The Free Bird Phenomenon

Gah! Duane Allman had nothing to do with Lynyrd Skynyrd! He was the sublime lead guitarist of The Allman Brothers Band and, perhaps even more famously, as the guitarist on Derek & The Dominoes' Layla that didn't fall down drunk and stoned during the sessions (Clapton being the one who did).

That's Duane you hear playing the signature riffs and the slide guitar in Layla. That's him smokin' on Boz Scaggs' (Boz Scaggs!) Loan Me a Dime and Wilson Pickett's Hey Jude. And that's him with the Allman Brothers until he wrecked his motorcycle and died.

The guys noodling the fretboards in Free Bird weren't in the same league with Duane Allman.

/rant

Amen...Tim

"Free Bird" is the song that makes you wanna puke about a minute into it. Just like the rest of Lynyrd Skynyrds Discography... If anyone screams that out during a show that you attend, the audience should throw beer bottles at him. Why? Because people do that to bands who suck, Why not to the people in the crowd that suck??

Hmmmmm ... a music critic asks:

"What's wrong with people? Why do they like a song I think is horrible? Don't they know they're wrong to like it?"

Gee, there's a shock.

Reminds me of the movie critics who were up in arms over "Big Fat Greek Wedding." They didn't understand - and still don't - why it was so popular, despite having relatively little critical or industry support.

The reason: The critics and their deeper-than-thou inner-"arteests" couldn't relate to regular people.

The impact: Critics' feelings were hurt.

The result: There wasn't one. Moviegoers were too busy enjoying the movies they liked to notice how the critics felt.

If a tree falls in the woods, but no one's there to hear it, does it yell "Free Bird!"? Or "Opa!"?

Ummm... Yea...

Music Critics don't have a clue because they get paid to much money to write reviews 'bout lame ass shite for major trendy magazines probably like the ones who hailed "Free Bird" as something tremendous back in the day.

As for "Big Fat...", that movie was awesome and I'm pretty sure the people who didn't get it are the same ones sucking on Daniel Powter's Schlong

Interesting question.........I'll give it a go:

Skynyrd was/is one of the truly American rock bands of the 70's. They played music that was part rock, part country, part blues, and part British Invasion, for lack of a better term (lissen to "Working for MCA" for an example of that), at least the part of the B.I. that was inifluenced by American music (I know - long winded & circular - bear with me). Most of their music is hard, tight & definitive of what rock 'n' roll really is all about.

Having said that, yes indeed, "Free Bird" is a poorly written song - Skynyrd had much better. But the fact is, they were the toughest, meanest assed band in the land - the Hell's Angels of all rock bands. And it was gang like in size - most bands had 4or 5 members, Skyntrd had a singer, bass, piano , drums & 2 or 3 guitarists depending. That's 6 or 7, not counting backup singers. So, when you hear these hombres sing this tender ballad, it kinda gits you right down in your sentimental parts, just like hearing Led Zeppelin sing Stairway to Heaven after having crafted their sleaze/drugs/magic/sex image - theh English equivalent of total badasses (although I figure Ronnie Van Zant could've talen down Page, Plant et. al. in a cage match anyday, but that's another discussion altogether).

So, the sentimetal desperado gets them through the first half of the tune. The brutal G/Bflat/C (or I/IIIminor/IV for you experts) chord change is actual relief from that - no, the boize haven't wimped out & fallen in luv - they can still pound 4/4 time to death with the best of them: longer than any Stones song, faster than Sabbath, loud as Deep Purple or the Who (what's the diff after you reach 110 deciBels?). Each section is somewhat interesting, but yes - too long all at a sitting. And there were probably times when it was less than inspired.

And probably other times is was absolutely the finest jam band performance you'd ever hope to hear. So there's the intermittent reinforcement factor - a gamblers' hope to hit the jackpot on any given night.

Similar comments could be applied to the aforementioned "Stairway to Heaven" - the other big long song from that era - loved for many of the same reasons as cited.

Anyways, that my take on it. Critics - I dunno - I never understood how they liked T. Rex but not Grand Funk. But mostly I've always found them pretty insightful. Maybe you have to get the ones whose prose reads simple to the point of simple minded, yet honest and weighty - a lot like....... Free Bird, for instance.

Thank you Tim for pointing out that Duane Allman was not a member of Skynyrd. The Allman Brothers were the cream of the crop when it comes to Southern rock bands. The first minute and a half of In Memory of Elizabeth Reed is worth more than the entire Skynyrd catalog.

I don't know why people make such a big deal of that Free Bird guitar solo. I like guitar solos. But this one is just annoying. It's several minutes of minor pentatonic pull-offs, hammer-ons, and bends of the 4th to 5th and 7th to tonic. It has no elegance. It has no guts. It has no balls. Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, just to take an example of an American Southern blues rocker, wrings more guts out a solo with one note than the whole mess of Free Bird.

Dude, facts are all wrong, get a clue before spewing nonsense. In fact Freebird was written by Ronnie Van Zant specifically about Duane Allman's passing.

Hey Robert, check your facts. ""It wasn't written as a tribute to Duane Allman, but when we would play it, we would dedicate it to Duane, and Ronnie would say, 'He's a free bird now'", says Rossington."

wikipedia

i thought it was a tribute to bic lighters.

The original encore request that took off was "Whipping Post". Interesting the 2 relate to Duane.

Plus for those that haven't figured it out yet, "Live At The Filmore" is the greatest rock/blues album...period.

But only the expanded edition.