Lynyrd Skynyrd is playing this evening in St. Augustine. No, we're not going, but before she left for work my wife and I were discussing the likelihood of them NOT playing "Freebird" at a show and the resulting melee that would cause among the assembled groder masses. My guess is that they play it 3-4 times during any given show just to make sure they're safe.
I can imagine a scenario where they say their goodnights and announce there will be no Freebird at the evening's performance, and within minutes the floor of the arena is turned into a swirling vision of hell that no human should be witness to. The assembled riot cops decide that the best course of action is simply to bolt the doors from the outside and pray silently to themselves.
Eventually the frenzied mass breaks free from their grisly prison and the President has to make the unfortunate decision to nuke the entire town to save the rest of society.
Living in North Central Florida, it's impossible to escape the Skynyrderrian influence. No roar at a Jacksonville Jaguars game is quite as loud as when they play Skynyrd, and every single town north of Orlando claims to be the town where they played their first show.
A few years ago, Florida was toying with the idea of adopting a new state song, as we finally came to the realization that "Suwanee River" ranked right up there with most Disney movies in terms of racial sensitivity. So Florida opened it up to public voting. The Skynyrd-loving public spoke, and for a good while "Sweet Home Alabama" was actually in the running.
jg
No word on whether they had refused a request to play Freebird or not.
