My daughter, who is 10 at the time of writing, dances so freely to Free Bird. She is so authentic and graceful, unaware of the song’s backstory.
“Free Bird” remains impactful decades after its release on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s 1973 debut album (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd). The band’s name is a nod to Leonard Skinner, a strict high school gym teacher at Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville, Florida. Skinner was known for enforcing a no-long-hair policy, which frustrated the band members.
The founding members of Lynyrd Skynyrd—Ronnie Van Zant on lead vocals, Gary Rossington and Allen Collins on guitar, Larry Junstrom on bass, and Bob Burns on drums—formed in 1964.
The song took years to come together
Free Bird was recorded at the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama.
“We had worked for years and years in club bands, getting our music just right. Some of that time, we’d already written all these songs—Free Bird was five or six years old by the time we recorded it… Actually, we had that song because Allen Collins wrote the music to it. He wrote the beginning, and I wrote the end, but Allen came up with that opening part like five years before Ronnie could write lyrics for it. Ronnie always said, ‘Hey, there are too many chords. I can’t write words to that many chords.’ But one day, Ronnie went, ‘Hey, play those chords again,’ and he started going, you know, and then he went, ‘I can write.’ So he wrote the lyrics to Free Bird, and we just went with it,” said Rossington.
“The lyric content of Free Bird is based on the idea of everybody being free. To me, there’s nothing freer than a bird, you know, just flying wherever he wants to go,” said Van Zant. “And, I don’t know, that’s what this country is all about, you know, being free. And, I think everybody wants to be a free person.”
Free Bird tells the story of a man torn between his desire for freedom and others who want him to stay. It highlights an inability to settle down, even in the face of love.
Lyrically: Free Bird
The opening line was inspired by a conversation between guitarist Allen Collins and Kathy Johns, his then-girlfriend and who he later married, asked him during a heated conversation, “If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me?” This is a good question to ponder as it’s honest and direct. Collins wrote it down, and it became the jumping off point for the lyrics to “Free Bird.”
The lyrics “For I must be traveling on, now / ‘Cause there’s too many places I’ve got to see” capture this image of leaving the current place to experience somewhere and something new.
But if I stay here with you, girl
Things just couldn’t be the same
This pivotal decision expresses the need to move on, acknowledging that staying would not be the right choice—essentially choosing to live the song’s title.
‘Cause I’m as free as a bird now
And this bird you cannot change
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
And the bird you cannot change
And this bird you cannot change
Lord knows I can’t change
The lyrics “I’m as free as a bird now” express personal freedom and independence, while “this bird you cannot change” and “Lord knows I can’t change” emphasize that there’s no room to think otherwise. Being free is the only answer.
Bye-bye, baby, it’s been a sweet love, yeah-yeah
Though this feeling I can’t change
But, please, don’t take it so badly
‘Cause Lord knows I’m to blame
These lyrics are so empathetic and honest—it’s not you, it’s me.
But, 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-oh
And the bird you cannot change
And this bird you cannot change
Lord knows I can’t change
Lord, help me, I can’t changeLord, I can’t change
Won’t you fly high, free bird, yeah
These lyrics deliver a declaration for the need to be free, but end with a plea for help, asking for direction, with the final words capturing the song’s essence. Being free is the way.
“We just were playing, man. We were into it, and it was never a pattern. It was like one night we’d do it for five minutes, the next night we’d do it for six, the next night we’d do it for three, and the next night we’d do it for ten. There have been nights we’ve probably done it 20 minutes, but it’s a unique song, and I’m really thankful for it,” said Rossington.
The phrase “Free Bird” appears just once in the song, as its final lyrics. Free Bird is 9 minutes and 7 seconds long, with the guitars beginning at the 4:44 mark with the bird being fully free, in colour. “Free Bird” was typically the last song the band played at their concerts, and fans were all for it.
“People said you couldn’t do it, and they really didn’t think you could do a slow song, a ballad, so to speak, and then end it with a wild, crazy, frantic, LSD-type ending. You know, that’s what we were told: ‘Why are you doing that? Why don’t you just play us a little and quit?’ And we just went, ‘Well, that’s kind of like the Free Bird soaring off, being free at the end.'”
