A rock tradition

It's probably happened to you too, if you've been to more than a handful of concerts: running into someone screaming at the top of their lungs, “Free Bird!”. It usually happens between songs, when the members of a band, especially a rock band, glance quickly at each other and maybe weigh up whether to stick to the setlist, throw the crowd an unplanned extra, or humor some fan's request. Another moment when the “Free Bird!”s start flying is while waiting for the encore. Also worth noting is the rarer but still possible case where the band puts the fateful question directly to the crowd: “What do you want to hear?”

Why did this habit take hold in rock culture, and where does it come from? More importantly, when the crowd starts shouting for “Free Bird”, what do they actually want? And how do the musicians on stage react?

The origins: a 1976 live album

The myth of the “Free Bird” shout goes back to 1976, the year the Lynyrd Skynyrd, a cornerstone band of American southern rock, released the live album “One More From The Road”. When singer Ronnie Van Zant puts the question directly to the crowd, “What song is it you want to hear?”, there's no doubt about the answer: a unanimous chorus rises up, and that chorus says “Free Bird!”

Happy to give the crowd what they wanted, Skynyrd delivered an explosive, extended version of the song that went down in history: the natural crescendo is pushed to levels of extraordinary intensity, with a spectacular blaze of electric guitar and a wild, sprawling coda. These are 14 minutes that rightfully entered rock mythology, the apotheosis of the live experience as understood by a subculture that treats the stage as one of its sacred spaces, where musicians give everything to amaze and satisfy their audience.

So, half as a joke and half as a way for insiders to recognize each other, people started shouting "Free Bird!" at concerts.

What does the audience actually want: do they really want to hear "Free Bird"?

Even the Wall Street Journal devoted a feature to this, way back in 2005, calling it rock's “oldest joke.” It's a cliché repeated to mark a connection between one show and the next, between a (mythologized) past and the present: so you'll hear people shout “Free Bird!”, more in the United States than over here, even at concerts that have little or nothing to do with Skynyrd, southern rock, or, in the most extreme cases, even rock music at all. Some do it with sarcastic intent, to salvage a performance they consider a bit weak: forget this music, just play “Free Bird” instead.

So it's not really a genuine request for “Free Bird”, but simply a way to recognize each other within a shared culture and grab an (awkward) laugh? It's hard to give a clear-cut answer, whether you're watching the phenomenon from the crowd or, apparently, even if you're one of the musicians on stage.

How do musicians react? Nirvana "botch" the song on purpose, Bob Dylan actually plays it

Issac Brock of Modest Mouse, for instance, has said he wouldn't play it even if it were a dying man's last wish, as can be heard on a bootleg; others go along with the request, fully or in part, like Nirvana on the famous “MTV Unplugged In New York”, who respond by breaking into a snippet of “Sweet Home Alabama”; in 2016 Bob Dylan surprisingly obliged the request, because… well, he's Bob Dylan.

"Free Bird": between legend, real events and Bill Hicks

There's a Chicago radio host, one Kevin Matthews, who claims to have spread this bizarre habit in the Eighties, urging his listeners to indulge in what is now this hugely widespread shout. The matter, however, is far from clear, and other sources date it back at least a few years earlier. It's hard to get to the bottom of it, not least because these are almost all stories passed down orally, always somewhere between legend and fact.

Perhaps all these small stories are part of one bigger story: what's certain is that “Free Bird” is a rock classic and a staple of Skynyrd's live shows; it was probably, within the rock culture of the time, particularly amusing to someone to ask for it even when other musicians were on stage, perhaps helped along by one whiskey too many; a radio host's contribution then turned what had been an eccentric quirk of rock shows into a widespread habit.

Of course, you're also free to join the sizeable ranks of those who despise this concert cliché - and live shows in general - from the bottom of their heart. You'd be in the company of a stand-up comedy legend like Bill Hicks, who reacted rather badly to a “Free Bird!” shout during one of his shows.

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