9/13/2023 0 Comments Free bird release date![]() That doesn’t mean he’s there so you can shout dumb bullshit. What he doesn’t love is folks yelling prefab nonsense at him. Inside that spotlight is where he belongs. He loves the live show atmosphere, you can tell. He’s a consummate performer, currently as comfortable on-stage as he’s ever been. Solo Jeff Tweedy shows are a beautiful thing, whether he’s playing new music with a new band he’s in with his son while Wilco is on a break, or giving most audience members what they really came for with solo acoustic versions of Wilco, Uncle Tupelo, and other things he’s been involved with over the years. These people together in the room with you, enjoying quiet, emotion-packed moments with the work of a beloved musician, and that artist not only acknowledging everybody, but actually talking with us, sharing himself: it’s beautiful. No, beyond “FREEBIRD!”, it’s about respect, about not taking advantage of a moment to make yourself feel cool at the expense of everybody else present. I know this not because I interviewed him, but because he was forced to say so to the entire crowd when some drunk dickhead thought he’d impress his girlfriend or boyfriend or wife or husband or child or whatever by doing something that hasn’t been funny since Bill Clinton was president. In response to that, he said he’s actually a fan of the song, thinks the solo is cool, and wonders at how awesome it would be to live in a world where “Freebird” was a new song by a young artist. When it goes poorly, though…Īnd this isn’t just the “FREEBIRD!” thing. The show becomes a community endeavor, an all-together-now situation. When it goes well, the back-and-forth elevates what follows. People shout things out, and he responds to them with what wit and grace he can muster. ![]() ![]() Now, Tweedy allows a certain amount of crowd participation at his solo shows. Sitting in a quiet, sold-out room with 1,500 other people and being a total asshole, and worse yet a LOUD asshole, is not you being better. There’s effort involved on everyone’s part, from each individual. You need to be better.Īll people deserve rights and respect, yes, but those rights and respect come from all people deserving the opportunity to develop as well as they possibly can. You are a shit-ass shit-heart, and you need to get better. Ball up your dominant hand’s fist, squeeze it tight, and smack it into your temple with all the fury you can muster, drawn from every slight you’ve ever felt, because you suck. If you are reading this and you have shouted “FREEBIRD!” at the top of your lungs while attending a non-Skynyrd, non-cover band concert at any point in the last fifteen years, punch yourself in the face as hard as you can. This week, of this year, 2014, so close to its midway point, I attended an intimate concert in a glorious facility performed by Jeff Tweedy, one of my all-time favorite musicians and songwriters, and some idiot yelled out “FREEBIRD!” at the top of his lungs during a moment of quiet between songs.Īn adult did this, after paying $50 a ticket. That said, some music fans are such horrible people, self-centered, incapable of feeling shame, unconcerned whether anybody else enjoys a given show, so long as they themselves do, and these motherfuckers should be put on a rocket ship and fired into the sun. A priori, from the jump: we’re all in this together, and it does no one any good to see another human, exactly like themselves structurally and biologically if not philosophically, as somehow less than. I believe every human being, by virtue of being born, by virtue of simply existing, enjoys certain inherent rights, and, because of these, deserves a certain degree of respect. As I’ve grown up, I’ve become something of a secular humanist.
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