All of my Bandit T/A's had a cassette deck with Skynard in it. I love the intro to Free Bird and usually had it cued up. I even had a buddy make matching gold Skynard window stickers that each one wore, visible just under the mandatory and period correct aluminum window louvers. I cropped out as much of the car as possible so as not to offend. A bird of a different feather.
A useless bit of trivia, that was Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones on guitar and bass on "Brown Eyed Girl" back when they were studio guys, and the Muscle Shoals rhythm section (the "Swampers" as mentioned in "Sweet Home Alabama") on "Mustang Sally". There was a great documentary done on them a few years ago. The list of hits they played on will stagger you, from BJ Thomas("I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry") to Paul Simon "Kodachrome" to Percy Sledge "When A Man Loves A Woman" and on and on. Everyone's favorite band that they never heard of.
I don't think if I could have sold the car to him knowing that. I work for a big fab shop about 60 employees, about 5 years ago the owner did aResto-Mod on his 67 Corvette. The frame he bought needed welds a bunch of weld fixed and finished. We were slow in the shop so he brought it in for us to fix. My Foreman came up to me and said jokingly "You have a choice, you can work on the frame or sweep the floor the rest of the day." His jaw hit the floor when I said "O.K. I will get a broom." I swept the floor over working on a Resto-Mod.
I'm chuckling a little reading this as I read about the hemi that came with the bird but the bird is no more. I kinda mixed that up in the art show but hey...it actually would have been a nicer fate but that will not be the outcome...and that's a great tune...the song not whats happening to the bird...
We went to go see a pink Floyd tribute band, "Wish you were here". They are pretty good and usually a great night for sure if you can catch them out side. Rode the bike and got primo VIP MC parking. Me and momma hanging out on a blanket, enjoying a cocktail and catching up after a busy week listening to some good music. Right after Pigs ( three different ones) Sure as shit people start yelling "FREE BIRD"
Okay, my "Freebird" story. Back in '95 I had a friend who worked for Liberty Mutual, which owned a condo in Manhatten. By lottery, they let employees use the condo for free on the weekends. My friend scored a weekend during the summer and four of us woobers from Maine end up in the Big City. I picked up a flyer with all the local events and found that The Blue Note (LEGENDARY jazz club) was featuring The Modern Jazz Quartet (LEGENDARY jazz band, like the Beatles of the jazz world) on Saturday night, so off we went. Four tickets, one round of drinks and three hundred dollars later, this was a once-in-a-lifetime deal for us and probably for a lot of people there. The band starts playing and it was like the Pope serving mass in the Notre Dame cathedral. The waitresses stopped serving drinks, NOBODY even whispered a word. Perfection. After a half an hour, John Lewis the piano player finally spoke to the crowd and said "What do you want to hear?" and some asshole (me) from Maine yells "Freebird!" Absolutely cracked the place up including the band. John Lewis got off a really funny one too. (important to note that these guys had been together since '52). At one point he says "As some of you know, our drummer Connie died a few months ago and tonight we have Percy's (the bassist) brother with us." Someone in the band says "No, he died a year ago". John pauses and says "Hmm, more serious than I thought...." If you're not familiar with these guys, check them out even if you think you hate jazz. "Softly As In A Morning Sunrise" from 1955 is a good place to start, very cool and laid back and I read somewhere recently that this was the kind of stuff the early hot rodders used to listen to before R&R took over the radio. Makes sense to me.
It is what he does. I don't agree but he does this a lot. He is just finishing a build on a Cameo PU that got a FI BBC crate motor and street rod touches. It will be a cool truck just not HAMB cool (which we all know is cooler than just ordinary cool). To each his own, cash only, no warranty implied, no returns.
Goodbye Freebird...I mean T-Bird......O-well what's Billy going to do with the hemi? Its got nothing...I look forward to the receiver...
The Jalopy Journal
