The truth is like a Mack Truck; it hurts when it hits

This morning I switched cds. As I was looking for the "right" one, my eyes fell on Lynyrd Skynyrd. It felt right, so I popped it in. As I drove, I grooved to classic power ballads like "Sweet Home, Alabama", enjoyed the driving triple guitar attack of "Give me 3 Steps", and even enjoyed the bluesy, moody "Simple Man" (which the new, out of tune version of I recently heard is just embarrassed by) and Curtis Low (sic).
And finally, their theme song, their anthem, the song that arguably was their signature came on. And it hit me. Freebird sucks. Oh, it has all the elements that made Skynyrd rock. It has the driving electric guitars, the melodic piano, the well-tempo'd drums, the memorable hook that leads you into the song...even some quite passable lyrics. However, it just....doesn't....end. The song finishes, but the boys keep playing. The time the hook works is finished, but the guitars aren't.
Oh, make it stop. As much as I like their sound, which is a lot, there is no need for Freebird to rival Aina Godda Dovida (or whatever the actual title is) and Thriller as songs most likely to take than the National Anthem at a high school football game.
Shorten it down to a tight 3 - 5 minutes and Freebird is perfect. Stretch it out to 15...not so much.
And that hurts. To realize the theoretically best song of one of your top 25 groups really ain't all its cracked up to be. And coming on the heels of re-evaluating the "The Value of..." series, it really makes me wonder...was "Mike and the Steam Shovel" really an awesome book? Or was it a steaming pile of