Free Bird

"Free Bird"
1976 UK issue
Single by Lynyrd Skynyrd
from the album (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd)
B-side"Down South Jukin'"
ReleasedNovember 1974 (1974-11)
RecordedApril 3, 1973
StudioStudio One, Doraville, Georgia, U.S.
Genre
Length
LabelMCA
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Al Kooper
Lynyrd Skynyrd singles chronology
"Sweet Home Alabama"
(1974)
"Free Bird"
(1974)
"Saturday Night Special"
(1975)
Audio sample
Free Bird

"Free Bird", also spelled "Freebird", is a song by American rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, written by guitarist Allen Collins and lead singer Ronnie Van Zant. The song was released on their 1973 debut studio album.

Released as a single in November 1974, "Free Bird" debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 on November 23 at No. 87 and became the band's second Top 40 hit in early 1975, peaking at No. 19 on January 25. A live version of the song re-entered the charts in late 1976, eventually peaking at No. 38 in January 1977.

"Free Bird" achieved No. 3 on Guitar World's list of greatest guitar solos of all time in 2010 and 2016, while placing at No. 8 in their rankings by 2022. It is Lynyrd Skynyrd's signature song, the finale during live performances, and their longest song, often going well over 14 minutes when played live. "Free Bird" was once the most requested song on FM radio, and remains a staple on classic rock stations.

Origins

According to guitarist Gary Rossington, for two years after Allen Collins wrote the initial chords, vocalist Ronnie Van Zant insisted that there were too many for him to create a melody in the belief that the melody needed to change alongside the chords. After Collins played the unused sequence at rehearsal one day, Van Zant asked him to repeat it, then wrote out the melody and lyrics in three or four minutes. The guitar solos that finish the song were added originally to give Van Zant a chance to rest, as the band was playing several sets per night at clubs at the time. Soon afterward, the band learned piano-playing roadie Billy Powell had written an introduction to the song; upon hearing it, they included it as the finishing touch and had him formally join as their keyboardist.

Allen Collins's girlfriend, Kathy, whom he later married, asked him, "If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me?" Collins noted the question and it eventually became the opening line of "Free Bird." Also, in an interview filmed during a fishing outing on a boat with Gary Rossington, an interviewer asked Ronnie Van Zant what the song meant. Van Zant replied that in essence, that the song is "what it means to be free, in that a bird can fly wherever he wants to go." He further stated that "everyone wants to be free...that's what this country's all about."

The song is dedicated to the memory of Duane Allman by the band in their live shows. During their 1975 performance on The Old Grey Whistle Test, Van Zant dedicated the song to both Allman and Berry Oakley, commenting, "they're both free birds".

During the 1987–1988 Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute Tour, the band played "Free Bird" as an instrumental. Johnny Van Zant first sang the song on its Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991 Tour in Baton Rouge, where the band had been headed in 1977 when several members were killed in a plane crash.

Reception

Upon the single release, Record World said that the band "sees this country-tinged tune soar to further feather their hit nest."

"Free Bird" is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll and at number 407 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2009, it was named the 26th best hard rock song of all time by VH1.

In 2008, the 1973 recording of "Free Bird" from the Lynyrd Skynyrd (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nerd 'Skin-'nerd) album on MCA Records was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Legacy

On Skynyrd's first live album, 1976's One More from the Road, Van Zant can be heard asking the crowd, "What song is it you want to hear?" The calls for "Free Bird" led into a fourteen-and-a-half-minute rendition of the song. It has become something of a humorous tradition for audience members at concerts to shout "Free Bird!" as a request to hear the song, regardless of the performer or style of music. For example, during Nirvana's 1993 MTV Unplugged in New York show, a shout-out for "Free Bird!" eventually resulted in a lyrically slurred, if short, rendition of "Sweet Home Alabama". In 2016, an attendee of a Bob Dylan concert in Berkeley, California, shouted for "Free Bird" to be played, and Dylan and his band unexpectedly obliged.

Notable cover versions

  • Dolly Parton covered "Free Bird", accompanied by Lynyrd Skynyrd, on her 49th studio album Rockstar.

Personnel

Lynyrd Skynyrd

Additional personnel on 1976 live version

Chart and sales performance

The song has sold 2,111,000 downloads in the digital era, as of 2013.

Weekly charts

Studio version

Chart (1974–1975) Peak
position
Canada RPM Top Singles 58
US Billboard Hot 100 19
US Cashbox Top 100 25

Live version

Chart (1976–1977) Peak
position
Canada RPM Top Singles 47
US Billboard Hot 100 38
US Cash Box Top 100 32
Chart (1979–1980) Peak
position
UK Singles Chart 43
Chart (1982) Peak
position
Ireland (IRMA) 13
UK Singles Chart 21
Chart (2023) Peak
position
US Hot Rock & Alternative Songs (Billboard) 24

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/sales
Italy (FIMI) Gold 50,000
United Kingdom (BPI) Platinum 600,000

Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

In popular culture

  • The 2014 film Kingsman: The Secret Service sees the song play during an scene in which Colin Firth's character Harry Hart singlehandedly kills an entire church congregation in a violent state of mind as a result of a modified SIM card transmission. Director Matthew Vaughn revealed he picked "Free Bird" specifically because its guitar solo was long enough to encompass the whole scene.

This page was last updated at 2024-03-09 11:18 UTC. Update now. View original page.

All our content comes from Wikipedia and under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.


Top

If mathematical, chemical, physical and other formulas are not displayed correctly on this page, please useFirefox or Safari