THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

12-Lynyrd Skynyrd-Free Bird.

1973-In the UK the song didn’t chart until 1979, when reaching Number 43. It charted again in 1982, this time peaking at Number 21.

Best Bit-At 4.43. Whenever Lynyrd Skynyrd performed this song live it would end up becoming a ‘jam’ that would go on forever and ever. It has become a humorous tradition for audience members at any type of concerts that they are attending to shout ‘Play Free Bird,’ so next time you’re at the latest ‘Westlife’ re-union, and someone shouts out ‘Free Bird,’ you’ll know why.

Lynyrd Skynyrd (see also best songs 204) were formed in Jacksonville, Florida, United States, in 1964, starting out life as ‘My Backyard,’ before becoming ‘The Nobel Five,’ then ‘One Percent,’ before finally settling on ‘Lynyrd Skynyrd’ in 1970. The name was chosen in part a reference to a character named ‘Leonard Skinner’ in Allan Sherman’s novelty song ‘Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh,’ (1963) and in part a mocking tribute to their P.E. teacher Leonard Skinner (1933-2010) at Robert E. Lee High School, where some of the bands members had attended. Skinner was notorious for strictly enforcing the school’s policy against boys having long hair. On October 20th, 1977, a chartered airplane carrying the band and their roadies crashed after running out of fuel, killing band members Ronnie Van Zant, (1948-1977) and Steve Gaines, (1949-1977) along with backup singer Cassie Gaines, (1948-1977) who was Steve’s older sister. Three others were also killed including the pilot, with everyone else on board suffering serious injuries. Lynyrd Skynyrd reformed in 1987, with five members of the pre crash band, now being led by Ronnie Van Zant’s younger brother Johnny, who took over as lead singer, and chief songwriter. At the time of writing Lynyrd Skynyrd remain active with only Gary Rossington being the bands one constant. The discography of Lynyrd Skynyrd includes 14 studio Albums released between 1973-2012, and 30 singles issued between 1973-2020, in America they have sold in excess of 28 million Albums.

‘Free Bird’ was the second of two singles released from Lynyrd Skynyrd’s debut studio Album ‘(Pronounced ‘Leh-nerd ‘Skin-nerd’) from August 1973, and was written by band members Allen Collins, (1952-1990) and Ronnie Van Zant, the song and the Album were produced by Al Kooper. Kooper was born Alan Peter Kuperschmidt on February 5th, 1944, in Brooklyn, New York, United States, he was a co-founder of the American Jazz/Rock band ‘Blood, Sweat & Tears,’ and has also released 11 solo studio Albums between 1969-2008. Kooper has also played on numerous tracks for dozens of different artists including playing the Hammond organ on Bob Dylan’s ‘Like a Rolling Stone,’ (1965) (see also best songs 7) and the piano, French horn, and organ on The Rolling Stones ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want'(1969.)

‘Free Bird’ has three guitarists all dueling with each other on the studio version for the final four minutes of the song, they were the band members Allen Collins, Gary Rossington, and Ed King (1949-2018.) It was Collins who had been working on the song for over two years who accidently fell upon the tracks opening line, after his girlfriend Kathy (later his wife) asked him,’If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me?’ Ronnie Van Zant thought the song had too many chords to write lyrics for, about which Gary Rossington has commented,’But after a few months, we were sitting around, and he asked Allen (Collins) to play those chords again. After about 20 minutes, Ronnie started singing, ‘If I leave here tomorrow,’ and it fit great. It wasn’t anything heavy, just a love song about leavin’ town, time to move on. Al (Kooper) put the organ on the front, which was a very good idea. He also helped me get the sound of the delayed slide guitar that I play, it’s actually me playing the same thing twice, recording one on top of the other, so it sounds kind of slurry, echoey.’

‘Free Bird’ is a song about a man explaining to his girlfriend why he can’t settle down and make a commitment. Ronnie Van Zant has said that the song is ‘What it means to be free, in that a bird can fly wherever he wants to go. Everyone wants to be free, that’s what this country’s all about.’

‘If I stay here with you, girl things just couldn’t be the same. ‘Cause I’m as free as a bird now, and this bird you cannot change. Oh, oh, oh, oh, and the bird you cannot change, and this bird, you cannot change.’