11th
I recently asked my uncle, who was a 1970s-era rock and roll sort of guy, what unfunny jerks at concerts semi-insincerely yelled at bands before “Free Bird” was released in 1973.
I wasn’t even sure if this question had an answer; “Free Bird” seems as deep and as timeless as the north Florida swamps from which Lynyrd Skynyrd emerged. It is hard to imagine a time where people could not have yelled “Hey, play ‘Free Bird’!” at bands during concerts. Remember the Bill Hicks line? ” “Free Bird. And in the beginning there was the Word — ‘Free Bird.’ And ‘Free Bird’ would be yelled throughout the centuries. ‘Free Bird,’ the mantra of the moron.” Hicks spoke those words sometime in the early 1990s. Could it have ever been any other way?
Yes, according to uncle. In fact there was a song that unfunny jerks at concerts would semi-insincerely yell at the band before 1973.
Between 1969 and 1973, apparently, they yelled:
“WHIPPIN’ POST! WHIPPIN’ POST!”
If some unfunny jerk was yelling at a band between 1969 and 1973 to play some song they more than likely weren’t going to play, they were yelling for the Allman Brothers’ “Whippin’ Post.”I actually like that a little better. “Whippin’ Post” is a longer song; it’s a little more overwrought, too. That extra syllable gives it a real kick. Plus, one imagines a Duane Allman beard attached to the face of the person yelling it. Try it next time you’re bored at a show. Hey, Grizzly Bear! You’ve been run down, you’ve been lied to! You don’t know why! Whoooooooo! Someone tell that asshole to shut up!
Also, let’s engage in some light cultural conjecture: what song will someday replace “Free Bird” as the go-to ”hilarious” default in-concert request?
