I remember now, I remember now, why they call it Freebird

[mmcirvin]

The WSJ and Photodude discuss the tradition of yelling "Play Freebird!" Growing up, I always sort of assumed this was a south-of-the-Mason-Dixon-Line thing. Mike Doughty of Soul Coughing makes the drastic suggestion that musicians kill the joke by actually playing Freebird.

Photodude's commenter "emcee fleshy" mentions that "I also thought, in third grade, that the F-word had just been invented." Me too.

Comments

[erikagillian.livejournal.com]

I remember it used snidely at punk shows in the Bay Area in the early eighties. I vaguely remember if the band knew it and started the whole club would scream to stop.

Ok, now I've got it stuck, I think I'll go listen to American Idiot for a while.

[tongodeon.livejournal.com]

So playing Freebird to discourage the joke actually worked? I figure it would only encourage: "I went to see the band and I yelled something and they did what I said" is a pretty big draw to some people.

[erikagillian.livejournal.com]

This was in Berkeley/San Francisco punk scene of 1981-4, so we probably knew all the people in the band and went to high school with half the audience and slept with the other half.

Of course, unless you were quite comfortable with your cool you wouldn't admit to knowing how to play Freebird.