The most popular references to birds in any genre of music - lyrics (may exclude classical !) ?
Here's some starters:
Blackbird singing in the dead of night - Beatles
Crow on the Cradle - Mary Black
Be interesting to see what you can recall from memory - a google search might kill the interest !
edit: oops maybe better in culture bunker ??
Pretty Flamingo
Hotel California
- Counting Crows, can’t remember which one is actually about counting crows
Actual bird song and not references
- I know where Syd Barret lives - Television Personalities
- I want to be a tree - Time Pole
The Twa Corbies - Old Blind Dogs
Albatross.
Rockin Robin
When the Whip O'Will calls
The thieving magpie
Anything by Lieutenant Pigeon
Or Budgie
Or the partridge family
I'm sure there's loads more
Also Half Man Half Biscuit- For What Is Chatteris
“And as a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square”
White bird - its a beautiful day
(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover
Je ne Egret rien. Edith Piaf.
Ride A White Swan - T Rex
There Ain't Half Been Some Clever Bustards - Ian Dury and the Blockheads
Black Swan, Bert Jansch
Magpie - The Unthanks
Une Paloma Blanca (paloma == dove). contributed by my wife
Lark in the Clear air - various folk
should we allow Bat out of Hell ? (unpopular present reminder !)
Seems like the Blackbird is topping the charts at mo - or maybe black birds in general - with the crow
Mockingbird - Barclay James Harvest
Shirley Bassey, she was a blackbird, in music.
Eagle - Abba
Larks tongues in aspic part one. King crimson
Crazy Man Michael - Fairport Convention/Sandy Denny - the raven figures prominently. Good track too.
Martin
also her "The North Star Grassman and the Ravens" (LP & song)
> The most popular references to birds in any genre of music
Do they have to be the “most popular”?
I don’t understand this thread at all. Lyrics, or titles?
Freebird.
Birdsong is a major feature in the work of Olivier Messiaen-as per this example-
youtube.com/watch?v=_XYZKGklT20&
As the Crow Flies - the late lamented Rory Gallagher
Written by Tony Joe white
The Birdie Song?
The Lark Ascending. Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Kookaburra song. Tommy Steele
> I don’t understand this thread at all. Lyrics, or titles?
As its turned out - free for all
But on resumé it will be interesting to see recurrent themes
Erland cooper. Solan goose.
A whole album with every track title is a bird name, and a fair scattering of birdsong and calls.
A recent discovery and a thing of beauty if you like folky/ambient.
I'm like a bird - Nelly Furtado.
When Doves Cry - Prince
Doves feature in Cohen's song Take this Waltz - adapted from spanish poet Frederico Garcia Lorca
Bluebird (late at night when the wind is down ... ) McCartney
> As its turned out - free for all
> But on resumé it will be interesting to see recurrent themes
Recurrent themes like what? The same birds? Crows and eagles and swans will be popular
Swans - Lisa Gerrard
anything by Swans
The Black Swan (album title) - The Triffids
The Seabirds - The Triffids
anything by The Byrds
Birdland (album) by the band Birdland
Birdland by Weather Report
anything by The Jayhawks
Nightbirds by The Walkabouts
Stool Pigeon Kid Creole and The Coconuts
You're showing your age - I was only three yrs old then !!
> Or the partridge family
How about The 12 days of Christmas ? possibly unbeatable number of species named in one song !
Enola Gay, Kestrel Manouvers in the Dark
"If you were a Bluebird" - Joe Ely. Written by Butch Hancock.
If you don't know this song there is a link to a live version below.
Black Diamond Bay (as the cranes fly away ) - Bob Dylan
Check t§his out - I swear there IS a kestrel featured in the 1st 30secs
'If You Leave'
Surprised no one has had 'starlings' by Elbow
Any of Ronnie Ronalde’s bird whistling songs!
> Mockingbird - Barclay James Harvest
Paul Robeson sang about this bird in 'Lindy Lou' - 'did you hear the mockingbird last night? '
Lesbian Seagull - Engelbert Humpadink
> Birdsong is a major feature in the work of Olivier Messiaen-as per this example-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivier_Messiaen#Birdsong
I've tried many times to enjoy Messiaen's music, but I cannot reconcile the expected delight of listening to a group of birds singing... with what I feel when I listen to whatever Messiaen produced.
Saint-Saen's The Swan evokes the swan somewhat for me though: youtube.com/watch?v=b44-5M4e9nI&
True, it's not to everyone's taste but what is beyond doubt is that Messiaen possessed just about the fastest ears in Christendom as evidenced by the accuracy of his rendering-give this another go if you're so minded-
youtube.com/watch?v=G6Izpdkjrhk& (I guess like most you might have a bit of time to fill these days)
> Black Swan, Bert Jansch
In the album Avocet he titled the six tracks after Avocet Lapwing Bittern Kingfisher Osprey Kittiwake
> anything by The Jayhawks.
Jayhawks deserved a lot more success. Not alone there, of course.
> I've tried many times to enjoy Messiaen's music,
I know what you mean - needs a technical appreciation - some clever maths in there somwhere
Since classical and instrumental is getting in: Handel: The Cuckoo and The Nightingale Concerto, Haydn: The Bird string quartet.
Is that the children's song ? You've brought back epic memories of hearing these birds chorusing at dawn around echoing gum forests. I was down under in '90 and '96
For anyone who's never heard it:
> Since classical and instrumental is getting in: Handel: The Cuckoo and The Nightingale Concerto, Haydn: The Bird string quartet.
may as well throw in the trout quintet
I'm on a roll now: Stravinsky: The Firebird
Yeah. It was on an album of similar child’s songs that are ingrained in my head from taking kids up to Scotland .
Has Charlie "Bird" Parker been mentioned yet?
I nearly did but then I didn’t. You can use a browser search to see if something has been mentioned
Kookaburra - Cocteau Twins
anything by Doves
anything by Cranes
anything by Eagles of Death Metal
Fly Low Carrion Crow by Two Gallants
Little Wing - Jimi Hendrix
anything by Wings (the band The Beatles could have become)
anything by Phoenix
> may as well throw in the trout quintet
If we're talking Schubert, look no further than one of the greatest collections of songs ever put together: Schwanengesang
Getting back to popular culture, probably my favourite bird image: My love she's like some raven/At my window with a broken wing - Dylan: Love Minus Zero/No Limit
Johnathon Livingstone Seagull - Neil Diamond
Anything by Sheryl Crow
Aaaaah I was going to do both those. Well done!
Taylor Swift
Dean Martin
Gullway girl by Ed Sheerwater
The house martins
For the benefit of Mr Kite - Beatles
> Doves feature in Cohen's song Take this Waltz
And don't forget Bird on the Wire.
Plus, from various points on the spectrum of folk: Steeleye Span: The Lark in the Morning; Laura Marling: Once I was an Eagle; Black Crow, from Joni Mitchell's magnum opus, Hejira.
What about the lovely song "The Bluebird" by Stanford. (Almost contemporary with Vaughan-Williams).
the French kid's song 'Alouette' (lark)
White Dove - Lynard Skynard (with Ricky Medlocke singing)
youtube.com/watch?v=RN23j8iQJg0&
Yellow Bird - Caribbean calipso song I don't know who sang it.
youtube.com/watch?v=EJBjbvij-uI&
Seagulls! with Yoda and Luke. A modern classic if ever there was one.
Resphigi is the first to spring to mind for me, but can't remember the title, somethin like the Birds. In my youth when my musical knowledge far outpaced my literary I thought Mozart's famous aria Dove sono was something about the sound of doves. In the same way for long I believed Liszt was a contemporary of Dante as a result of having attended “une lectur de Dante”.
The Sparrow Looks Up At The Machine youtube.com/watch?v=FxfWTvJD1q8&
Parklife. 2 for the price of 1!
> Magpie - The Unthanks
Ah, thought that one would be gone. Just in case there's anyone left who hasn't seen the lovely montage thingy the BBC did on 'Detectorists': youtube.com/watch?v=C6gSYHJhuCw&
Here's another one for folkies:
Echo Mocks the Corncrake.
Karine Polwart's version: youtube.com/watch?v=HXX-iEYFQG4&
The Snow Goose by Camel
Snowbird by Anne Murray.
Good one ! Respighi used a nightingale recording in Pine of Rhone
> Saint-Saen's The Swan evokes the swan somewhat for me though
Swans are a recurrent theme in classical:
Sibelius - The Black Swan of Tuonella
and of course
Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake
> What about the lovely song "The Bluebird" by Stanford. (Almost contemporary with Vaughan-Williams).
I used to sing this (nb. not the solo !) in the school choir
It's pretty black and white I'd say...
This Little Bird. - Marianne Faithfull.
> This Little Bird. - Marianne Faithfull.
Little Bird by Lisa Hannigan
Little Bird by Annie Lennox
Anything by One Dove.
Chestnut Mare and Tambourine Man...
> It's pretty black and white I'd say...
Yes, enough stats here to draw a conclusion. Categories seem to break down as follows:
Non precise reference: bird, little bird
Colored birds: yellow, blue, black, white
Species specific: nightingale, lark (assume skylark), whipoorwill, corncrake (!), kookaburra all noted for their song so include 'songbird'
Birds as Band name: Eagles, Cranes
Mythical birds: firebird, phoenix
And I'm still puzzled why so many sing about starlings - loads of title on Spotify !
The Roasted Swan - Carmina Burana (Orff)
rather gruesome, horrible idea https://lyrics.fandom.com/wiki/Carl_Orff:Olim_Lacus_Colueram/en
Goosie Goosie Gander
I was Kaiser Bill's Batman (double reference though one is mammalian)
Tit Willow Tit Willow
Shrike - Hozier
> Tit Willow Tit Willow
Damn I should have gotthat - was singing it just the other day - possibly the strongest souvenir from The Mikado by Gilbert & Sullivan
> Since classical and instrumental is getting in: Handel: The Cuckoo and The Nightingale Concerto, Haydn: The Bird string quartet.
Delius also featured the cuckoo 'On hearing the 1st cuckoo in spring"
Saint Saens also in Carnival of the Animals
> You mean *magpie* ??? ha ha ha
La Gazza Ladra is Italian for 'The Thieving Magpie'.
I assumed that people would either know that, or, Google it if they didn't.
The 2nd movement of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony (No6) has several bird calls, with the cuckoo represented by 2 clarinet.
Ahem,
Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep (Middle of the Road)
The chicken song (Spitting Image)
Captain Beaky?
Annie's Song
Are the Yardbirds still unclaimed? Now that's what you call a guitar band!
And from that lineage, the greatest British electric guitarist of them all*, Jeff Beck and the memorably named Constipated Duck, from the classic album Blow by Blow.
*with apologies to Eric, Bob etc etc...
Do record labels count? If so, can I offer Bluebird Records - for whom I think the unjustly neglected but brilliantly named Robert Nighthawk may once have recorded!
If so, I can add "Recordiau'r Dryw" - a 1960s Welsh recording company, meaning Wren Records.
I liked the incidental music to an early 80s R4 programme called "To Fly Where the Sun Never Sets" narrated by Andrew Sachs about the incredible lives and travels of Arctic Terns who see more sunlight than any other living creature it seems. Love to hear that programme again but I don't think it is available.
However, it has left evidence of its existence:
https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/e01a98ddafdf4b648378e456c5938e14 The kind of listening that would be ideal now.
> The Lark Ascending. Ralph Vaughan Williams.
currently spinning on my turntable. Wonderful.
Another band name for the older demographic: Chicken Shack. I imagine people may remember their hits, the cover of I'd Rather Go Blind and Tears in the Wind - but how many recall the rather ornithologically inappropriate track Webbed Feet? (To other blues fans, it's an instrumental named for their fine lead guitarist, Stan Webb.)
> (There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover
Another vote for the bluebird - Judy Garland singing Somewhere over th Rainbow
"Underneath the spreading chestnut tree, the little birdies go tweet tweet"
Which reminds me of an exchange Shakespeare and Noel Coward had in the au delà when they chanced to meet. So, the former asked, "how would you describe that bow legged man over there?" "Underneath the spreading chestnut tree, a bandied legged man I see" replied his interlocutor with some pride. Somewhat miffed by the dubious look on the Bard's face he asked for his contribution. "Lo what manner of man is this, whose balls lie in parenthesis" came the reply.
Respighi's The Birds, and The Pines of Rome are beautifully uplifting, just like bird song.
Painted Bird - Siouxsie and the Banshees
> This is just delightfully bonkers
Vintage stuff machine and crackly 78rpm. Good find !
One for sorrow, two for joy,
Three for a girl and four for a boy,
Five for silver, six for Gold,
Seven for a secret, never to be told.
MAAAAAG - PIE.
"Two lilltle dickie birds sitting in a row,
One called Peter, One called Paul,
Fly Away Peter, Fly Away Paul,
No Little dickie birds sitting in a row."
(Sung by my mother when I was very young! As I haven't heard it in many decades it may not be quite right)
Sad to hear Michael Rosen is in hospital with the virus
"Les Oiseaux" (Eric Satie)
I don't think anyone has mentioned "Sing, Little Birdie" by Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson which was runner up in the 1959 Eurovision Song Contest. I was 9 at time and can still remember the excitement.
Childrens songs are a gppd source of bird reference. I don"t think we've had Who killed cock robin' - which also names the sparrow as the culprit
or Four and Twenty Blackbirds baked in a Pie?
> or Four and Twenty Blackbirds baked in a Pie?
The wren also features in that song - never really noticed before
Anything by "Screamin' Jay" Hawkins
> Anything by "Screamin' Jay" Hawkins
Reminds me of when jays get together to dispute over something - what a racket !
Blackbird - Martyn Bennett/Lizzie Higgins
Of Danny MacAskill and The Ridge fame: youtube.com/watch?v=xQ_IQS3VKjA&
You've assembled such a flock now you really need a bird catcher to deal with them all:
Can't resist using the thread to give a plug to my current favourite country star, the marvellous Ashley McBryde and her just released second album which includes the song Sparrow:
My wife heard blackbird songtalk yesterday.. She was surprised to see the resident ringed male approaching her on foot, singing as he hopped, only stopping on arrival to start calling her for sultanas
> True, it's not to everyone's taste but what is beyond doubt is that Messiaen possessed just about the fastest ears in Christendom as evidenced by the accuracy of his rendering-give this another go if you're so minded-
I've only lately remembered this by Debussy - Syrinx. No need for quite such fast ears with this piece
One of my favourite birds, a jay, not seen many in my time though.
The Cure - Where the Birds Always Sing