Chicago 🎩🪄 25 or 6 to 4 (Tanglewood, 1970)
It’s 1970, you’re at Tanglewood in Western Massachusetts, and Chicago has been making its mark for three years.
Then, at the two-minute mark, Terry Kath unleashes that blistering guitar work, and you’re hooked! 🎸
#Chicago 😲👀😲
“Free Bird” was written by guitarist Allen Collins and vocalist Ronnie Van Zant. Collins' girlfriend, Kathy Johns, inspired the opening line when she asked him, “If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me?” Collins developed the song's elaborate chord progression over roughly two years, but Ronnie Van Zant initially struggled to find a melody for it. Then, during a rehearsal Van Zant heard Collins playing the progression again, asked him to repeat it and reportedly wrote the melody and lyrics in just three or four minutes.
Released on Lynyrd Skynyrd's 1973 debut album, (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd), “Free Bird” became the band's signature song. The studio recording was later released as a single in November 1974 and reached No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song's epic ending features extended, alternating guitar solos by Allen Collins and Gary Rossington, which were originally added to give Van Zant a few minutes to rest during the band's club performances.
A live version recorded at Atlanta's Fox Theatre in 1976 appeared on One More from the Road and reached No. 38 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1977. The famous tradition of audiences shouting “Free Bird!” at concerts was helped along by a 1976 Fox Theatre performance in which Van Zant asked the crowd what song they wanted to hear and the answer was, of course, “Free Bird!”
Watching people say “I never said ivermectin doesn’t work, I only said horse paste doesn’t” is laughable.
They sweating now.
Ivm, fenben & methylene blue are miracles!