45RPM #129 Freebird - Lynyrd Skynyrd (November 1974)

I can hardly believe it's been more than a year since I last did a post in the 45RPM series and so I thought why not kick start the old beast again with a real classic from the vaults of Rock Music History.

Mention the name Lynyrd Skynyrd and your are guaranteed to hear mentioned one of two songs from their arsenal of classics, one would be Sweet Home Alabama and the other of course would be Free Bird. 

We all no doubt have at one time or another been to a concert when the particular performer asks for requests and more often than not there will be at least one person standing there, pint in hand, shouting out loud "Free Bird"! This happens at gigs of all sorts of bands and not those dedicated to the playing of Classic Rock.

And so, we turn our attention towards Free Bird (the Signature song of Lynyrd Skynyrd) and ponder afresh the absolute wonder of it and the sheer beauty of of a band, each with a specific part to play, bringing into being what is surely one of the greatest Rock songs of any time and quite simply of all time.

It's one that I dig out every now and again because if it is over-played it begins to lose a little of its wonder and I heard the original 1972 version recorded at Muscle Shoals recently and it got me thinking about doing this piece today.

Free Bird / Down South Junkin'

MCA Records

Produced by Al Kooper

Released November 1974

US Chart #19

UK Chart #21

1974 Single Version

More Links Below for other versions of Freebird and more music from Lynyrd Skynrd.

Original Album Version 1973.

The Old Grey Whistle Test 1975.

One More For The Road Live Album Version 1976.

 

Original Muscle Shoals Version 1972.

Released on the 2013 Muscle Shoals Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Republic Records).

Personnel
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Free Bird
Studio version (1973)

    Ronnie Van Zant – vocals
    Allen Collins – lead and acoustic guitars
    Gary Rossington – rhythm and slide guitars
    Ed King – bass guitar
    Billy Powell – piano
    Bob Burns – drums
    "Roosevelt Gook" (Producer Al Kooper) – organ, mellotron

Additional personnel
    Steve Gaines* – Addition of lead and rhythm guitars

*Gaines had replaced guitarist Ed King who left the band in 1975 and on his third gig playing for the band they were recording what was to become their One More For The Road live album. Gaines was also one of the band members who sadly died three days after the release of their 1977 album Street Survivors in a plane crash along with Ronnie Van Zandt, Cassie Gaines (back up singer and sister of Steve Gaines), and assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary, and co-pilot William Gray were the other fatalities! 

(1976 UK 7" Picture Sleeve)

One of the greatest musical crimes ever committed by a record label has to be by MCA Records releasing Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd as a 7" Single in 1974 cutting four minutes and twenty seven seconds off of the version that appeared on their 1973 debut album 'Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd' (I mean they could have been crafty enough to at least split the song into two parts and have part two as the B-Side, but they didn't!). Such an act, if done to a movie or a book would be greeted with such horror as a vital part of the film or story would be lost! Likewise with the "editing" of this classic song, the cut removes aspects of the song that make it stand out as one of the finest songs ever recorded by a rock and roll band. 

Now, of course I understand that it was merely done for the purpose of having the song played on the radio at the time (I wouldn't have imagined that there were that many DJ's who would have got away with playing the full length album version) but still....

The song has been included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll, was listed as #193 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2008 it was listed at the #3 in Guitar World's 100 Greatest Guitar Solos.  In 2009 it was considered by VH-1 to be the 26th Best Hard Rock Song of All Time. In the Digital Age the song has sold over two million copies worldwide!

Freebird was originally recorded at Muscle Shoals in 1972 but the tracks from those sessions never saw the light of day until 1978 when Skynyrd's First and...Last was released (but Freebird wasn't actually included in that release! It only turned up on the 1998 Reissue entitled Skynyrd's First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Album and was also included as part of the Soundtrack for the film about Muscle Shoals).

The introduction to the song was put together by piano-playing roadie Billy Powell (with Al Kooper adding some nice touches on the Organ and Mellotron) and when the band heard it (he was apparently playing a piano version of the song during a break at an event in 1972 when Skynyrd were playing a Prom event at The Bolles School in Jacksonville), they included it in the song and then invited him to join the band as keyboard player (a position that he held between 1972-77, 1979 and 1987 until his death in 2009)! The extended guitar solos on the studio version (performed by Allen Collins and Steve Gaines) initially were used as part of the live set due to the band playing several sets a night in the clubs thus giving vocalist Ronnie Van Zant a chance to catch his breath and preserve his voice for the work ahead. Behind the guitar dynamics of Collins and Gaines was the steady hand of Gary Rossington keeping the Rhythm Guitar section motoring forward alongside the Bass of Ed King and the beat master on the Drum stool was Bob Burns.

To this date Gary Rossington (the last remaining member of the original band) is out on the road with Lynyrd Skynyrd as they play their Last of the Street Survivors Farewell Tour, the US leg began in May and stretches into September and dates are expected outside of the USA as well. Brother of original vocalist Ronnie Van Zandt, Johnny Van Zandt is on the lead vocals (he's been the frontman since 1987), and sometimes he really does sound like old Ronnie! There's actually a nice touch and tribute to Ronnie during the performance of Free Bird during the Farewell Tour shows that you can see below.

 Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird
Jones Beach, June 23 2018