For qnetter

[fj]

Until the discussion thread on Freebird on Plastic, I did not know the Freebird phenomenon. Which means I learned about the cultural construct of someone always yelling "Freebird!" as a joke request during a live concert only last year. This is a little odd for me, since I have spent much of my life being quite keenly interested in American culture and constructs. The US has a very good distribution machinery for these cultural ideas, and I was as plugged into it as I could muster.

Before I moved to Amsterdam and got cable, the only TV channels I could get where I lived were  the two (later 3) government-managed ones, and three German ones. This is where I learned to understand German (just not speak it). Then I moved and started living on my own -- ok, I spent most of my time at my first boyfriend's -- and had cable. I had my MTV! (Europe) And it played videos. And American shows from MTV! Man, I loved Club MTV. And Sky Channel and SUper Channel, cheapo attempts at pan-European channels that had to fill their time with the cheapest schlock they could get, and most of that was dreadful US-produced sitcoms. People, I ate it up so much I actually watched whole episodes of Small Wonder, ok?

(Allright, I lied, I didn't sit down to watch Small Wonder at 11.30 AM or something. I probably had it on in the background while trying to wake up or something. Incidentally, trying to find a good site for Small Wonder, I came accross its page on Jump The Shark, and I am finding the comments hysterical. Especially

Small Wonder never jumped. It was the most subversive show of the 1980s. Dig it: A suburban family (and you don't have to ask what color they were) can't deal with the screwed up son they had, so they decide to get a new kid. And rather than create her through the usual means, they build her. Aldous Huxley isn't dead--he's simply consulting for TV. Think about the mere premise of the show, and you'll see its genius. Add to your ruminations the (deliberately?) bad acting and anti-septic set pieces (I think they used the House from Growing Pains). The utter banality of the family's life, so devoid of meaning that the entrance of Harriet (a red-headed step child, no less!) is enough to upheave it. Small Wonder was a perfect commentary on America! The idle rich, the rejection (and deadliness) of sexual relations, the alienation from one's own family, the dehumanization caused by blind faith in technology, all packaged into a laugh track sitcom. Post-modern to the CORE! There is no better example than Harriet's Mom playing a character that referenced other characters she had played on other TV shows, which were themselves parodies of 1950s archetypes. Check out also the gender ambiguity in the son's name, "Jamie," then notice he shows no interest in girls. God, what brilliance. With Small Wonder, either you get the joke or you're the one being made fun of.

And

The death of us all, really. This IS the shark. Our society, as we knew and wanted it, ended at the end of the opening credits. Remember, this was a show so bad that networks laughed at it, yet it still found its way into our mind's eye.

Pure user-contributed gold. I love the internet.)

So why didn't I know about Freebird? It is kind of obscure, pinkfish didn't know about the Freebird meme, but then again, he didn't exactly do rock concerts in his time -- except if by rock you mean something like Folkloristic Servo-Kroatian Bellydancing or something. I bet ranger1 knows about bozos yelling "Freebird!" as a request during rock concerts. I wonder what Kraftwerk's response to that was.

Don't laugh. Kraftwerk's Live album is all the rage with the cool kids. That is the thought I leave you with: Kraftwerk's live album is all the rage.

Comments

[qnetter]

Actually, I said it because I wasn't sure if you'd ever heard of it, expecting it might set off a context-research frenzy. After all, the plane crash was in 1977...

I was thinking of the classical concert at which I heard it requested recently (though I can't remember where, alas).

I remember when Kraftwerk was cool the first time.

Really, they *were*!

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

I've been at folk concerts where someone yelled it out.

[jss]

I don't do music as a general rule and I knew the reference. I'm not sure what that says about me, though.

[pinkfish.livejournal.com]

I've never heard someone at any concert shout out a request for "Freebird".

I missed much of pop culture in the 80's, so I never heard of Small Wonder. Sounds like a great mirror of our culture.

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

So, is it that someone shouts out "Freebird" randomly at concerts, or is there more to it than that? I'd never heard of that either.

[fj.livejournal.com]

Shouts it out ironically. That's prety much it.

[bratman.livejournal.com]

It's a southern rock thing. Specifically Lynnard Skynnard.
It coincides with holding up lighters.

[stealthpup.livejournal.com]

By Jove, I think he's got it!