It's All Our Fault

By Scott Smith in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 17, 2005 4:27PM

The last page of this month’s Chicago magazine contains a list of lesser-known disasters in the city. Fires might get all the ink in history books but the Rush Street bridge collapse, the Winged Foot Express dirigible disaster, and the crapping of the Little Lady boat tour are the stories that will be told on porches for years to come. But it seems that Dave isn’t the only Matthews to soil Chicago’s good name. Longtime Chicago radio personality Kevin Matthews appears to be taking the blame/credit for a joke that’s gotten totally out of hand.

Today’s Wall Street Journal traces the origins of some toolbox yelling “Freebird” during a concert. Perhaps inspired by the Skynyrd live album, One More From The Road, the Journal details Matthews’s claim that he thought it up in the late 1980s as:

“…a way to torment Florence Henderson of "Brady Bunch" fame, who was giving a concert. He [Matthews] figured somebody should yell something at her "to break up the monotony." The longtime Skynyrd fan settled on "Freebird," saying the epic song "just popped into my head."

Tribune rock critic Greg Kot disagrees saying it “originated as an in-joke among indie-rock fans "having their sneer at mainstream classic rock." Still others claim it originated during the late 1970s during the apex of awesome geetar rock. The Journal also mentions the hazing that late comedian Bill Hicks rightly gave a Chicago audience when someone yelled for the epic rock classic calling it “the mantra of the moron." Damn straight.

Derek Phillips at Glorious Noise has the definitive word in this debate in his article titled “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore.” Seriously, people: maybe we can’t end racism in our generation but can we at least take a stab at burying this “tradition” once and for all?