Rock's Oldest Joke?

Yelling 'Freebird!' in a crowded theatre. Read essays & effluvia's old-but-good roundup of a WSJ article (mainly because we're too cheap to have a subscription to WSJ ourselves).

The thing is, before this, I had no idea that yelling "Freebird!", and mimicing holding up a lighter, at inappropriate times and places like other artists' concerts, or church* - that all these things constituted a popular joke. One that a lot of people do. I thought it was just something BB and I did to make people around us roll their eyes.

Go figure! We clearly need to get out more.

* Yeah. But don't forget, it's a UU church.

Comments

[Anthony]

A friend and I came up with an even better rock mantra: "Free Bruce"--combining as it does TWO rock icons, Skynnrd and Da Boss! Also, while yelling "Freebird" may qualify as vaguely historical, yelling "Whipping Post" is even older and more sanctified, especially if you make a pilgrimage to NY to the site of the Fillmore East and take a moment and channel your inner Duane Allman!!
(But for Eris's sake, DO NOT channel your outer Gregg Allman--look what happened to Cher!)

[BB]

O my ERIS!! Are we that old?

[Jo]

I love that joke! FREEBIRD!

Or the related joke: "Is that FREEEEEDOM rock? Well, turn it UP!"

[scupper]

Bono has people holding up their cell phones in place of lighters at concerts