Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd

Song Meaning of Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd, and what it is about

"Free Bird" is a song by American rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, written by guitarist Allen Collins and lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and released in 1974 and features on their debut album.

According to guitarist Gary Rossington, for two years after Allen Collins wrote the initial chords, vocalist Ronnie Van Zant insisted that there were too many for him to create a melody.

After Collins played the unused sequence at rehearsal one day, Van Zant asked him to repeat it, then wrote out the melody and lyrics in three or four minutes.

The guitar solos that finish the song were added originally to give Van Zant a chance to rest, as the band was playing several sets per night at clubs at the time.

Soon afterward, the band learned piano-playing roadie Billy Powell had written an introduction to the song; upon hearing it, they included it as the finishing touch and had him formally join as their keyboardist.

Allen Collins's girlfriend, Kathy, whom he later married, asked him, "If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me?"

Collins noted the question and it eventually became the opening line of "Free Bird."

Also, in an interview filmed during a fishing outing on a boat with Gary Rossington, an interviewer asked Ronnie Van Zant what the song meant. Van Zant replied that in essence, that the song is "what it means to be free, in that a bird can fly wherever he wants to go."

He further stated that "everyone wants to be free...that's what this country's all about."

The song is ranked as number 8 on the Guitar World's 50 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time and  is band’s signature song and used as the finale during live performances. The album version of the song Free Bird, is 9 minutes and 8 seconds long.

Lyrics of Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd

If I leave here tomorrow

Would you still remember me?

For I must be traveling on now

'Cause there's too many places I've got to see.

But if I stayed 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.

And this bird you cannot change.

And this bird you cannot change.

Lord knows I can't change.

Bye, bye, baby, it's been a sweet love, yeah,

Though this feeling I can't change.

But please don't take it so badly,

'Cause Lord knows I'm to blame.

But if I stayed here with you, girl,

Things just couldn't be the same.

'Cause I'm as free as a bird now,

And this bird you'll never change.

And the bird you cannot change.

And this bird you cannot change.

Lord knows, I can't change.

Lord, help me, I can't change.

Lord, I can't change.

Won't you fly high, free bird, yeah?