Free Bird (Song)

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About

Free Bird is a 1974 song by American rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. The song has been used in various games, movies and memes such as Horizontally Spinning Rat, "I Put Free Bird Song Over Fighting Scene," "Sorry Officer, The Speed Limit Does Not Apply When Free Bird" and more.

Origin

On November 1974, the "Free Bird" song written by Allen Collins and Ronnie Van Zant was released^[1]. On July 31st, 2018, the Lynyrd Skynyrd official YouTube^[2] channel uploaded the song. It received more than 70 million views in three years (shown below).

Spread

The song was featured in several video games such as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Guitar Hero II. For example on March 9th, 2018, YouTube^[3] user Essenciais uploaded gameplay of the GTA San Andreas where the song is played. The video received 31,000 views in four years (shown below, left). on July 24th, 2015, YouTube^[4] user ParallaxDG uploaded Guitar Hero Full Combo video of the song. It received more than 3.9 million views in seven years (shown below, right).

It also was used in numerous movies, such as in the 2014 film Kingsman: The Secret Service . On August 10th, 2020, YouTube^[5] channel Movies And Shows Clips uploaded its church fight scene. The video received more than 2 million views in two years (shown below).

Warning: Graphic Content

The solo guitar melody gained popularity in exploitable memes. For example, on May 25th, 2021, YouTube^[6] user Cursedmanchild uploaded a Barnacle Boy's sulfur vision edit. The video received more than 825,000 views in one year (shown below, left). Prior to December 31st, 2021, an unknown user uploaded a video that showing character Ayumu Uehara from Love Live! Nijigasaki School Idol Club crying. On December 31st, YouTube^[7] user SonicAlex25 reposted the video. It received more than 631,000 views in eight months (shown below, right).

[This video has been removed]

Horizontally Spinning Rat

Horizontally Spinning Rat, originally known as Rats Multiplying, refers to a series of memes based on videos of 3D rat models usually set to the song "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Spawned in late January 2022 on iFunny with memes in which the number of rats progressively increased, the exploitable format received further spread online in spring and summer 2022 with videos captioned "spinning rat" (examples shown below).

Sorry Officer, the Speed Limit Does Not Apply When I'm Listening to Free Bird

Sorry Officer, The Speed Limit Does Not Apply When Free Bird refers to memes about people driving their vehicles at max speed during the "Free Bird" solo guitar melody (examples shown below).

I Put "Free Bird" over X Fight Scene

Similar to "I Put Spongebob Music Over X" trend, "I Put "Free Bird" over X Fight Scene" refers to memes that use fight scenes from movies with "Free Bird" edited into the background (examples shown below).