Songs About Birds -- Can You Name Some?

There's the Lennon/McCartney song "Blackbird", which includes birdsong at the end of the piece.

The band XTC has a song entitled "Rook", on the Nonsuch album (a crow is also mentioned in the song).

Yellow Bird, up high in banana tree...

Or better, the Smothers Brothers' "Madrigal" (which I can't find on youtube, dammit).

Back in my grad student days, I did field work. In a field. Anyway, one day when I was cutting up mildewed leaves in a barley plot, there was a skylark bubbling away further up the field. So, yes The Lark Ascending is very familiar. But it's also one of the birds that's threatened by agriculture. But because it has something of an iconic status (as ascendant and blithe spirit), it's a useful charismatic species.

Onto the music, Einojuhani Rautavaara wrote a Cantus Arcticus, as a concerto for birds and orchestra. I have the Naxos recording (CD currently being ripped. :-)), which with wonderful irony is conducted by Hannu Lintu. Lintu is, of course, Finnish for "bird".

Oh, Sibelius (another guy popular around these parts) wrote The Swan of Tuonela (Tuonelan juotsen). And one of the movements from Mussorsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is the Ballet of the Unhatched Chickens.

Hmm. There might be one or two more as well.

Bob

When The Swallows Come Back To Capistrano.
I like the Glen Miller version, the Elvis Presley version is OK.
The link is to Pat Boone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kR903kEc-8

When the red red robin Comes bob-bob-bobbing along. the link is to Al Jolson's version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCrnwLlSRbo

The Lark Ascending, by Ralph Vaughan Williams is great and your You Tube link is to a great rendition. The link below is to the words http://www.bhso.org.uk/repert-155-Vaughan-Williams-The-Lark-Ascending.h…

Not a song I like, but there is one called Ostrich boots.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXhSYpdXiPc

As soon as I saw your headline I started humming "Rockin' Robin." It's not as lovely poetry as some of the others, but I've been on a doo-wop kick lately and it is rather infectious.

Honeybird song:
OK its in Xhosa and in the clip it is being sung rather slowly, but a good tune.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7wjE8UMSxQ

I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned two robin songs:
Rockin' Robin and When the red, red, robin comes bob, bob, bobbin' along.

Or am I the only around old enough to remember them? ;-)

I see John McKay snuck in ahead of me with Rockin' Robin, but I also remembered an even older oldie -- Bye Bye Blackbird.

Olivier Messiaen was the foremost incorporator of bird calls, he recorded various birds himself and would transcribe their calls and use them in his music. His 1976 work Des Canyons Aux Etoiles would be a good place to start

Mustn't forget "She's Got the Biggest Parakeets in Town" by Jud Strunk.

Or am I the only around old enough to remember them? ;-) Posted by: chezjake

I remembered Red Red Robin, but it's stuck in moderation for now :o) Too many links.

This isn't about birds, it is sung by Vultures (in Finnish just for Bob) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WkqoevBTnE

The choral composer Charles Stanford wrote a setting of Mary Coleridge's L'oiseau bleu.

Anything by Counting Crows?

Or I Like Birds by the Eels.

Heres a link to Yellow Bird with lots of images of Yellow Birds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJEmSMLLAMY

This Rockin Robin recording must be near to when it originally came out. Who remembers black & white TVs?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_8MW7k0688

Blackbird http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ERnT1X9HPw

I'd actually forgotten about these songs.

The videos are great. I thought of another Bluebird one which may have been mentioned on Birdchat (I haven't finished reading through them all) - Bluebird by Paul McCartney & Wings. It's featured on the album Band on the Run.

This is a fun and interesting topic, and I enjoy your entire blog (in addition to this part) --- fantastic and enjoyable and informative site! You are great, Devorah, and I'm glad to visit your blog often! Thanks for all the good stuff!--Jeanette

a bird pal, Chazz, found this link for bob's "ballet of the unhatched chickens". it includes an autoplay link to the piece itself, so be ready to hear some music (you know, if you are misbehaving by reading this at work).

not only that, but here's the link to She's Got the Biggest Parakeets in Town.

it's a scream.

We can also add:

Freebird
Skylark (jazz standard)
the entire musical Bye, Bye Birdie
John Ashcroft's execrable When the Eagle Flies
May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose (country/novelty)
Lullaby of Birdland (Ella)
Mockingbird (James Taylor)
Feed the Birds (Mary Poppins)

Schumann's Vogels al Prophet (Bird as Prophet, or Prophet Bird) is wonderful! A little bit unsettling, in the best way.

Going through my iTunes library, I find (along with some of those mentioned above):

The Birdcharmer's Destiny - BeBop Deluxe
And Your Bird Can Sing - The Beatles
Birds in Two Hemispheres - Bill Nelson
A Bird That Whistles + The Beat of Black Wings - Joni Mitchell
Comfort Eagle - Cake
Dodo - Dave Matthews
Rain Tree Crow + Black Crow Hits Shoe Shine City - Rain Tree Crow
Night Bird - Deep Forest
Penguins - The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy
Birdshead + Birds in Perspex + The Black Crow Knows - Robyn Hitchcock
Bird on a Wire - Leonard Cohen
Night of the Swallow - Kate Bush
Larks' Tongues in Aspic - King Crimson
Ladybird - XTC
Tiny Birds - Shriekback (they also have an album named 'Cormormant')
Birdland - Weather Report
Little Wing - Jimi Hendrix
Waves Become Wings - This Mortal Coil
Roadrunner - Jonathan Richman

There are also lots of songs that reference birds in picturesque ways. I think of Stevie Wonder's 'As' (Until the dolphins fly and parrots live at sea); the Neil Finn songs 'Faster Than Light' and 'Into the Sunset' in particular); Robyn Hitchcock's 'Bass' and of course the ultimate: 'Over the Rainbow'

Okay, I just followed the parakeets link - LOL!

Lullaby of Birdland and Birdland don't count. They're both named for the nightclub, which was named after Charlie "Yardbird" Parker (yardbird = chicken, Parker's favorite meal).

Lessee, Skylark and Bye Bye Blackbird have been mentioned. Let's dig into the Vault of Time:

Duke Ellington's Flamingo is a great song from 1939. How about Listen to the Mockingbird -- that's a real oldie (1890 or thereabouts). And then there's that favorite of the Ziegfeld Follies, She's Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage.

There's an old swing number called Mr. Meadowlark. Mighta been a Hoagy Carmichael tune, or at least I have a recording of him singing it. And I dimly remember another swing tune called Bobwhite. (Tommy Dorsey and Modernaires? Not really my thing.) I think there was a brief vogue for bird-themed swing numbers in the early '40s, but my song-title-memory is a bit congested at the moment. Trivia: During the swing era, a common slang expression for a female vocalist was "thrush."

If we're including instrumental music, Ennio Morricone wrote a typically amazing score for Dario Argento's first feature film, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage. And of course Bernard Herrmann's score for Hitchcock's The Birds. Those two might be stretching things a bit.

"Blue canary in the outlet by the light-switch...."

Birdhouse in your soul, TMBG

Arrgh! How could I forget:

A buzzard took monkey for a ride in the air
The monkey thought that everything was on the square
The buzzard tried to throw the monkey off his back
But the monkey grabbed his neck and said, "Now listen, Jack"

"Straighten Up and Fly Right
Straighten up and stay right
Straighten Up and Fly Right
Cool down, papa, don't you blow your top.

"Ain't no use in divin'
What's the use in jivin'
Straighten Up and Fly Right
Cool down, papa, don't you blow your top."

Didn't Vera Lynne sing "There'll be Bluebirds over/The White Cliffs of Dover"? Can't recall if that was the title or just part of the chorus. I seem to remember my mother or my grandmother singing this when I was just a kid.

Lars,

The lyrics are posted at http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/reeves_jim_1_/7974690/lyrics.jhtml.

Thanks, aT. That's the one.

With apologies in advance...

I wrote one.

http://digitalcuttlefish.blogspot.com/2008/01/dirty-bird-dirty-bird.html

I had one that I'd hope no one else would mention because it is one of my favorite pieces: Rossini's overture of "The Thieving Magpie"

Didn't then-Attorney General John Ashcroft write a song about an eagle? I'm sure there are YouTube videos of that disaster.

Steve Miller's "Fly Like an Eagle".

Does "And Your Bird Can Sing" by The Beatles (I believe Lennon) count? Not really about birds, but SUCH A GREAT SONG!

Mythical bird, "Firebird Suite" by Igor Stravinsky

"Canary In a Coalmine" By the Police
"The Cuckoo and the Nightingale" by (I think) Teleman
"Swan Lake" Tchaikovsky
Mockingbirds" by Grant Lee Buffalo (great song)
"Skylark" by one of the great composers (forget which), I have it sung by Ella Fitzgerald.
Didn't Carly Simon and James Taylor do a "Mockingbird" as well?
There was movie called "The Sandpiper" that had a wonderful melody that was the "love them" but is often called "The Sandpiper".

XTX had an album called "Skylarking" and John Denver had one named "Aerie" on which the "Eagle and the Hawk" was first recorde.

"Skylark" is by Hoagy Carmichael.

Hoagy also wrote "Baltimore Oriole," which I can't believe I forgot yesterday because that one's actually in my repertoire. The lyrics (by Johnny Mercer) are full of birdly goodness, if you get a chance to hear them.

Johnny Mercer also wrote the lyrics to "Mister Meadowlark," but the melody is Walter Donaldson, not Hoagy.

Also, Hoagy's "Lazy River" features a robin in the second verse.

"Great God Bird" by Sufjan Stevens.

Don't forget Moxy Fruvous' "Roadrunner Song" - though it's about the cartoon version...

Beep Beep!

See this post and many more at the Music Review Carnival.
http://stopandhearthemusic.com/2008/01/16/music-review-carnival-2/

There's the traditional "Cuckoo's Nest", though it really isn't about a bird....

As I was a walking one morning in May
I met a pretty fair maid and unto her did say
I'll tell you me mind, it's for love I am inclined
An me inclination lies in your cuckoo's nest

Some like a girl who is pretty in the face
and some like a girl who is slender in the waist
But give me a girl who will wriggle and will twist
At the bottom of the belly lies the cuckoo's nest

Me darling, says she, I am innocent and young
And I scarcely can believe your false deluding tongue
Yet I see it in your eyes and it fills me with surprise
That your inclination lies in me cuckoo's nest

me darling, says me, if you can see it in me eyes
Then think of it as fondness and do not be surprised
For I live you me dear and I'll marry you I swear
If you'll let me clap my hand on your cuckoo's nest

Me darling, says she, I can do no such thing
For me mother often told me it was committing sin
Me maidenhead to lose and me sex to be abused
So have no more to do with me cuckoo's nest

Me darling, says me, it's not committing sin
But common sense should tell you it is a pleasing thing
For you were brought into this world to increase and do your best
And to help a man to heaven in your cuckoo's nest

Me darling, says she, I cannot you deny
For you've surely won my heart by the rolling of your eye
Yet I see it in your eyes that your courage is surprised
So gently lift your hand into me cuckoo's nest

This couple they got married and soon they went to bed
And now this pretty fair maid has lost her maidenhead
In a small country cottage they increase and do their best
And he often claps his hand on her cuckoo's nest

Back when I was a kid , in the late cretaceous, there was a novelty song by a female singer backed up by a male chorus with a german accent, the few lyrics I remember are: "Early in the morning (repeaated by the chorus, while I'm still asleep, comes a little chirping, comes a little cheep (or Tweet), from a tiny birdie, with a funny name" now the part I can't completely recall is the bird's name in German, which sounded like "It's the Klineklineloopendoodle lamehawkenmawkensudlelabenhootenlaughtenboomer bird(!)
i remember for certain only the beginning as "Klinekline" and the last as "Labeahootenlaughtenboomer bird"
does anyone remember this song from 1958-1959 and can tell me who sang it and what the name of that bloody German bird was for sure? I've been trying to find that record for well over 20 years now.
James Gregory Heavilin.
601 36th Street # 203.
Bakersfield, California-93301.
Kwahnume@yahoo.com