Ray in Exile

There has been a lot of talk lately in blogs and in the press about people who yell “Freebird!” at concerts.
Some radio station in Chicago is claiming to have started this trend in the late 80′s.
Which is complete crap.
I am here to tell you that I made this joke up.
You know how the live Skynyrd album goes….”What is it you want to hear?” “FREEBIRD!” People who grew up in the 70′s heard this on rock radio all the time. Everybody owned the album. It was ingrained in our consciousness.
1984. A Houston punk club called Cabaret Voltaire. My friend Ray Isle’s band is playing. I’m standing in front of the “stage”, to the right, leaning against the wall. Somebody yells a request, and Ray says “Uh, what is it you want to hear?” and the Skynyrd quote just popped into my head and I yelled “Freebird!”
And everybody laughed. It wasn’t a worn out cliche then, it was actually kind of funny. We had all grown up on Skynyrd, and redneck rock was one of the things we rebelled against when we all discovered the Ramones and the Clash. So it was a totally inappropriate request, it was meant ironically, and everybody thought it was funny.
I think they actually spent a few seconds trying to figure out how to play it before they said “fuck that” and played something they knew.
I don’t even remember the name of the band (Ray I. would, if anybody knows where he is), but they had a rocking song called “100 Watt Light”.
That’s what I remember.
Anybody got anything better?