some gold....and I hope you all enjoy
FREE BIRD
"Free Bird" is an anthemic song by American Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. It is characterised by gospel organ, soaring and chirping slide guitar and a guitar duel. The song has been released by Skynyrd and charted on numerous occasions in both the US and UK but only reaching #1 in the US Billboard charts when it was combined with Peter Frampton's "Baby, I Love Your Way" by the band Will to Power. BBC Radio 2 considers "Free Bird" a "rock radio staple matched only by Stairway to Heaven."[1]
Despite not being their biggest hit (an accolade belonging to "Sweet Home Alabama" wink , "Free Bird" is included in such lists as The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll, and the List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (holding spot #191). The song — half ballad, half up-tempo guitar boogie — quickly became a staple for Lynyrd Skynyrd at their live performances. It is perhaps most recognized for its nearly five-minute triple guitar solo section that closes it out, often turning into an extended jam session at concerts. The band would consistently play it as the last song of every show, as it was their biggest crowd pleaser. While the live version as played by the original band would include soloing by Gary Rossington and third guitarist Ed King as well as Allen Collins, the recorded version is triple-tracked by Collins alone. Gary Rossington plays the slide-guitar part in the song's first half.
The popular culture cliché of "Free Bird" is the shouting of a request to hear the song by audience members at almost any concert, regardless of the performer or style of music. This can be traced back to Skynyrd's first live album, 1976's One More From The Road. This is due to the fact that Skynyrd did not play the song during the main portion of the concert, or even in the encore performance. Instead they saved it for their second encore. After leaving the stage following the first encore of the concert, the crowd was riled by the apparent omission of Skynyrd's signature song. The crowd then began chanting "Free Bird, Free Bird ...". No one left the auditorium. The band then returned to the stage for a second encore and upon taking the microphone Van Zant asked the crowd, "What song is it that you wanna hear?", which was immediately followed by several more shouts of "Free Bird". This interaction is recorded as an intro to the song on the album, and the band responded with a 14-minute version of the song. More recently, they play the song on the first encore.
In the 1980's, Chicago Radio DJ Kevin Matthews urged his listeners to shout "Free Bird!" at a Florence Henderson concert as a sort of joke towards the musician/actress. Credited with starting the tradition of yelling "Free Bird!", he stated that "It was never meant to be yelled at a cool concert -- it was meant to be yelled at someone really lame. If you're going to yell 'Free Bird,' yell 'Free Bird' at a Jim Nabors concert."[1]
One example is at a Nirvana concert, the first live performance of their hit single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on April 17, 1991 at the OK Hotel in Seattle, Washington. Frontman Kurt Cobain says "This song is called 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'"; a crowd member yells "FREE BIRD!" immediately before the song begins. This occasion happened again during Nirvana's famous MTV Unplugged in New York concert, and the band responded by performing a brief, improvised jam of another Lynyrd Skynyrd classic, "Sweet Home Alabama".
A recording exists of an incident at a Ben Folds Five concert in which a fan yells "Free Bird!" between songs, prompting the band to launch into an abbreviated version. Ben Folds' interpretation includes the lyrics "Bah-dee-da-boo-da-dee-ba-da/ And I don't know all the words!" before the solo.
A similar thing can be heard on Tesla's live album, "Five Man Acoustical Jam." When Tesla singer Jeff Keith announces that the band is going to play a song about their home town ("Lodi" wink , an audience member yells out "Free Bird!" Jeff responds "Free Bird! No, man, we're not from Alabama."
Joey McIntyre's live album "One Too Many: Live From New York" also contains a Free Bird reference. In a break between songs, a male fan yells out "Play some Free Bird man!" to which McIntyre replies "Play some Free Bird? People think I've got young fans and s**t!".
More recently, on the 2006 Porcupine Tree live DVD Arriving Somewhere, a man from the crowd yells "Free Bird!" to which the band singer Steven Wilson replies "NOT Free bird, that's tomorrow...".
Some artists have actually played the song or a version of it if it's shouted at them. Ben Folds for example has been known to play some of the song on piano and part of the guitar solo on a mouth organ and Phish performed it a cappella. Mark Oliver Everett of Eels has played a piano version of the song following a heckler's request, substituting the lengthy guitar solo for a piano version. Mike Doughty refuses to perform the song, and insisted on his live album Smofe and Smang that audiences should request The Weather Girls's "It's Raining Men" instead. Doughty then refuses to play "It's Raining Men," as he claims he does not know how. There's also a "Free Bird" moment on Dave Alvin's live album Out in California. After the last track "Everything's Gonna Be All Right" finishes and fades out, the sound fades up again on applause and an audience member shouts out "Free Bird!" Alvin groans humorously, then after a pause, asks "You really wanna hear it? You think we don't know it? You think we can't play it? Boys, the gauntlet's been thrown down..." The band then eases into a sloppy but energetic abbreviation of the song. After the song crashes to a close, and the band and audience are laughing, a voice from the crowd cries out "Stairway to Heaven!"
Even the avant-garde Blue Man Group gets into the act. After they play riffs from Devo's "Whip It" and other rock songs on their plastic-tubing instruments, a planted audience member shouts out "Free Bird." Blue Man's back up band starts to play the song, the Blue Men sway to the rhythm, and one of them whips out a cigarette lighter to wave. Another member douses him with a fire extinguisher.
A harsh reaction to "Free Bird" came from comedian Bill Hicks during a Chicago gig in 1989. On a bootleg recording of the show, I'm Sorry, Folks, Mr. Hicks at first just sounds irked. "Please stop yelling that," he says. "It's not funny, it's not clever - it's stupid." The comic soon works himself into a rage, but the "Free Birds" keep coming, eliciting the now infamous outburst: "Hitler had the right idea, he was just an underachiever; kill everyone, Adolf, kill them all!" "Free Bird," he finally says wearily, then intones: "And in the beginning there was the Word - 'Free Bird.' And 'Free Bird' would be yelled throughout the centuries. 'Free Bird,' the mantra of the moron."
Isaac Brock of the band Modest Mouse has said "...life is just too ******** short to play or hear 'Free Bird'" after being heckled by fans. The reaction can be heard on Baron von Bullshit Rides Again, their live bootleg album.
On the DVD of Jeff Buckley's "Live in Chicago" performance, between songs, after performing "What Will You Say", Buckley switches guitars and dries himself off. Then, an audience member yells out "Free Bird!", followed by another requesting "Stairway To Heaven". Buckley then mocks confusion asking "What? You want what? Stairway to Free Bird?"
On the live portion of Tenacious D's DVD The Complete Masterworks, a fan yells Free Bird to which guitarist Kyle Gass responds, "Dude, come on. Really? You really want to hear it?"
The conductor of the Charleston (SC) Symphony Orchestra, David Stahl, aggravated by outbursts of "Free Bird!" at concerts, had the orchestra learn to perform the song so that they could go directly into it from whatever piece they were performing at the moment.
During an episode of The Adventures of Pete and Pete entitled "A Hard Days Pete" Pete takes requests for songs over the phone to raise money to keep his band together. After taking a couple of calls, someone calls Pete and yells "Free Bird! Free Bird! Wooooooo."
On The Simpsons episode "The Otto Show", the bus driver Otto takes Bart's guitar and plays a loud guitar riff. The kids cheer and are very impressed, so Otto says that he is going to slow it down a little. He starts to play "Free Bird", including singing the lyrics in his very raspy voice. Some of the children produce lighters and hold them in the air.
During an episode of King of the Hill the song is played repeatedly while Hank Hill tries to sleep. In another episode, Bill Dauterive sings the song while driving a tank.
The solo to "Free Bird" is also featured in the 1994 movie Forrest Gump, during a scene in which Jenny is experiencing the effects of heroin, and the fast-paced solo mirrors her reaction to the drug.
The song is also featured at the end of the film The Devil's Rejects. It is perfectly synchronized with the three murderers' actions.
In the Pixar film Cars, when Lightning McQueen is making his personal appearance for his sponsor "Rust-Eze Medicated Bumper Ointment", the lights go out in the Rust-Eze tent and a spotlight falls on McQueen who is on stage before a crowd of enthusiastic (and very rusty) cars. There are a few seconds of slightly awkward silence before a muffled voice can be heard somewhere at the back calling, "Free Bird!"
The song was featured in That 70's Show at the prom when Kelso (Ashton Kutcher) and Jackie (Mila Kunis) get back together.
Brendon Small, a character from Home Movies, tells Melissa's dad to "Play Free Bird" in the episode "Get Away From My Mom". Melissa proceeds to tell Brendon not to encourage him.
In episode 20 of Season 4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - "The Yoko Factor", Giles is playing "Free Bird" on acoustic guitar in his apartment when Spike enters and frightens him.
In the movie Happy Accidents, Sam Deed (Vincent D'Onofrio) sings Free Bird, citing that it's America's national anthem in the year 2470.
In the video game Guitar Hero, during a loading screen, a message appears that states, "They don’t really want you to play ‘Free Bird’. They're just heckling you", an obvious reference to the calling of the song to be played at various concerts.
The song is featured as the final encore track in Guitar Hero II.
The song appears in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on the radio station K-DST.
Professional wrestling stable The Fabulous Freebirds used the song as their entrance theme and the inspiration for their name. Professional wrestler Necro Butcher also uses this song as his theme.
In an episode of the Gilmore Girls (A Deep Fried Korean Thanksgiving), Emily is telling Lorelai that she found the man playing the piano at Nordstrom and that he knows how to play everything, Lorelai then shouts "Free Bird!"
In an episode of Ojamajo Doremi Sharp, after their concert (as The MAHO-Dou Band), Doremi says, "At this rate, we might even do "Free Bird"!", to which Onpu responds, "Im sorry, what did you say? I could've sworn you said that.", to which Doremi responds, "Never mind."
 Azalin · Wed Jan 24, 2007 @ 04:26pm · 3 Comments |
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