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Freebird.

post #1 of 59
1/11/09 at 5:45am
Thread Starter 
The pullquote has already been alluded to in my signature, but apparently my disdain for this song is misplaced. I'm still arguing with the same person over why Freebird sucks.

Does anyone else hate this song besides Bill Hicks and me? Why?
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post #2 of 59
1/11/09 at 6:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jake View Post
The pullquote has already been alluded to in my signature, but apparently my disdain for this song is misplaced. I'm still arguing with the same person over why Freebird sucks.

Does anyone else hate this song besides Bill Hicks and me? Why?
Are we talking about Guitar Hero II here?
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post #3 of 59
1/11/09 at 7:14am
It's an okay song, it's just too damn long.
From what I've heard, Bill Hicks' was shit at Guitar Hero .
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post #4 of 59
1/11/09 at 8:16am
Personally, GHII and The Devil's Rejects put the song back in neutral territory.
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post #5 of 59
1/11/09 at 8:34am
The Guitar riff is impressive, there's no denying that.
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post #6 of 59
1/11/09 at 8:36am
I was neutral on it, then Devil's Rejects pushed it into "awesome" territory. GHII helped too.
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post #7 of 59
1/11/09 at 8:42am
I've always felt they're an inferior version of 'The Allman Brothers'
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post #8 of 59
1/11/09 at 1:32pm
I put it in the same category as La Grange: It's all about the guitar riff. Hearing it live is fucking epic though.
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post #9 of 59
1/11/09 at 1:43pm
The guitar riff's all it has going for itself, though. Not enough.

Plus, there's the continued problem of "funny" 'Play "Freebird"!!!' comments at shows. There's enough negative connotation there to cancel out any good (minimal though it would have been, in any case) that may have come from the song, itself.
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post #10 of 59
1/11/09 at 1:43pm
They played Freebird this morning at the joint where I was having breakfast and I realized that in my mind the song's inexoriably linked to The Devils Rejects. Other than that, my opinion of the song is zero.
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post #11 of 59
1/11/09 at 1:48pm
The instrumental breakdown that constitutes the final 15 minutes of the song is too repetitive, but it's a hell of a song to see live.
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post #12 of 59
1/11/09 at 1:49pm
Because it's not as good a song as Simple Man OR Tuesday's Gone.
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post #13 of 59
1/11/09 at 1:57pm
I think that they excelled at the shorter 4-5 minute songs about drinking/drugging/womanizing/being from the South. Anything longer than that got way too repetitive, including 'Tuesday's Gone' (which IS better than 'Freebird'). I'll jam out to 'What's Your Name' and 'Gimme Three Steps' anytime.
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post #14 of 59
1/11/09 at 2:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveB View Post
The guitar riff's all it has going for itself, though. Not enough.

Plus, there's the continued problem of "funny" 'Play "Freebird"!!!' comments at shows. There's enough negative connotation there to cancel out any good (minimal though it would have been, in any case) that may have come from the song, itself.
Hope DaveB. will remember...a southern man don't need him around anyhow...
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post #15 of 59
1/11/09 at 2:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dragon Ma View Post
I've always felt they're an inferior version of 'The Allman Brothers'
QFT.

I guess if you want to be positivist about it, you could call Skynyrd a superior version of Molly Hatchet.
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post #16 of 59
1/11/09 at 2:57pm
Skynyrd's masterpiece is "cry for the bad man".
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post #17 of 59
1/11/09 at 3:03pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Louris View Post
Because it's not as good a song as Simple Man OR Tuesday's Gone.
Every time I hear Simple Man I really wish a retard was singing it.
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post #18 of 59
1/11/09 at 3:15pm
I'll take Molly Hatchet's hillbilly racket over Skynrd's any day.

I was once in a dirty-ass strip club in Texas and yelled "play Freebird!" AND THEY IMMEDIATELY DID.
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post #19 of 59
1/11/09 at 3:18pm
Where does the Marshall Tucker Band fit in all this?
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post #20 of 59
1/11/09 at 3:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Luca S. View Post
I was neutral on it, then Devil's Rejects pushed it into "awesome" territory. GHII helped too.
SPEED RACER made brilliant, if brief usage of "Freebird". I'll forever associate it now with a child and a primate binging on candy.
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post #21 of 59
1/11/09 at 3:19pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
I was once in a dirty-ass strip club in Texas and yelled "play Freebird!" AND THEY IMMEDIATELY DID.
hahahaha
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post #22 of 59
1/11/09 at 3:21pm
For Southern Rock, I'll always have a soft spot for .38 Special. They were like a pop version of Lynyrd Skynyrd with a ton of radio friendly tunes. They were huge when I was in junior high in TX.
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post #23 of 59
1/11/09 at 3:23pm
Any band that keeps dying in plane crashes and doesn't break up is suspect.
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post #24 of 59
1/11/09 at 3:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Judas Booth View Post
For Southern Rock, I'll always have a soft spot for .38 Special. They were like a pop version of Lynyrd Skynyrd with a ton of radio friendly tunes. They were huge when I was in junior high in TX.
As far as I know they're still present-tense, and if nothing else they're credited with the score to SUPER TROOPERS.
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post #25 of 59
1/11/09 at 3:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by reggie-wanker View Post
As far as I know they're still present-tense, and if nothing else they're credited with the score to SUPER TROOPERS.
Yeah, they're still around and touring. Donnie Van Zant is still with them too (there's your Skynyrd connection, by the way)
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post #26 of 59
1/11/09 at 3:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jake View Post
Every time I hear Simple Man I really wish a retard was singing it.
Yeah, Stiller singing that song in Simple Jack character on the Tropic Thunder DVD is one of the best easter eggs ever.
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post #27 of 59
1/11/09 at 3:35pm
Some other thoughts:

The Devil's Rejects doesn't do anything positive for the song, because that scene is fucking awful.

The best of the Jacksonville bands is Blackfoot.

Skynard's masterpiece is "The Ballad of Kurtis Blow."
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post #28 of 59
1/11/09 at 3:38pm
I think its the only song you should be allowed to listen to if you have a mullet and drive an old camero.
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post #29 of 59
1/11/09 at 3:42pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Z-Man View Post
Skynard's masterpiece is "The Ballad of Kurtis Blow."
Curtis Loew. And yes.
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post #30 of 59
1/11/09 at 3:42pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Z-Man View Post
Yeah, Stiller singing that song in Simple Jack character on the Tropic Thunder DVD is one of the best easter eggs ever.
For real? I BOUGHT THE WRONG FUCKING DVD.
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post #31 of 59
1/11/09 at 4:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Z-Man View Post
The Devil's Rejects doesn't do anything positive for the song, because that scene is fucking awful.
I liked it in Elizabethtown though. I think the fact that that song carries all that baggage you guys are describing is exactly why it fit so well.

Free Bird's really going against all odds. The lyrics are kinda funny, it peaks in all the wrong places, it's pretty fucking long and it usually just devolves into a jam sessions when they play it live. I still think it's awesome; I just don't visit it all that much. It's epic, that's for sure.
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post #32 of 59
1/11/09 at 4:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by avoideverything View Post
They played Freebird this morning at the joing where I was having breakfast and I realized that in my mind the song's inexoriably linked to The Devils Rejects. Other than that, my opinion of the song is zero.
I'll prefer the memory of driving into LA aboard The Truth's VW, after burning down his hemp field.
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post #33 of 59
1/11/09 at 4:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Z-Man View Post
Skynard's masterpiece is "The Ballad of Kurtis Blow."
Bet you think Jimi Hendrix was gay don't you?
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post #34 of 59
1/11/09 at 4:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Z-Man View Post

The best of the Jacksonville bands is Blackfoot.
If we're Southern rockin' in Jacksonville, I'd bend the rules and go with Tom Petty...oh wait, he's from Gainesville....well, whatever, I'd go with Petty anyway.
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post #35 of 59
1/11/09 at 4:24pm
There's a great book called Dixie Lullaby that kind of puts the whole southern rock movement into perspective, if'n you're interested.

Having said that, I realize that if background research is necessary to enjoy a song, it's probably not worth it. I like Freebird for the simple fact that this band shouldn't have been able to pull off something like that, but they did. There's a disc of Skynyrd's Muscle Shoals demos that let you hear the evolution of what they did in that studio.

And now having said that, Skynyrd's best song is "Every Mother's Son."
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post #36 of 59
1/11/09 at 4:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Z-Man View Post
Skynard's masterpiece is "The Ballad of Kurtis Blow."
I don't think this is exactly what you meant, but God, how I wish that it was.



Edited to add: On that "Deuce" cover, the movie playing at the theater appears to be the 1978 Bruce Li film EDGE OF FURY, a Taiwanese production also featuring Yasuaki Kurata of FIST OF LEGEND and HEROES OF THE EAST. Because you needed to know that.
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post #37 of 59
1/11/09 at 4:39pm
I feel awful for anyone whose main association for Freebird is SPEED RACER.

Freebird is a song I hated for a long time, but I've come to understand that certain songs aren't meant to be listened to so much as experienced. There are some songs that are all but created for car rides with the windows down or long walks down city streets at night when you're buzzed and feeling the world.
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post #38 of 59
1/11/09 at 4:45pm
I went back and listened to it, and you guys are right. It's not about Kurtis Blow at all, it's about some wanker who plays the dobro. Thanks for ruining everything for me. But on a related note, how come the Beastie Boys never sampled "Workin' for MCA"?
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post #39 of 59
1/11/09 at 4:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by devincf View Post
Freebird is a song I hated for a long time, but I've come to understand that certain songs aren't meant to be listened to so much as experienced. There are some songs that are all but created for car rides with the windows down or long walks down city streets at night when you're buzzed and feeling the world.

Well, it's no "Powderfinger"....

...anyway, love 'em or hate 'em (or feel highly ambivalent about 'em) Skynyrd's classic-rock Rebel flag-waving screeds have of late justified their existence (somewhat or further, depending on your view) by heavily inspiring the Drive-By Truckers.
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post #40 of 59
1/11/09 at 10:58pm
I actually saw Skynyrd back in the day, but the best appreciation for them I know is Drive-By Truckers' "Southern Rock Opera" album:

Quote:
But when the story was told the next day at the graduation ceremony,
Everyone said that when the ambulance came
The paramedics could hear "Free Bird" still playing on the stereo.

You know it's a very long song.
Quote:
Now Ronnie and Neil became good friends their feud was just in song
Skynyrd was a bunch of Neil Young fans and Neil he loved that song
So He wrote "Powderfinger" for Skynyrd to record
But Ronnie ended up singing "Sweet Home Alabama" to the lord

And Neil helped carry Ronnie in his casket to the ground
And to my way of thinking, us southern men need both of them around
Quote:
When it comes your time to go, ain't no good way to go about it
Ain't no use in thinking bout it
You'll just drive yourself insane
There comes a time for everything
And the time has come for you to shut your mouth and get your ass on the plane
Quote:
Looking out the window, the trees are getting closer it seems.
Thinking bout you Darling.
Adding up the cost of these dreams.

Strapped to this projectile, just a blink ago I was back in school.
Smoking by the gym door, practicing my rock-star attitude

And I'm scared shitless of what's coming next.
I'm scared shitless, these angels I see in the trees are waiting for me.

The engines have stopped now. We all know we are going down. Last call for alcohol.
Sure wish I could have another round.

And I'm scared shitless of what's coming next.
Scared shitless, these angels I see in the trees are waiting for me.
Waiting for me.

Friends in the swamp.
Friends on the ground, in the trees.
Angels and fuselage.
EDIT: Chavez, I guess I missed your post, as you gave the DBT callout first.
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post #41 of 59
1/12/09 at 1:06am
With the exception of its inclusion in Elizabethtown, I have never heard Freebird, except for requests of it at concerts, over the past six years.
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post #42 of 59
1/12/09 at 2:39am
You guys can all have sex with yourselves, 'cause Freebird is a classic, all 12 hours and 27 minutes of it.

And I hate Skynyrd.
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post #43 of 59
1/12/09 at 3:56am
Thread Starter 
Zollicoffer bro I hate to give grief to a fellow Texan but yer wrong there.
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post #44 of 59
1/12/09 at 3:58am
No he isn't.
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post #45 of 59
1/12/09 at 4:05am
Thread Starter 
Goddammit Domingo shaddup
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post #46 of 59
1/12/09 at 4:07am
Wilco masser.
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post #47 of 59
1/12/09 at 4:40am
I love freebird




and lamp
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post #48 of 59
1/12/09 at 10:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by devincf View Post
I feel awful for anyone whose main association for Freebird is SPEED RACER.

Freebird is a song I hated for a long time, but I've come to understand that certain songs aren't meant to be listened to so much as experienced. There are some songs that are all but created for car rides with the windows down or long walks down city streets at night when you're buzzed and feeling the world.
I had one of these awesome "moments" last summer. After a long flight and train ride I arrived in Oslo. The weather were I came from was awful but here it was blazing hot, and as I was walking through the bustling train station, Jumping Jack Flash started on my Ipod. It felt just perfect.
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post #49 of 59
1/13/09 at 6:37pm
Skynyrd foresaw rock bands would stop playing guitar solos in the mid-90's and made up for it in advance with a 5-minute solo played by three guitars. That's planning ahead.

Also, from the tune's Wiki entry:
Quote:
The conductor of the Charleston (SC) Symphony Orchestra, David Stahl, irritated by outbursts of "Free Bird!" at concerts, had the orchestra learn to perform the song so that they could go directly into it from whatever piece they were performing at the moment.
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post #50 of 59
1/13/09 at 6:43pm
Heh.

Man, you know SC is redneck when even the cultural elite yell "Freebird!".
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