Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra, who had worked with Harrison on Harrison's album Cloud Nine and as part of the Traveling Wilburys, was asked to co-produce the record. "Free as a Bird" was one of two such songs (along with "Real Love") for which McCartney, Harrison, and Starr contributed additional instrumentation, vocals, and arrangements. For the Anthology project, McCartney asked Lennon's widow Yoko Ono for unreleased material by Lennon to which the three remaining ex-Beatles could contribute. The single was released as part of the promotion for The Beatles Anthology video documentary and the band's Anthology 1 compilation album. In 1995 a studio version of the recording, incorporating contributions from Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, was released as a single by the Beatles, 25 years after their break-up. "Free as a Bird" is a song originally composed and recorded in 1977 as a home demo by John Lennon. Jeff Lynne, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr Original composition by Lennon the Beatles version by Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starkey Though Van Zant often dedicated “Free Bird” to Duane Allman, contrary to urban legend, it was not written for him.New York City, circa 1977 and Sussex, England, February-March 1994 On Skynyrd’s first live album, 1976’s One More from the Road, Van Zant can be heard asking the crowd, “What song is it you wanna hear?” The overwhelming response leads into the 14-minute version of the song that became iconic. “Of course, that was the song everyone gravitated towards!” “MCA said we couldn’t put a 10-minute song on an album, because nobody would play it,” recalls King. A 3:30 radio edit was cut and the single, at 4:10, became a Top 20 hit. The original album version of the song clocked in at almost 10 minutes and according to Rossington and Ed King, MCA objected to putting such a long song on the band’s debut album. “We did–and Billy went from being a roadie to a member right then.” “One of our roadies told us we should check out this piano part that another roadie had written as an intro for the song,” says Rossington. The structure of “Free Bird” was set, but it was still lacking one final element the elegant piano intro, which was written by then-roadie Billy Powell. Ronnie said, ‘Why don’t you do something at the end of that so I can take a break for a few minutes.’ I came up with those three chords at the end and Allen and I traded solos and Ronnie kept telling us to make it longer we were playing three or four sets a night, and he was looking to fill it up and get a break.” That was not by design, recalls Rossington: “When we started playing it in clubs, it was just the slow part. Like “Stairway to Heaven,” one of its chief competitors for the unofficial title of rock’s most epic song, “Free Bird” starts out as a ballad before becoming a solo-fueled rocker. Play them again.’ He said, ‘I got it,’ and wrote the lyrics in three or four minutes-the whole damned thing! Then one day we were at rehearsal and Allen started playing those chords again, and Ronnie said, ‘Those are pretty. He thought that he had to change with every chord. Recalls Gary Rossington, “Allen had the chords for the beginning, pretty part for two full years and we kept asking Ronnie to write something and he kept telling us to forget it he said there were too many chords so he couldn’t find a melody. But while everyone recognized the grace of the chord progression, Ronnie Van Zant could not come up with a suitable vocal melody. Guitarist Allen Collins came up with the music to “Free Bird” very early in the band’s songwriting process. Originally released on pronounced leh-nerd skin-nerd (MCA, 1973)
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