February 19, 2025 • 60 mins
Listen to This with Eric Leckey Ever noticed how many great songs take inspiration from the world around us—especially birds? On Listen to This, host Eric Leckey curates a playlist of tunes that soar, flap, and glide through music history, all connected by a common theme. This episode? Birds! From "Blackbird" to "Free Bird" and everything in between, we’ll explore the stories behind the songs, the artists who made them fly, and why these tracks still resonate today. So, if you're ready to let the music take flight, sit back, hit play, and Listen to This!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to listen to this, the podcast that is dedicated
to bringing you stories behind the artists, behind the songs,
and hopefully we are introducing you to old songs that
have influenced all the music that we hear today. The
goal is I want you to hear an artist that
you might not normally listen to, and search out their
music on whatever streaming service you subscribe to, and maybe
just maybe buy it on vinyl, by it on physical media.
(00:22):
People own your music. We invite you to subscribe, comment,
and of course, please recommend this podcast to your friends
and family. Every episode has a theme, and today's is birds.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Never in the history of the United States a monster
of such size and power.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Welcome to listen.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
To this, a podcast that brings you the stories behind
the songs and artists, with a theme to tie it
all together.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Here's your hosts, Eric Lecky. Birds is our subject of
the day and when I first thought of this category,
I kept thinking of birds in our pop culture. I mean,
we have tons of sports teams named after birds. Atlanta Falcons,
Arizona Cardinals, Toronto Blue Jays, Saint Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Hawks,
(01:07):
et cetera, et cetera. We also have a lot of
cartoon birds in our pop culture. Daffy Duck and Donald
Duck and the Roadrunner and Tweety Bird and Woodstock, Huey
Doo and Louis Foghorn, Leghorn, big Bird. The list goes
on and on. I also found lots of songs about birds,
and I'm excited to share them with you on today's episode.
So let's talk some interesting bird facts here, people, How
(01:29):
about this? Did you know that crows hold funerals for
their dead friends. Did you know hummingbirds is the only
bird that can fly backwards and hover in place? Did
you know that owls swallow their food whole? Do you
know that some birds can fly while sleeping and that
the flamingo can only eat when its head is upside down. Well,
(01:50):
let's get it started today with a really old song
from Al Jolson.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Really got a thing, the tibe I always feel happy
by the happy, by lucky.
Speaker 5 (02:11):
When the red red Robin comes.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Bab bab Bob and along alone, there'll be no more Bob.
And when he's not Robin, his old retall Wait, cop, wait,
come you read here, dead up dead up, get out,
I bet here up here up the fun in Red
(02:36):
Limbs Long, Laughingly Happy.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
When the Red Red Robin Comes Baba Bobbin Along was
written by Harry Woods and was first introduced by the
major major artist at the time, Sophie Tucker, but was
popularized by Al Jolson, who I Played for You and
it was featured in the nineteen forty nine film Jolson
Sings Again, and in the nineteen ninety four film It's
(03:00):
Over Broadway. In nineteen fifty three, Doris Day had a
top thirty hit with this song. Her version is probably
the best rendition of this feel good song, even though
Joelson's version reached number one on the Billboard Chart of
the Day.
Speaker 6 (03:18):
Yeah so hot, good Yeah three clo.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
The moon so cool, Wow.
Speaker 7 (03:29):
Pumpkin, yeh know, that's something. The boom was a thone.
Speaker 8 (03:36):
Floone stopped the show.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
To say hello to the clone.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Light the five.
Speaker 9 (03:55):
Hello showed up and it shotted the show.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Good night.
Speaker 10 (04:02):
Ice Cream ice Cream.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
That was Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band with ice
Cream for Crows. This is the title track of Captain
Beefheart's second to last album. Ice Cream for Crows. Is
typically an inscrutable words solid of lines like crow pants.
The scarecrow and hop flop squawk. Good luck trying to
(04:30):
figure it all out. Beef Art's once explained quote, I'm
just a silly ass man. I have no method to
my madness. Beefheart and his Magic Band invested a lot
in the video for the song, where they perform it
out in the desert. It was supposed to bring the
niche band into the living room of the masses, but
they were quickly deflated when MTV deemed it too weird
(04:54):
to play. Those who saw the video did so either
on syndicated music video shows like night Flow or on
David Letterman's show. When Letterman had be Fart on, he
played the video and asked him what ice cream for
crows even means. B Fart's reply made no sense, but
he said it with a conviction that left you bleeding
bleeding that it made sense to him. A rough transcription
(05:17):
was ray Gun jelly Bean's rope trick. He's a bad actor.
What he has to do is black and white like
a raven vanilla ice cream. Obviously, this guy was just
a nut.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
That comes down your own and welcome shower down. The
sta chains are Revu Jennal to the plane stumble beside
(06:26):
only and then in the game.
Speaker 11 (06:35):
Wasn't Where to Go.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Beside?
Speaker 12 (06:42):
Sho no behead of that?
Speaker 3 (06:44):
A Cassing No.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Night Owl is the title track to Jerry Rafferty's third
solo album, follow up to his bestseller City to City.
Like Rafferty's hit Baker Street, the song is undoubtedly autobiographical
to some degree, is he sings about the vibe he
gets from his life as a performing musician and the
(07:11):
loneliness that creeps in when the lights go down. At
the time, Rafferty had left his native Scotland and had
relocated to England.
Speaker 13 (07:19):
The song was.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Released as a single backed by Why Won't You Talk
To Me? A pretty decent song. Like the rest of
his album, It was written by Rafferty himself and produced
by Hugh Murphy for United Artists. The lyric con solo
That's an instrument was provided by Rafael Ravenscroft. He's the
guy who performed the famous saxophone solo on Rafferty's previous
(07:43):
song Baker Street. The lyricn is a breath controlled analog
synthesizer invented by Bill Bernardi and Roger Noble in Massachusetts
in the nineteen seventies. It was the first electronic wind
instrument to be constructed.
Speaker 14 (07:57):
Erlin has a great spiritual that we'd like to you
folks now, for you suppose would bother anything if all
of us joined in with you, well.
Speaker 13 (08:04):
I wouldn't want to do unless all of your help.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
All right, then we're ready.
Speaker 15 (08:08):
When you are on the wings of the soul white,
he sends his pills sweet love, a sign from a pun.
Speaker 13 (08:20):
On the wings of the.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
When troubles surrounds, when evils come, the body grows weak,
the spirit grows. Now when these things be said, he
doesn't forget.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
He sends down his love on the wings of the.
Speaker 13 (08:54):
On the wings of the he sends his pills.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
From of the.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
That was furlin husky with wings of a dove. This
is based on the biblical story of Noah's art, particularly
the passage in Genesis eight six through twelve. After forty
days adrift on the flooded earth, Noah sent out a
dove to find if water had dried up and there
was land. After a couple of attempts, the dove returned
(09:31):
with an olive leaf in its mouth, so Noah knew
the water had begun to recede from the earth. The
image of the dove carrying an olive branch became a
pretty enduring symbol of peace and Christian art. In other
areas of scripture, the dove also represents the Holy Spirit.
Matthew three point sixteen and Luke three point twenty two
recount Jesus's baptism at the Jordan River. After Jesus praise,
(09:54):
Heaven opens and the Holy Spirit comes down in the
form of well a dove. The moment is linked to God,
the Father's love as a voice from above and says
you are my son whom I love, and I am
very pleased with you. Song was written by Bob Ferguson,
a Nashville songwriter and producer who would go on to
write the hit The Carroll County Accident for Porter Wagner.
(10:16):
Ferguson was producing a series of films for the Tennessee
Game and Fish Commission when he wrote the song Wings
of a Dove in nineteen fifty eight. Quote this is
a personal expression of faith and joy in achieving a goal,
Ferguson told author Dorothy Hastron of the song. When I
wrote it, I had just completed thirteen films on wildlife,
(10:37):
and I was elated that the job was done.
Speaker 7 (10:53):
I am the little red.
Speaker 16 (10:54):
Rusve ju lay, I am the little red hooster. To
lay the cold, keep everything in the ball upset and.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
The dogs begin a ball.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
How let's begin a house? Dogs begin a ball?
Speaker 5 (11:55):
How Let's begin a hound? Watch azzagem.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Little Red.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
That was the legendary Rolling Stones with Little Red Rooster.
It's a blue standard. It was written by Willie Dixon
and first recorded by Howland Wolf in nineteen sixty one
as The Red Rooster. The Stones, who you know they
recorded a lot of blues covers in their early years,
have first heard it from Holland Wolf and Sam Cook.
(12:35):
They released it as a single in the UK and
it was their second number one hit in the UK,
following It's All Over Now. Brian Jones played the slide
guitar on this track. He was a founding member of
the band and was their lead guitarist until drug problems
and conflict with his bandmates forced him out of the
group just weeks before he was found dead in his
(12:56):
swimming pool. The Stones manager Andrew Oldham wanted them to
record this in order to keep their image as a
tough knotty band, essentially the opposite of the Beatles. Their
previous singles in the UK where It's All Over Now,
Not Fade Away and I Want to Be Your Man,
all of which were success, You know, there were success,
but they moved them away from the blues and more
(13:18):
into a pop direction. Recording this raw bluesy number was
kind of a way to reassess their reputation and hopefully
get them back in the good graces the blues devoted
fan base. You would think that American blues song about
a rooster on the prow wouldn't have much hit potential
in the UK, but the Stones can't convince their label
(13:40):
Deca Records that it did, and remarkably it shot up
to number one. The band may have gotten the same
results recording you Know Mary had a little lamb at
this point because they were just red hot in the
UK at the time, so advance orders for the single
ensured it would be a hit, regardless of how good
the song was or wasn't. The Rolling Stone gave credit
(14:00):
to Howland Wolf whenever possible and did what they could
to introduce him to the American audience. When they debuted
I Can't Get No Satisfaction on the ABC show Shin
Dig in nineteen sixty five, they made sure wolf was
also on the program performing his song how many more.
Years before Wolfe's performance, the Stones chatted with the host
(14:21):
to explain that he was the first to record Little
Red Rooster and that they were one of his biggest fans.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Well, she's walking.
Speaker 17 (15:05):
Through the clouds.
Speaker 13 (15:08):
With the serpin. Mind that's funny, but a fly said same,
But it's a move.
Speaker 18 (15:21):
The barey s riding with the wind.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
When up standing, she goes to me.
Speaker 13 (15:41):
With a thousand miles she gets read. It's all right,
she said, it's sorry.
Speaker 17 (15:53):
Taking anything and you won't me.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
That was Jimmy Hendrick's experience with Little Wing and the
song was inspired by the nineteen sixty seven Monterey Pop
Festival concert held during three days of the Summer of
Love in nineteen sixty seven, featuring The Who, The Birds,
Janis Joplin, and many other pretty big acts, attended by
about two hundred thousand music fans. It happened two years
(16:29):
before Woodstock. Jimmy wrote about the atmosphere at the festival
as if it was a woman. He described the feeling
as quote everybody really flying and in a nice mood.
He named it Little Wing because he thought he could
just fly away on its own. The guitar on the
song is played in a very unique style. Jimmy frets
(16:51):
the roots of the chords with his thumb and then
elaborates on them from there. In theory, it's actually quite
similar to the as style of chord melody being played there.
It's quite innovative. This song is particularly revered among guitar players.
Guitar heroes of all generations really appreciate what was done
(17:12):
in this song. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine
wrote in his twenty eleven tribute to Hendrix and Rolling Stone, quote,
it's just this gorgeous song that as a guitar player
you could study your whole life and not get down completely,
never get inside it the way that he does. He
seamlessly weaves the chords and single note runs together and
uses of chord voicings that don't appear in any music
(17:35):
books at all. The percussion instrument that sounds kind of
like a xylophone is called a glackenspiel. It's an instrument
popular in marching bands, containing steel bars that are struck
with hammers to produce notes, Jimmy ran his guitar through
a Leslie speaker to create this kind of unusual sound.
The Leslie speaker was designed for organs and contained a
(17:57):
rotating paddle that kind of distorts this sound. This song,
along with Spanish Castle Magic, are the only songs Hendricks
ever performed in concert from his Axis Bold as Love album,
and he played this live only eight times. Hendricks has
described this as being one of the few he likes
from this album. He says, quote Little Wing is one
(18:19):
of those beautiful girls that comes around sometimes. Hendrix enjoyed
writing slow songs because it was easier to put emotion
into his guitar. For those songs, hand up all Mike
has won.
Speaker 10 (18:35):
Here I go singing lo By by Blackbird, where somebody
waits for me, Jugerto Sweet and So is She by
five Blackbird. No one here can love an understand me,
and all what hard luck stories they all have me?
(18:57):
So make my fand fight the light mile Beholme playing
the Night Blackbird by Bye, I've all my candle bone.
Here I go Sit you loon.
Speaker 7 (19:11):
By by Blackbird.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
That was Eddie Cantor with Bye Bye Blackbird and Bye
Bye Blackbirds feel good song. It was written back in
nineteen twenty six by composer Ray Henderson and lyricist More Dixon.
It was Henderson's third hit of that year. First popularized
by Eddie Canter, this standard has been recorded by numerous
artists over the years, even up into modern day. The
(19:35):
song retained its popularity through the Great Depression, probably because
of its optimism, and has featured in a number of films,
including in most notably and unsurprisingly, the nineteen fifty three
biopic The Eddie Canter Story. Much speculation has been made
that this song is about a prostitute, because some suggest
the narrator is a young man who is disenchanted by
(19:57):
the big city where he has become mixed up with
the prostitute, and ready to return home to his wholesome girlfriend.
The line sugar sweet as She Or is about the
prostitute leaving the mean streets and going home to mother.
No matter what the interpretation, most agree that the Blackbird
does represent a dark period that the narrator is finally
(20:17):
willing to move beyond mocking Bird. The song by Enez
(21:06):
and Charlie Fox is based on a traditional American folk
song sometimes known as Hush Little Baby. The song is
a lullaby intended to soothe the young child to sleep
with promises of expensive gifts. Northern mockingbirds were often kept
as pets in America, which explains the significance of the lyrics.
Bo Diddley used the traditional lyrics for his nineteen fifty
(21:29):
five song Bo Diddley, but his song had a completely
different arrangement. And As and Charlie Fox were brother and sister,
not husband and wife as a lot of people think.
And nineteen seventy four, James Taylor and Carly Simon, who
were married at the time, recorded their version, which was
also a pretty big hit. And this song always reminds
me of this scene from Dumb and Dumber.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Hey want to hear the most annoying sound in the world, does.
Speaker 19 (22:03):
Fellas?
Speaker 3 (22:05):
I think we could listen to the radio or something.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Radio.
Speaker 13 (22:12):
Who needs a radio?
Speaker 19 (22:14):
Ready?
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Harry Mark?
Speaker 19 (22:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Yeah, heard, yeah, yeah, yeah, marcking bird.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Don't everybody have you heard you? She's gonna buy your
mad and and is that nothing? Bird? Don't say she's
gonna buy me your bam away?
Speaker 7 (22:47):
Who burns over the mountain?
Speaker 3 (22:50):
See all over the city?
Speaker 13 (22:53):
Who burns over the mountain?
Speaker 11 (23:01):
Boy and girl, Bird, you was like Heaven looked into
her eyes. She'm out to him the sheet, Bluebirds over
the Mountain, See gulls over the City, The Bluebirds over
(23:22):
the Mountain.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Bring the baby and me. I'll miss you.
Speaker 13 (23:30):
Look at Jezy the only girl.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Bumby to go on all.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
I love throwing out very obscure stuff every once in
a while in these episodes. Uh, just to make sure
you're on your toes. Someone that you've never heard of,
or a song you've never heard of. And I'm pretty
sure none of you have heard of that guy. His
name was Ursul Hickey and the song was Bluebirds over
the Mountain. He's a rockabilly singer, Ursul Hicky, he was,
and he wrote Bluebirds over the Mountain the night after
(24:03):
Phil Everley told him that he should write his own material.
It became his most successful songs, charting at number seventy
five in the United States. The song was later recorded
by Richie Vallens in nineteen fifty eight. Four years later,
it was a minor hit for the band The Echoes,
reaching number one hundred and twelve on Billboard's Hot one
(24:24):
hundred Singles survey. The Beach Boys then covered this song
in nineteen sixty eight with Mike Love on lead vocals,
releasing as a single actually in December of nineteen sixty eight.
Their version peaked as high as number sixty one on
the Hot one hundred.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Dig If you will PICTUREE and nine.
Speaker 7 (25:17):
Gauge and the Kids. The swell of the Spy di
covers me.
Speaker 12 (25:23):
Can you, my darling?
Speaker 16 (25:25):
Can you picture of cass Cordyard an ocean Spylet's blooms.
Speaker 7 (25:35):
And mold strike Chery suposes the.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Heat, the heat between me and you, just standing.
Speaker 6 (25:46):
Loneless world, the socast. Maybe I'm just too demands. Maybe
I'm just like my ball up to bowl. Maybe I'll
just like my mother. This winds.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
That was the Purple One himself, Prince with whin doves Cry.
Prince wrote the song for the movie his movie, Purple Rain.
In the film, the song plays under a montage after
his character loses his girl. The girl's name was Apollina
to his rival Morris of Morris Day and the Time.
We see Prince riding his motorcycle, along with shots of
(26:36):
intimate moments with Apollina. In the movie, Prince has a
difficult relationship with his father, who beats his mom. Scenes
of his father come in on the lyrics where Prince
calls him demanding film is I guess you'd call it
semi autobiographical, but based how much on real life does remlain?
It remains a mystery. Prince rarely gave interviews and really
(26:58):
didn't talk about his person on life in the movie.
The song expresses his fear of becoming like his parents.
When the doves cry, that's his musical refuge. The barrage
of keyboards in the chorus represents the doves crying. Besides
writing and composing the track, Prince played all of the
instruments that you hear on that song. Really talented, dude.
(27:20):
There's no bass on this song. Actually, Prince took out
the bass track at the last minute to kind of
get a different sound, though he hated to see it go.
Prince's Paisley Park complex, where he lived in Minneapolis, was
shrouded in secretly, but visitors reported that he did keep
doves there and that they could get quite loud. Entertainment
(27:41):
Weekly reporter Leah Greenblatt wrote, yes he keeps dove and
yes they cry.
Speaker 17 (27:54):
Ok in the morning one way one now I woke
in the morning wandering we and warm Now.
Speaker 13 (28:14):
Listen My long Last lover.
Speaker 17 (28:18):
And walk Jimmy Talk, Jimmy, Timmy, what it's all about.
Speaker 14 (28:29):
I was standing at the side road, listen to the billboard.
Now standing at the side road, listening.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
To the billboard.
Speaker 20 (28:43):
Now, well, my wrist was empty, but.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
My nerves walk kicking, kicking like a cloud.
Speaker 17 (28:57):
You know I got.
Speaker 13 (28:58):
Anything you need be.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
That was mister Bobby Dylan with black Crow blues. As
with the song All I Really Want to Do, the
opening track on Another Side of Bob Dylan, This second
track on the album is widely assumed to be about
Dylan's breakup with Sue's Rottola, with whom Rottolo being among
those who assume that this is about her. The lyrics
(29:21):
are pretty straightforward throughout the song, detailing Dylan's state as
he wanders around feeling beaten up from losing his woman.
The final verse, though, which also happens to be the
one that gives the song its title, is kind of
a surreal lyric. Black crows in the Meadow across a
broad Highway. Black crows in the meadow across a broad Highway.
(29:41):
Though it's funny, Honey, I just don't feel much like
a Scarecrow Today, the lyrics make sense in a sort
of instinctual way, but they break down if you think
too much about them. They really don't seem to make
any sense. The vaguely surreal, paradoxical nature of the words
is not insignificant, though, As we've learned with Bob Dylan,
the lyrics always have some meeting, and it's considered a
(30:04):
turning point in the album and and in Dylan's songwriting
when he started incorporating this visionary kind of mystical mythical
element similar to poetry of Arthur Rimbaud, who he frequently
quotes in a lot of his lyrics. Dylan has never
performed this song live, by the way.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
We of dis that night we go ahead, we go Damn.
Speaker 14 (30:43):
They've Big co Man, b Bo Man, then big Go.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
Bn Loza, We did it Eyes of Beatus. You think
can goddamn out of a bench.
Speaker 16 (31:10):
Disease, wait news out there, gemus.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
Goddamn, no, goddamn.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
That was the band The Misfits with the song Where
Eagles Dare. The song takes its name from a nineteen
sixty eight movie Where Eagles Dare starring Clint Eastwood and
Richard Burton. While many of the Misfits songs were based
on horror movies, Where Eagles Dare is actually an action
film that takes place during World War Two and was
adapted from a novel by the same name written by
(31:55):
a guy named Alistair McLean. While the lyrics pen penned
by Glenn Danzig make allusions to aspects of subterfusion warfare,
there's little that points to this being a direct reference
to the book or the film. Where Eagles Dare was
originally released only as a B side to the Misfits
popular nineteen seventy five single Night of the Living Den
(32:17):
and I Love That song and versions of the song,
though were included on future compilation albums.
Speaker 11 (32:51):
Seeg You fly across the right into the misty moone,
and so.
Speaker 21 (33:04):
Nobody ask you where you are going, nobody knows where
you're from.
Speaker 8 (33:18):
You're as a man.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
Asking the question, is this really the end up? SECU?
Speaker 15 (33:31):
You must have longed for a long time?
Speaker 3 (33:36):
The shape of things do come now. You're clie through
the sky, never asking why, and you cl.
Speaker 6 (33:55):
Know somebody.
Speaker 5 (33:59):
Shoot.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
That was the band Bad Company with their song Seagull.
Paul Rodgers from Bad Company said about this album quote.
Every song that we have done has its own story.
SEAgel was written while sitting on the beach, and music
is all about atmosphere and the best way to create
the atmospheres to actually be there. You don't have to
imagine it. It's all right there for you. With the
(34:23):
song SEAgel, you could just see it on the horizon
and you could include that in the song. And that's
what writing songs is all about, creating mood and atmosphere,
which is what we did with the song Okay, Cool.
Speaker 7 (34:52):
Fair, Black Boat to white.
Speaker 8 (34:54):
Head, hung Loch and dead Meat by the side of
the road. Evil breath smells just like death. He takes
no chances, he knows the dances Lochu.
Speaker 13 (35:13):
Bu Bacher.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
That was iggy pop with his song Vulture, and it's
kind of a raw acoustic song and it uses vultures
as a metaphor for death. The album is called Pop
Pop Depression, and the producer of that album, Josh ham
recalled quote, He's like, well, I've got one. So he
played it on acoustic and saying and that's the take.
(36:02):
We only did one take of it, and we just
built around that. There's something raw and off tunous about
it that I really liked and it sounded perfect for
his voice. Vulture is the ultimate scarred up opportunist and
I love the sentiment in the song. Josh Ham has
another vulture connection. He was also the frontman for the
supergroup called Them Crooked Vultures, which also included ex Nirvana
(36:26):
drummer Dave Grohl and former led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones.
They actually released an album in two thousand and nine.
Vultures are renowned scavengers, often feeding on wounded or sicker
dead bodies. They are consequently frequently used as a metaphor
for those who prey on the week or the dying.
Some interesting vulture facts the Parsi community in Mumbai traditionally
(36:50):
left their dead out to be picked by vultures. Vultures
can turn a dead body to a skeleton in under
five hours, and vultures are fairly unique and that they're
able to eat carry on that has succumbed to the
effects of decay and disease, feet that few stomachs in
the animal kingdom can match, and when threatened, vultures vomit
to lighten their weight so that they can escape more
(37:13):
easily into flight.
Speaker 3 (37:25):
You rock saying the tree.
Speaker 7 (37:26):
Top all the day along.
Speaker 9 (37:29):
In this song, all the little birds on d Bear
Street Dom do the Robin boat tweet treble.
Speaker 13 (37:39):
Rob please.
Speaker 5 (37:41):
Go rocking Robbin.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
We're really going to.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
Every follow everything, every little bird in the tree, the
wise allowed the big black brow wings.
Speaker 13 (37:57):
And rock and Robin tweet play Rock.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
And Robin Robin a great sing along song by Bobby Day.
(38:28):
They are called Rockin' Robin, Originally titled rock hyphen in Robin.
This was the only top forty hit for Bobby Day,
whose sound was a hybrid of pop and R and B.
His innocent kind of upbeat songs were a great fit
for Michael Jackson, who's nineteen seventy two recording of Rock
(38:49):
and Robin also went to number two in the US.
Also in nineteen seventy two, Michael's group The Jackson Five
went to number thirteen with Bobby Day's Little Bitty Pretty One.
Day's version of rock and Robin was a number one
R and B hit. This song was written by Leon Renee,
a songwriter and record executive who also wrote Little Bitty
(39:09):
Pretty one and over and over with Day. The songwriting
credits do get confusing, as Renee used pseudonyms. On Rock
and Robin, he is credited as either Jimmy or Jesse Thomas.
Bobby Day is also sometimes credited as a co writer
on the song under his real name, the very appropriately
named Robert Bird. Another name that sometimes shows up on
(39:31):
the credits is Michael McGinnis, which might have been another
name that Day used. Quote, we sort of had a
little deal on this song, Day explained. He says that
Renee pitched him the song and Day recorded it using
the musician from a former group, the Hollywood Flames. That
group had a number eleven hit with Buzz Buzz Buzz
in nineteen fifty eight and changed their names to the
(39:52):
Satellites just prior to recording Rock and Robin. Musicians on
this track included Barney Kessel on guitar and Earl Palmer
on drums. The famous piccolo part was played by Plas Johnson,
who was better known as a saxophone player. He did
the Pink Panther theme and was the saxophone player for
the Wrecking Crew. These guys were the first that would
(40:13):
be on call for almost any record recorded in Los
Angeles during about a fifteen year period. The song is
in the public domain because the copyright was never renewed.
This is a rare occurrence, since the income generating copyrights
are usually monitored pretty closely by the publishers who own them. Often,
corporations that have acquired the rights often have a lawyer
(40:35):
who simply does just that in house. This means that
you can perform Rock and Robin and use it in
your movie, create a karaoke version, or hell even put
it in a commercial, and not have to pay royalties
as long as you create an original version of the song.
Speaker 20 (40:49):
Like Ah the Wild, like a drunken egg midnight, I.
Speaker 12 (41:02):
Have tried.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
In my way.
Speaker 20 (41:07):
To be free, like a worm on a hook, like
a night from some old fashioned book.
Speaker 13 (41:24):
I have saved.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
All my ripper.
Speaker 13 (41:31):
Believe if I, if I have been unca.
Speaker 7 (41:48):
I hope that you can't just let it go by Ever, No,
(42:13):
it was never.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
That was Leonard Cohen with Bird on a Wire. Speaking
of this song in a nineteen ninety three interview, Cohen explained, quote,
it was begun in Greece because there were no wires
on the island where I was living. To a certain moment,
there were no telephone wires. There were hell no telephones.
There was no electricity, so at a certain point they
(42:36):
put up these telephone poles and you wouldn't notice them now,
but when they first went up, it was about all
I did stare out the window at these telephone wires
and think how a civilization had caught up with me,
and I wasn't going to be able to escape it.
After all, I wasn't going to be able to live
this eleventh century life that I thought I had found
for myself in Greece. And that was the beginning. Then,
of course, I noticed that birds came up to the wires,
(42:58):
and that's how the song began, Like a drunk in
a midnight choir that's also set on the island, where
drinkers me included, would come up the stairs. There was
a great tolerance among the people for that, because it
could be in the middle of the night you'd see
three guys with their arms around each other, stumbling up
the stairs and singing these impeccable third harmonies. So you
can imagine that that all came from this island, like
(43:20):
a drunk midnight choir. The opening lines of Bird on
a Wire are inscribed on Chris Christofferson's gravestone, like a
bird on a wire, like a drunk and a midnight choir.
I have tried in my way to be free. Christofferson
shows the lyric for his epitaph because of the song's
themes of freedom, isolation, and searching for one's place in
the worlds.
Speaker 22 (44:01):
To get bye, I'm never coming down by halt is
six feet on the ground.
Speaker 13 (44:18):
The road to hell is paved with good.
Speaker 22 (44:21):
Intentions, dark inventions of mine.
Speaker 18 (44:31):
The road to Hell is paved.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
With broken barns, bleed nts like mine. Chasing birds through
the sky, I'm deep to the black, chasing birds say goodbye.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
That song is called Chasing Birds by the Foo Fighters,
and the phrase chasing birds this means kind of like
a pointless pursuit, because of course, those feathered creatures can
just fly away, leaving the chaser stranded on the ground. Here,
Dave Grohl reflects on the futile search for a long
lasting relationship. For a time, the singer was in a
(45:25):
romance where he felt so high his quote head was
in the clouds, he said. But once the relationship ended,
he came back down to earth with his heart six
feet underground. He laments that the road to Hell is
paved with broken hearts and bleeding hearts like mine. Some
critics have compared the delicate pretty Ballad to the songwriting
of Paul McCartney, which is far away from the heavy
(45:48):
rock music of Nirvana and the Foo Fighters. Grohl said
in an interview that he learned how to play guitar
as a teenager by strumming along to the Beatles quote.
You know, to me, dissonance and chaos is easy. Having
listened to a lot of very difficult music in my
formative years, I eventually found that the challenge of simplicity
and melody is more rewarding than just screeching feedback and
(46:09):
distorted drums. I realized that when I was in Nirvana.
Girl said, Kurt's songwriting was very simple, and ultimately it
really grabbed people's hearts because of its simplicity and melody.
But it's not easy to do. Dave Girl recalled that
he wrote the song on an acoustic guitar, thinking was
going to be an acoustic song. Then he thought, I
don't know if I want an acoustic song on this record,
(46:30):
so he started adding electric guitar and.
Speaker 22 (46:33):
Drums each day to the steps of Simple.
Speaker 7 (46:40):
A little old bird woman comes.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
In home special way to the people. She co.
Speaker 13 (46:54):
Come my my back, it's full of crumbs.
Speaker 5 (47:01):
Come feed the little bird.
Speaker 3 (47:05):
Show them you care, and you'll be glad if you do.
The young ones are hungry.
Speaker 5 (47:18):
Their nests are so bad.
Speaker 6 (47:21):
All it takes is toppens s from you.
Speaker 12 (47:34):
The bird.
Speaker 5 (47:35):
It's topping, sabag.
Speaker 8 (47:39):
Toppens, toppens stopping sabag.
Speaker 3 (47:46):
Feed the birds. That's what she cries while the head
her birds fill the skies.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
So everyone and remembers that from Mary Poppins. That was
Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins singing feed the Birds. In
the nineteen sixty four Disney musical of Mary Poppins, The
magical nanny played by Andrews teaches a number of lessons
to the bank's children and the song Feed the Birds.
She expresses the importance of charity through the story of
(48:20):
the elderly beggar woman who makes a living selling bird
feed for two pence a bag, not toppens. By the way,
it's twopence she is singing in the song. Songwriters Richard
and Robert Sherman consider this hymn like lullaby, to be
the heart of the film, Robert Sherman said, quote, songs
have been written about a myriad of subjects. Feed the
Birds the first song written about the merits of giving charity.
(48:43):
Sherman brothers were inspired by a scene from Mary Poppins,
the book series of Mary Poppins, written by P. L. Travers.
Robert explained, quote, we seized on one incident in chapter seven,
the bird Woman, and we realized that this was a
metaphor for why Mary came to the children in the
first place, to teach the children and mister Banks the
value of charity. So he wrote the song and took
(49:05):
it up to Walt Disney's office and played it and
sang it for him right there in his office. He
leaned back in his chair, looked out the window and said,
that's it, isn't it. That's what this is all about.
This is the metaphor for the whole film. And we
knew at that point he got what we were trying
to do.
Speaker 19 (49:31):
I've watched you go through changes that no man should
face alone. Take to Helau, tame the horse. The choice
is still your own, but yourself against the pain, oh
dead bird.
Speaker 23 (49:49):
Can give.
Speaker 12 (49:51):
An Indian Remember it's with you.
Speaker 20 (49:55):
You have to live.
Speaker 12 (49:58):
An Indian. Remember it's with you. You have to live,
stand you ground.
Speaker 19 (50:11):
I think you've got the good sid text to win,
but you must learn to turn the key before she'll
let you in.
Speaker 12 (50:22):
And understand the problems.
Speaker 14 (50:25):
Of the girl you want.
Speaker 19 (50:27):
So nih are you were the coats of questions to
the answer hat is he?
Speaker 1 (50:34):
Formerly of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young That was Graham
Nash with his song Wounded Bird and before forming Crosbie,
Stills and Nash In nineteen sixty eight, Stephen Still's dated
Judy Collins, the subject of the Crosby Stills Nash song
Sweet Judy Blue Eyes, released on their debut album in
nineteen sixty nine. In this song, his bandmate Grand Nash
(50:57):
sends him a message. Wounded Bird is a song I
wrote for Stephen and Judy Collins, Nash said in an
interview when Judy and Stephen were together, it made perfect
sense to us all but I wanted to just insert
a word of caution that sometimes love goes in a
different way than you think it does, and so it's
just a word of caution to my friend Steven about
his relationship with Judy. Wounded Bird is a part of
(51:19):
Graham Nash's debut solo album Songs for Beginners. The only
British member of Crosby, Stills and Nash and sometimes Young,
he was a member of the Hollies before forming the group.
After Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young released their second album
in nineteen seventy, all four members put out solo albums.
Speaker 24 (51:42):
Better Goodhead, Jig Ben Love It, Jingen Hawk, Godheading Love
It ging Hawk only But that howk Sejohn, He did
peg me ut hockey, dake me up in the sky.
(52:03):
They dragged me up again, dagg me up in the sky.
Speaker 7 (52:09):
I need leading chicken in and don't know how f lie.
Speaker 3 (52:14):
Lead up up and away. We gonn file day up
up away. We gonna file day up up up upa away.
Speaker 21 (52:31):
He had a ball head eagle fie up there in
the blue. He had a ball head eagle file bere
in the blue where you can do the hart to
go to steal that chicken the music where on that
pileaca be a single jem were off that pieac painting
(52:55):
the jet You you that cool out chicken evening got
it yet?
Speaker 1 (53:03):
That was Big Joe Turner with the song the Chicken
and the hawk. That's two birds and one stone for
you there in that song. Big Joe's pretty integral to
the evolution and birth of rock and roll. Of course
we know his song Shake, Rattle and Roll, but that sound,
which he repeated in almost every song, was distinctive and
(53:23):
became known as the Big Joe Turner sound when others
tried to copy it. Born in Kansas City and dealing
with pretty bad racial injustice and civil rights upheavals in
his hometown, he was quite happy to get out on
the road and perform this new style of music for
the masses. In nineteen fifty one, while performing with the
Count Basie Orchestra Harlem's Apollo Theater as a replacement for
(53:48):
Jimmy Rushing, he was spotted by Ahmet and Nissuri Etujin,
who were contractors to get him to come over and
record with their recording company, Atlantic Records. This is one
of the first acts that Atlantic ever even signed. Turner
had great success during nineteen fifty four with Shake Rattle
'n' Roll, which significantly boosted his career, turning him into
(54:09):
a teenage favorite and also helped to transform popular music.
During the song Turner yells at his woman to get
out of that bed, wash your face and hands, and
comments that she's wearing those dresses. The sun comes shining
through on I can't believe my eyes. All that mess
belongs to you. He sang it on film for the
nineteen fifty five theatrical film Rhythm and Blues Review. Although
(54:32):
the cover version of the song by Bill Haley and
his comments used with the Riskue lyrics partly omitted, was
a greater sales success, many listeners sought out Turner's version
and were introduced to Rhythm and Blues.
Speaker 18 (54:45):
There wasn't Old Leady from Euston to Kinds and a Rooster?
Her rooster dine, Old lady cried, my hand's going in
like you used to.
Speaker 2 (54:56):
Ain't that a shame?
Speaker 9 (54:58):
Ain't that a shame? Ain't that a shame? She loves
her help of hate her next door neighbor. Oh happy,
He seemed to be very happy.
Speaker 13 (55:11):
He can plain his code.
Speaker 18 (55:12):
There will grow lone because the old roster has gone.
Speaker 2 (55:16):
Ain't there a shame?
Speaker 3 (55:18):
Ain't there a shame? Ain't there a shame?
Speaker 7 (55:23):
She loves her happy Fain.
Speaker 18 (55:27):
I know, leady, nephew O roster that you she didn't sigh.
She didn't cry. She made her a hard a step.
Ain't there a shame? Ain't there a shame? Ain't there
a shame? She loves to help of Hay.
Speaker 1 (56:04):
That's Domino was one of the more important figures in
the development and popularization of rock and roll, representing, as
he did, the bridging of the previous gap between the
black R and B market and the white mainstream commercial
pop scene during the middle years of the nineteen fifties.
His career began long before the well documented rock and
(56:26):
roll explosion of those years, but he maintained an extraordinary
longevity in the charts. That was his song, the Rooster Song.
There was an old lady from Houston. She had two
hens and a rooster. Her rooster died. The old lady cried,
My hands don't lay like they used to. It's time
for us to end today's episode on birds. And what
is it called when you quit something like a podcast
(56:49):
episode abruptly? I believe it's called quitting cold Turkey. Well,
this song from John Lennon is about drug withdrawal. Quitting
cold Turkey means abruptly stopping your drug use. It wreaks
havoc on the body because it suddenly has to adjust
to not getting the drugs. John Lennon quit Cold Turkey
(57:11):
because he wanted to get off drugs and start a
family with Yoko, who also quit the drugs along with him.
He wrote the song about that experience. Lennin wanted to
record this with the Beatles for their Abbey Road album,
but the other Beatles rejected it. Lennon recorded it with
a group of musicians he called the Plastic Ono Band
and released it as a single. It was not available
(57:32):
on an album. Lenin performed this on September thirteenth, nineteen
sixty nine, at the Toronto Rock and Revival show, where
he was introducing his Plastic Ono Band. At least the
configuration of it for this show it changed all the time.
Eric Clapton was on guitar for that show, Klaus Vorman
was on bass, and Alan White was on drums. Yoko
(57:52):
Ono was also, unfortunately part of the act, and she
made an impact during Cold Turkey. As the song played,
she emerged from a bag on stage, stepped up to
the microphone and just really made loud Turkey sounding noises,
which wasn't out of character for her.
Speaker 4 (58:08):
Well.
Speaker 1 (58:08):
I hope that you enjoyed this episode. I hope, of course,
as always, you turn this last song up, and I
also really hope you recommend this podcast to a friend
and come back next week.
Speaker 23 (58:29):
Temperatures rising, fevers. I can't see no future. I can't
see no Scott.
Speaker 3 (58:46):
I feed our so heavy.
Speaker 16 (58:50):
So is my head.
Speaker 3 (58:54):
I wish I was a baby. I wish I was stay. Oh,
Turkey has got me? Oh long.
Speaker 7 (59:19):
My body is aching gustin foot bone.
Speaker 3 (59:28):
I can't see nobody leap me. Is lone's a wide open?
I can't get to sleep. One thing. I'm sure I'm
(59:49):
in at the deep free.
Speaker 2 (59:52):
O.
Speaker 3 (59:53):
Turkey has got me.
Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
Thank you for listening to listen to this, Please recommend
to a friend, and don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe.
Speaker 24 (01:00:08):
For more podcasts and online content, please visit this isfunner
dot com.
Speaker 3 (01:00:12):
This is Funner
Welcome to listen to this, the podcast that is dedicated
to bringing you stories behind the artists, behind the songs,
and hopefully we are introducing you to old songs that
have influenced all the music that we hear today. The
goal is I want you to hear an artist that
you might not normally listen to, and search out their
music on whatever streaming service you subscribe to, and maybe
just maybe buy it on vinyl, by it on physical media.
(00:22):
People own your music. We invite you to subscribe, comment,
and of course, please recommend this podcast to your friends
and family. Every episode has a theme, and today's is birds.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Never in the history of the United States a monster
of such size and power.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Welcome to listen.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
To this, a podcast that brings you the stories behind
the songs and artists, with a theme to tie it
all together.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Here's your hosts, Eric Lecky. Birds is our subject of
the day and when I first thought of this category,
I kept thinking of birds in our pop culture. I mean,
we have tons of sports teams named after birds. Atlanta Falcons,
Arizona Cardinals, Toronto Blue Jays, Saint Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Hawks,
(01:07):
et cetera, et cetera. We also have a lot of
cartoon birds in our pop culture. Daffy Duck and Donald
Duck and the Roadrunner and Tweety Bird and Woodstock, Huey
Doo and Louis Foghorn, Leghorn, big Bird. The list goes
on and on. I also found lots of songs about birds,
and I'm excited to share them with you on today's episode.
So let's talk some interesting bird facts here, people, How
(01:29):
about this? Did you know that crows hold funerals for
their dead friends. Did you know hummingbirds is the only
bird that can fly backwards and hover in place? Did
you know that owls swallow their food whole? Do you
know that some birds can fly while sleeping and that
the flamingo can only eat when its head is upside down. Well,
(01:50):
let's get it started today with a really old song
from Al Jolson.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Really got a thing, the tibe I always feel happy
by the happy, by lucky.
Speaker 5 (02:11):
When the red red Robin comes.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Bab bab Bob and along alone, there'll be no more Bob.
And when he's not Robin, his old retall Wait, cop, wait,
come you read here, dead up dead up, get out,
I bet here up here up the fun in Red
(02:36):
Limbs Long, Laughingly Happy.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
When the Red Red Robin Comes Baba Bobbin Along was
written by Harry Woods and was first introduced by the
major major artist at the time, Sophie Tucker, but was
popularized by Al Jolson, who I Played for You and
it was featured in the nineteen forty nine film Jolson
Sings Again, and in the nineteen ninety four film It's
(03:00):
Over Broadway. In nineteen fifty three, Doris Day had a
top thirty hit with this song. Her version is probably
the best rendition of this feel good song, even though
Joelson's version reached number one on the Billboard Chart of
the Day.
Speaker 6 (03:18):
Yeah so hot, good Yeah three clo.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
The moon so cool, Wow.
Speaker 7 (03:29):
Pumpkin, yeh know, that's something. The boom was a thone.
Speaker 8 (03:36):
Floone stopped the show.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
To say hello to the clone.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Light the five.
Speaker 9 (03:55):
Hello showed up and it shotted the show.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Good night.
Speaker 10 (04:02):
Ice Cream ice Cream.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
That was Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band with ice
Cream for Crows. This is the title track of Captain
Beefheart's second to last album. Ice Cream for Crows. Is
typically an inscrutable words solid of lines like crow pants.
The scarecrow and hop flop squawk. Good luck trying to
(04:30):
figure it all out. Beef Art's once explained quote, I'm
just a silly ass man. I have no method to
my madness. Beefheart and his Magic Band invested a lot
in the video for the song, where they perform it
out in the desert. It was supposed to bring the
niche band into the living room of the masses, but
they were quickly deflated when MTV deemed it too weird
(04:54):
to play. Those who saw the video did so either
on syndicated music video shows like night Flow or on
David Letterman's show. When Letterman had be Fart on, he
played the video and asked him what ice cream for
crows even means. B Fart's reply made no sense, but
he said it with a conviction that left you bleeding
bleeding that it made sense to him. A rough transcription
(05:17):
was ray Gun jelly Bean's rope trick. He's a bad actor.
What he has to do is black and white like
a raven vanilla ice cream. Obviously, this guy was just
a nut.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
That comes down your own and welcome shower down. The
sta chains are Revu Jennal to the plane stumble beside
(06:26):
only and then in the game.
Speaker 11 (06:35):
Wasn't Where to Go.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Beside?
Speaker 12 (06:42):
Sho no behead of that?
Speaker 3 (06:44):
A Cassing No.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Night Owl is the title track to Jerry Rafferty's third
solo album, follow up to his bestseller City to City.
Like Rafferty's hit Baker Street, the song is undoubtedly autobiographical
to some degree, is he sings about the vibe he
gets from his life as a performing musician and the
(07:11):
loneliness that creeps in when the lights go down. At
the time, Rafferty had left his native Scotland and had
relocated to England.
Speaker 13 (07:19):
The song was.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Released as a single backed by Why Won't You Talk
To Me? A pretty decent song. Like the rest of
his album, It was written by Rafferty himself and produced
by Hugh Murphy for United Artists. The lyric con solo
That's an instrument was provided by Rafael Ravenscroft. He's the
guy who performed the famous saxophone solo on Rafferty's previous
(07:43):
song Baker Street. The lyricn is a breath controlled analog
synthesizer invented by Bill Bernardi and Roger Noble in Massachusetts
in the nineteen seventies. It was the first electronic wind
instrument to be constructed.
Speaker 14 (07:57):
Erlin has a great spiritual that we'd like to you
folks now, for you suppose would bother anything if all
of us joined in with you, well.
Speaker 13 (08:04):
I wouldn't want to do unless all of your help.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
All right, then we're ready.
Speaker 15 (08:08):
When you are on the wings of the soul white,
he sends his pills sweet love, a sign from a pun.
Speaker 13 (08:20):
On the wings of the.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
When troubles surrounds, when evils come, the body grows weak,
the spirit grows. Now when these things be said, he
doesn't forget.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
He sends down his love on the wings of the.
Speaker 13 (08:54):
On the wings of the he sends his pills.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
From of the.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
That was furlin husky with wings of a dove. This
is based on the biblical story of Noah's art, particularly
the passage in Genesis eight six through twelve. After forty
days adrift on the flooded earth, Noah sent out a
dove to find if water had dried up and there
was land. After a couple of attempts, the dove returned
(09:31):
with an olive leaf in its mouth, so Noah knew
the water had begun to recede from the earth. The
image of the dove carrying an olive branch became a
pretty enduring symbol of peace and Christian art. In other
areas of scripture, the dove also represents the Holy Spirit.
Matthew three point sixteen and Luke three point twenty two
recount Jesus's baptism at the Jordan River. After Jesus praise,
(09:54):
Heaven opens and the Holy Spirit comes down in the
form of well a dove. The moment is linked to God,
the Father's love as a voice from above and says
you are my son whom I love, and I am
very pleased with you. Song was written by Bob Ferguson,
a Nashville songwriter and producer who would go on to
write the hit The Carroll County Accident for Porter Wagner.
(10:16):
Ferguson was producing a series of films for the Tennessee
Game and Fish Commission when he wrote the song Wings
of a Dove in nineteen fifty eight. Quote this is
a personal expression of faith and joy in achieving a goal,
Ferguson told author Dorothy Hastron of the song. When I
wrote it, I had just completed thirteen films on wildlife,
(10:37):
and I was elated that the job was done.
Speaker 7 (10:53):
I am the little red.
Speaker 16 (10:54):
Rusve ju lay, I am the little red hooster. To
lay the cold, keep everything in the ball upset and.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
The dogs begin a ball.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
How let's begin a house? Dogs begin a ball?
Speaker 5 (11:55):
How Let's begin a hound? Watch azzagem.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Little Red.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
That was the legendary Rolling Stones with Little Red Rooster.
It's a blue standard. It was written by Willie Dixon
and first recorded by Howland Wolf in nineteen sixty one
as The Red Rooster. The Stones, who you know they
recorded a lot of blues covers in their early years,
have first heard it from Holland Wolf and Sam Cook.
(12:35):
They released it as a single in the UK and
it was their second number one hit in the UK,
following It's All Over Now. Brian Jones played the slide
guitar on this track. He was a founding member of
the band and was their lead guitarist until drug problems
and conflict with his bandmates forced him out of the
group just weeks before he was found dead in his
(12:56):
swimming pool. The Stones manager Andrew Oldham wanted them to
record this in order to keep their image as a
tough knotty band, essentially the opposite of the Beatles. Their
previous singles in the UK where It's All Over Now,
Not Fade Away and I Want to Be Your Man,
all of which were success, You know, there were success,
but they moved them away from the blues and more
(13:18):
into a pop direction. Recording this raw bluesy number was
kind of a way to reassess their reputation and hopefully
get them back in the good graces the blues devoted
fan base. You would think that American blues song about
a rooster on the prow wouldn't have much hit potential
in the UK, but the Stones can't convince their label
(13:40):
Deca Records that it did, and remarkably it shot up
to number one. The band may have gotten the same
results recording you Know Mary had a little lamb at
this point because they were just red hot in the
UK at the time, so advance orders for the single
ensured it would be a hit, regardless of how good
the song was or wasn't. The Rolling Stone gave credit
(14:00):
to Howland Wolf whenever possible and did what they could
to introduce him to the American audience. When they debuted
I Can't Get No Satisfaction on the ABC show Shin
Dig in nineteen sixty five, they made sure wolf was
also on the program performing his song how many more.
Years before Wolfe's performance, the Stones chatted with the host
(14:21):
to explain that he was the first to record Little
Red Rooster and that they were one of his biggest fans.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Well, she's walking.
Speaker 17 (15:05):
Through the clouds.
Speaker 13 (15:08):
With the serpin. Mind that's funny, but a fly said same,
But it's a move.
Speaker 18 (15:21):
The barey s riding with the wind.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
When up standing, she goes to me.
Speaker 13 (15:41):
With a thousand miles she gets read. It's all right,
she said, it's sorry.
Speaker 17 (15:53):
Taking anything and you won't me.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
That was Jimmy Hendrick's experience with Little Wing and the
song was inspired by the nineteen sixty seven Monterey Pop
Festival concert held during three days of the Summer of
Love in nineteen sixty seven, featuring The Who, The Birds,
Janis Joplin, and many other pretty big acts, attended by
about two hundred thousand music fans. It happened two years
(16:29):
before Woodstock. Jimmy wrote about the atmosphere at the festival
as if it was a woman. He described the feeling
as quote everybody really flying and in a nice mood.
He named it Little Wing because he thought he could
just fly away on its own. The guitar on the
song is played in a very unique style. Jimmy frets
(16:51):
the roots of the chords with his thumb and then
elaborates on them from there. In theory, it's actually quite
similar to the as style of chord melody being played there.
It's quite innovative. This song is particularly revered among guitar players.
Guitar heroes of all generations really appreciate what was done
(17:12):
in this song. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine
wrote in his twenty eleven tribute to Hendrix and Rolling Stone, quote,
it's just this gorgeous song that as a guitar player
you could study your whole life and not get down completely,
never get inside it the way that he does. He
seamlessly weaves the chords and single note runs together and
uses of chord voicings that don't appear in any music
(17:35):
books at all. The percussion instrument that sounds kind of
like a xylophone is called a glackenspiel. It's an instrument
popular in marching bands, containing steel bars that are struck
with hammers to produce notes, Jimmy ran his guitar through
a Leslie speaker to create this kind of unusual sound.
The Leslie speaker was designed for organs and contained a
(17:57):
rotating paddle that kind of distorts this sound. This song,
along with Spanish Castle Magic, are the only songs Hendricks
ever performed in concert from his Axis Bold as Love album,
and he played this live only eight times. Hendricks has
described this as being one of the few he likes
from this album. He says, quote Little Wing is one
(18:19):
of those beautiful girls that comes around sometimes. Hendrix enjoyed
writing slow songs because it was easier to put emotion
into his guitar. For those songs, hand up all Mike
has won.
Speaker 10 (18:35):
Here I go singing lo By by Blackbird, where somebody
waits for me, Jugerto Sweet and So is She by
five Blackbird. No one here can love an understand me,
and all what hard luck stories they all have me?
(18:57):
So make my fand fight the light mile Beholme playing
the Night Blackbird by Bye, I've all my candle bone.
Here I go Sit you loon.
Speaker 7 (19:11):
By by Blackbird.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
That was Eddie Cantor with Bye Bye Blackbird and Bye
Bye Blackbirds feel good song. It was written back in
nineteen twenty six by composer Ray Henderson and lyricist More Dixon.
It was Henderson's third hit of that year. First popularized
by Eddie Canter, this standard has been recorded by numerous
artists over the years, even up into modern day. The
(19:35):
song retained its popularity through the Great Depression, probably because
of its optimism, and has featured in a number of films,
including in most notably and unsurprisingly, the nineteen fifty three
biopic The Eddie Canter Story. Much speculation has been made
that this song is about a prostitute, because some suggest
the narrator is a young man who is disenchanted by
(19:57):
the big city where he has become mixed up with
the prostitute, and ready to return home to his wholesome girlfriend.
The line sugar sweet as She Or is about the
prostitute leaving the mean streets and going home to mother.
No matter what the interpretation, most agree that the Blackbird
does represent a dark period that the narrator is finally
(20:17):
willing to move beyond mocking Bird. The song by Enez
(21:06):
and Charlie Fox is based on a traditional American folk
song sometimes known as Hush Little Baby. The song is
a lullaby intended to soothe the young child to sleep
with promises of expensive gifts. Northern mockingbirds were often kept
as pets in America, which explains the significance of the lyrics.
Bo Diddley used the traditional lyrics for his nineteen fifty
(21:29):
five song Bo Diddley, but his song had a completely
different arrangement. And As and Charlie Fox were brother and sister,
not husband and wife as a lot of people think.
And nineteen seventy four, James Taylor and Carly Simon, who
were married at the time, recorded their version, which was
also a pretty big hit. And this song always reminds
me of this scene from Dumb and Dumber.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Hey want to hear the most annoying sound in the world, does.
Speaker 19 (22:03):
Fellas?
Speaker 3 (22:05):
I think we could listen to the radio or something.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Radio.
Speaker 13 (22:12):
Who needs a radio?
Speaker 19 (22:14):
Ready?
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Harry Mark?
Speaker 19 (22:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Yeah, heard, yeah, yeah, yeah, marcking bird.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Don't everybody have you heard you? She's gonna buy your
mad and and is that nothing? Bird? Don't say she's
gonna buy me your bam away?
Speaker 7 (22:47):
Who burns over the mountain?
Speaker 3 (22:50):
See all over the city?
Speaker 13 (22:53):
Who burns over the mountain?
Speaker 11 (23:01):
Boy and girl, Bird, you was like Heaven looked into
her eyes. She'm out to him the sheet, Bluebirds over
the Mountain, See gulls over the City, The Bluebirds over
(23:22):
the Mountain.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Bring the baby and me. I'll miss you.
Speaker 13 (23:30):
Look at Jezy the only girl.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Bumby to go on all.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
I love throwing out very obscure stuff every once in
a while in these episodes. Uh, just to make sure
you're on your toes. Someone that you've never heard of,
or a song you've never heard of. And I'm pretty
sure none of you have heard of that guy. His
name was Ursul Hickey and the song was Bluebirds over
the Mountain. He's a rockabilly singer, Ursul Hicky, he was,
and he wrote Bluebirds over the Mountain the night after
(24:03):
Phil Everley told him that he should write his own material.
It became his most successful songs, charting at number seventy
five in the United States. The song was later recorded
by Richie Vallens in nineteen fifty eight. Four years later,
it was a minor hit for the band The Echoes,
reaching number one hundred and twelve on Billboard's Hot one
(24:24):
hundred Singles survey. The Beach Boys then covered this song
in nineteen sixty eight with Mike Love on lead vocals,
releasing as a single actually in December of nineteen sixty eight.
Their version peaked as high as number sixty one on
the Hot one hundred.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Dig If you will PICTUREE and nine.
Speaker 7 (25:17):
Gauge and the Kids. The swell of the Spy di
covers me.
Speaker 12 (25:23):
Can you, my darling?
Speaker 16 (25:25):
Can you picture of cass Cordyard an ocean Spylet's blooms.
Speaker 7 (25:35):
And mold strike Chery suposes the.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Heat, the heat between me and you, just standing.
Speaker 6 (25:46):
Loneless world, the socast. Maybe I'm just too demands. Maybe
I'm just like my ball up to bowl. Maybe I'll
just like my mother. This winds.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
That was the Purple One himself, Prince with whin doves Cry.
Prince wrote the song for the movie his movie, Purple Rain.
In the film, the song plays under a montage after
his character loses his girl. The girl's name was Apollina
to his rival Morris of Morris Day and the Time.
We see Prince riding his motorcycle, along with shots of
(26:36):
intimate moments with Apollina. In the movie, Prince has a
difficult relationship with his father, who beats his mom. Scenes
of his father come in on the lyrics where Prince
calls him demanding film is I guess you'd call it
semi autobiographical, but based how much on real life does remlain?
It remains a mystery. Prince rarely gave interviews and really
(26:58):
didn't talk about his person on life in the movie.
The song expresses his fear of becoming like his parents.
When the doves cry, that's his musical refuge. The barrage
of keyboards in the chorus represents the doves crying. Besides
writing and composing the track, Prince played all of the
instruments that you hear on that song. Really talented, dude.
(27:20):
There's no bass on this song. Actually, Prince took out
the bass track at the last minute to kind of
get a different sound, though he hated to see it go.
Prince's Paisley Park complex, where he lived in Minneapolis, was
shrouded in secretly, but visitors reported that he did keep
doves there and that they could get quite loud. Entertainment
(27:41):
Weekly reporter Leah Greenblatt wrote, yes he keeps dove and
yes they cry.
Speaker 17 (27:54):
Ok in the morning one way one now I woke
in the morning wandering we and warm Now.
Speaker 13 (28:14):
Listen My long Last lover.
Speaker 17 (28:18):
And walk Jimmy Talk, Jimmy, Timmy, what it's all about.
Speaker 14 (28:29):
I was standing at the side road, listen to the billboard.
Now standing at the side road, listening.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
To the billboard.
Speaker 20 (28:43):
Now, well, my wrist was empty, but.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
My nerves walk kicking, kicking like a cloud.
Speaker 17 (28:57):
You know I got.
Speaker 13 (28:58):
Anything you need be.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
That was mister Bobby Dylan with black Crow blues. As
with the song All I Really Want to Do, the
opening track on Another Side of Bob Dylan, This second
track on the album is widely assumed to be about
Dylan's breakup with Sue's Rottola, with whom Rottolo being among
those who assume that this is about her. The lyrics
(29:21):
are pretty straightforward throughout the song, detailing Dylan's state as
he wanders around feeling beaten up from losing his woman.
The final verse, though, which also happens to be the
one that gives the song its title, is kind of
a surreal lyric. Black crows in the Meadow across a
broad Highway. Black crows in the meadow across a broad Highway.
(29:41):
Though it's funny, Honey, I just don't feel much like
a Scarecrow Today, the lyrics make sense in a sort
of instinctual way, but they break down if you think
too much about them. They really don't seem to make
any sense. The vaguely surreal, paradoxical nature of the words
is not insignificant, though, As we've learned with Bob Dylan,
the lyrics always have some meeting, and it's considered a
(30:04):
turning point in the album and and in Dylan's songwriting
when he started incorporating this visionary kind of mystical mythical
element similar to poetry of Arthur Rimbaud, who he frequently
quotes in a lot of his lyrics. Dylan has never
performed this song live, by the way.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
We of dis that night we go ahead, we go Damn.
Speaker 14 (30:43):
They've Big co Man, b Bo Man, then big Go.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
Bn Loza, We did it Eyes of Beatus. You think
can goddamn out of a bench.
Speaker 16 (31:10):
Disease, wait news out there, gemus.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
Goddamn, no, goddamn.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
That was the band The Misfits with the song Where
Eagles Dare. The song takes its name from a nineteen
sixty eight movie Where Eagles Dare starring Clint Eastwood and
Richard Burton. While many of the Misfits songs were based
on horror movies, Where Eagles Dare is actually an action
film that takes place during World War Two and was
adapted from a novel by the same name written by
(31:55):
a guy named Alistair McLean. While the lyrics pen penned
by Glenn Danzig make allusions to aspects of subterfusion warfare,
there's little that points to this being a direct reference
to the book or the film. Where Eagles Dare was
originally released only as a B side to the Misfits
popular nineteen seventy five single Night of the Living Den
(32:17):
and I Love That song and versions of the song,
though were included on future compilation albums.
Speaker 11 (32:51):
Seeg You fly across the right into the misty moone,
and so.
Speaker 21 (33:04):
Nobody ask you where you are going, nobody knows where
you're from.
Speaker 8 (33:18):
You're as a man.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
Asking the question, is this really the end up? SECU?
Speaker 15 (33:31):
You must have longed for a long time?
Speaker 3 (33:36):
The shape of things do come now. You're clie through
the sky, never asking why, and you cl.
Speaker 6 (33:55):
Know somebody.
Speaker 5 (33:59):
Shoot.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
That was the band Bad Company with their song Seagull.
Paul Rodgers from Bad Company said about this album quote.
Every song that we have done has its own story.
SEAgel was written while sitting on the beach, and music
is all about atmosphere and the best way to create
the atmospheres to actually be there. You don't have to
imagine it. It's all right there for you. With the
(34:23):
song SEAgel, you could just see it on the horizon
and you could include that in the song. And that's
what writing songs is all about, creating mood and atmosphere,
which is what we did with the song Okay, Cool.
Speaker 7 (34:52):
Fair, Black Boat to white.
Speaker 8 (34:54):
Head, hung Loch and dead Meat by the side of
the road. Evil breath smells just like death. He takes
no chances, he knows the dances Lochu.
Speaker 13 (35:13):
Bu Bacher.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
That was iggy pop with his song Vulture, and it's
kind of a raw acoustic song and it uses vultures
as a metaphor for death. The album is called Pop
Pop Depression, and the producer of that album, Josh ham
recalled quote, He's like, well, I've got one. So he
played it on acoustic and saying and that's the take.
(36:02):
We only did one take of it, and we just
built around that. There's something raw and off tunous about
it that I really liked and it sounded perfect for
his voice. Vulture is the ultimate scarred up opportunist and
I love the sentiment in the song. Josh Ham has
another vulture connection. He was also the frontman for the
supergroup called Them Crooked Vultures, which also included ex Nirvana
(36:26):
drummer Dave Grohl and former led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones.
They actually released an album in two thousand and nine.
Vultures are renowned scavengers, often feeding on wounded or sicker
dead bodies. They are consequently frequently used as a metaphor
for those who prey on the week or the dying.
Some interesting vulture facts the Parsi community in Mumbai traditionally
(36:50):
left their dead out to be picked by vultures. Vultures
can turn a dead body to a skeleton in under
five hours, and vultures are fairly unique and that they're
able to eat carry on that has succumbed to the
effects of decay and disease, feet that few stomachs in
the animal kingdom can match, and when threatened, vultures vomit
to lighten their weight so that they can escape more
(37:13):
easily into flight.
Speaker 3 (37:25):
You rock saying the tree.
Speaker 7 (37:26):
Top all the day along.
Speaker 9 (37:29):
In this song, all the little birds on d Bear
Street Dom do the Robin boat tweet treble.
Speaker 13 (37:39):
Rob please.
Speaker 5 (37:41):
Go rocking Robbin.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
We're really going to.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
Every follow everything, every little bird in the tree, the
wise allowed the big black brow wings.
Speaker 13 (37:57):
And rock and Robin tweet play Rock.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
And Robin Robin a great sing along song by Bobby Day.
(38:28):
They are called Rockin' Robin, Originally titled rock hyphen in Robin.
This was the only top forty hit for Bobby Day,
whose sound was a hybrid of pop and R and B.
His innocent kind of upbeat songs were a great fit
for Michael Jackson, who's nineteen seventy two recording of Rock
(38:49):
and Robin also went to number two in the US.
Also in nineteen seventy two, Michael's group The Jackson Five
went to number thirteen with Bobby Day's Little Bitty Pretty One.
Day's version of rock and Robin was a number one
R and B hit. This song was written by Leon Renee,
a songwriter and record executive who also wrote Little Bitty
(39:09):
Pretty one and over and over with Day. The songwriting
credits do get confusing, as Renee used pseudonyms. On Rock
and Robin, he is credited as either Jimmy or Jesse Thomas.
Bobby Day is also sometimes credited as a co writer
on the song under his real name, the very appropriately
named Robert Bird. Another name that sometimes shows up on
(39:31):
the credits is Michael McGinnis, which might have been another
name that Day used. Quote, we sort of had a
little deal on this song, Day explained. He says that
Renee pitched him the song and Day recorded it using
the musician from a former group, the Hollywood Flames. That
group had a number eleven hit with Buzz Buzz Buzz
in nineteen fifty eight and changed their names to the
(39:52):
Satellites just prior to recording Rock and Robin. Musicians on
this track included Barney Kessel on guitar and Earl Palmer
on drums. The famous piccolo part was played by Plas Johnson,
who was better known as a saxophone player. He did
the Pink Panther theme and was the saxophone player for
the Wrecking Crew. These guys were the first that would
(40:13):
be on call for almost any record recorded in Los
Angeles during about a fifteen year period. The song is
in the public domain because the copyright was never renewed.
This is a rare occurrence, since the income generating copyrights
are usually monitored pretty closely by the publishers who own them. Often,
corporations that have acquired the rights often have a lawyer
(40:35):
who simply does just that in house. This means that
you can perform Rock and Robin and use it in
your movie, create a karaoke version, or hell even put
it in a commercial, and not have to pay royalties
as long as you create an original version of the song.
Speaker 20 (40:49):
Like Ah the Wild, like a drunken egg midnight, I.
Speaker 12 (41:02):
Have tried.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
In my way.
Speaker 20 (41:07):
To be free, like a worm on a hook, like
a night from some old fashioned book.
Speaker 13 (41:24):
I have saved.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
All my ripper.
Speaker 13 (41:31):
Believe if I, if I have been unca.
Speaker 7 (41:48):
I hope that you can't just let it go by Ever, No,
(42:13):
it was never.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
That was Leonard Cohen with Bird on a Wire. Speaking
of this song in a nineteen ninety three interview, Cohen explained, quote,
it was begun in Greece because there were no wires
on the island where I was living. To a certain moment,
there were no telephone wires. There were hell no telephones.
There was no electricity, so at a certain point they
(42:36):
put up these telephone poles and you wouldn't notice them now,
but when they first went up, it was about all
I did stare out the window at these telephone wires
and think how a civilization had caught up with me,
and I wasn't going to be able to escape it.
After all, I wasn't going to be able to live
this eleventh century life that I thought I had found
for myself in Greece. And that was the beginning. Then,
of course, I noticed that birds came up to the wires,
(42:58):
and that's how the song began, Like a drunk in
a midnight choir that's also set on the island, where
drinkers me included, would come up the stairs. There was
a great tolerance among the people for that, because it
could be in the middle of the night you'd see
three guys with their arms around each other, stumbling up
the stairs and singing these impeccable third harmonies. So you
can imagine that that all came from this island, like
(43:20):
a drunk midnight choir. The opening lines of Bird on
a Wire are inscribed on Chris Christofferson's gravestone, like a
bird on a wire, like a drunk and a midnight choir.
I have tried in my way to be free. Christofferson
shows the lyric for his epitaph because of the song's
themes of freedom, isolation, and searching for one's place in
the worlds.
Speaker 22 (44:01):
To get bye, I'm never coming down by halt is
six feet on the ground.
Speaker 13 (44:18):
The road to hell is paved with good.
Speaker 22 (44:21):
Intentions, dark inventions of mine.
Speaker 18 (44:31):
The road to Hell is paved.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
With broken barns, bleed nts like mine. Chasing birds through
the sky, I'm deep to the black, chasing birds say goodbye.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
That song is called Chasing Birds by the Foo Fighters,
and the phrase chasing birds this means kind of like
a pointless pursuit, because of course, those feathered creatures can
just fly away, leaving the chaser stranded on the ground. Here,
Dave Grohl reflects on the futile search for a long
lasting relationship. For a time, the singer was in a
(45:25):
romance where he felt so high his quote head was
in the clouds, he said. But once the relationship ended,
he came back down to earth with his heart six
feet underground. He laments that the road to Hell is
paved with broken hearts and bleeding hearts like mine. Some
critics have compared the delicate pretty Ballad to the songwriting
of Paul McCartney, which is far away from the heavy
(45:48):
rock music of Nirvana and the Foo Fighters. Grohl said
in an interview that he learned how to play guitar
as a teenager by strumming along to the Beatles quote.
You know, to me, dissonance and chaos is easy. Having
listened to a lot of very difficult music in my
formative years, I eventually found that the challenge of simplicity
and melody is more rewarding than just screeching feedback and
(46:09):
distorted drums. I realized that when I was in Nirvana.
Girl said, Kurt's songwriting was very simple, and ultimately it
really grabbed people's hearts because of its simplicity and melody.
But it's not easy to do. Dave Girl recalled that
he wrote the song on an acoustic guitar, thinking was
going to be an acoustic song. Then he thought, I
don't know if I want an acoustic song on this record,
(46:30):
so he started adding electric guitar and.
Speaker 22 (46:33):
Drums each day to the steps of Simple.
Speaker 7 (46:40):
A little old bird woman comes.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
In home special way to the people. She co.
Speaker 13 (46:54):
Come my my back, it's full of crumbs.
Speaker 5 (47:01):
Come feed the little bird.
Speaker 3 (47:05):
Show them you care, and you'll be glad if you do.
The young ones are hungry.
Speaker 5 (47:18):
Their nests are so bad.
Speaker 6 (47:21):
All it takes is toppens s from you.
Speaker 12 (47:34):
The bird.
Speaker 5 (47:35):
It's topping, sabag.
Speaker 8 (47:39):
Toppens, toppens stopping sabag.
Speaker 3 (47:46):
Feed the birds. That's what she cries while the head
her birds fill the skies.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
So everyone and remembers that from Mary Poppins. That was
Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins singing feed the Birds. In
the nineteen sixty four Disney musical of Mary Poppins, The
magical nanny played by Andrews teaches a number of lessons
to the bank's children and the song Feed the Birds.
She expresses the importance of charity through the story of
(48:20):
the elderly beggar woman who makes a living selling bird
feed for two pence a bag, not toppens. By the way,
it's twopence she is singing in the song. Songwriters Richard
and Robert Sherman consider this hymn like lullaby, to be
the heart of the film, Robert Sherman said, quote, songs
have been written about a myriad of subjects. Feed the
Birds the first song written about the merits of giving charity.
(48:43):
Sherman brothers were inspired by a scene from Mary Poppins,
the book series of Mary Poppins, written by P. L. Travers.
Robert explained, quote, we seized on one incident in chapter seven,
the bird Woman, and we realized that this was a
metaphor for why Mary came to the children in the
first place, to teach the children and mister Banks the
value of charity. So he wrote the song and took
(49:05):
it up to Walt Disney's office and played it and
sang it for him right there in his office. He
leaned back in his chair, looked out the window and said,
that's it, isn't it. That's what this is all about.
This is the metaphor for the whole film. And we
knew at that point he got what we were trying
to do.
Speaker 19 (49:31):
I've watched you go through changes that no man should
face alone. Take to Helau, tame the horse. The choice
is still your own, but yourself against the pain, oh
dead bird.
Speaker 23 (49:49):
Can give.
Speaker 12 (49:51):
An Indian Remember it's with you.
Speaker 20 (49:55):
You have to live.
Speaker 12 (49:58):
An Indian. Remember it's with you. You have to live,
stand you ground.
Speaker 19 (50:11):
I think you've got the good sid text to win,
but you must learn to turn the key before she'll
let you in.
Speaker 12 (50:22):
And understand the problems.
Speaker 14 (50:25):
Of the girl you want.
Speaker 19 (50:27):
So nih are you were the coats of questions to
the answer hat is he?
Speaker 1 (50:34):
Formerly of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young That was Graham
Nash with his song Wounded Bird and before forming Crosbie,
Stills and Nash In nineteen sixty eight, Stephen Still's dated
Judy Collins, the subject of the Crosby Stills Nash song
Sweet Judy Blue Eyes, released on their debut album in
nineteen sixty nine. In this song, his bandmate Grand Nash
(50:57):
sends him a message. Wounded Bird is a song I
wrote for Stephen and Judy Collins, Nash said in an
interview when Judy and Stephen were together, it made perfect
sense to us all but I wanted to just insert
a word of caution that sometimes love goes in a
different way than you think it does, and so it's
just a word of caution to my friend Steven about
his relationship with Judy. Wounded Bird is a part of
(51:19):
Graham Nash's debut solo album Songs for Beginners. The only
British member of Crosby, Stills and Nash and sometimes Young,
he was a member of the Hollies before forming the group.
After Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young released their second album
in nineteen seventy, all four members put out solo albums.
Speaker 24 (51:42):
Better Goodhead, Jig Ben Love It, Jingen Hawk, Godheading Love
It ging Hawk only But that howk Sejohn, He did
peg me ut hockey, dake me up in the sky.
(52:03):
They dragged me up again, dagg me up in the sky.
Speaker 7 (52:09):
I need leading chicken in and don't know how f lie.
Speaker 3 (52:14):
Lead up up and away. We gonn file day up
up away. We gonna file day up up up upa away.
Speaker 21 (52:31):
He had a ball head eagle fie up there in
the blue. He had a ball head eagle file bere
in the blue where you can do the hart to
go to steal that chicken the music where on that
pileaca be a single jem were off that pieac painting
(52:55):
the jet You you that cool out chicken evening got
it yet?
Speaker 1 (53:03):
That was Big Joe Turner with the song the Chicken
and the hawk. That's two birds and one stone for
you there in that song. Big Joe's pretty integral to
the evolution and birth of rock and roll. Of course
we know his song Shake, Rattle and Roll, but that sound,
which he repeated in almost every song, was distinctive and
(53:23):
became known as the Big Joe Turner sound when others
tried to copy it. Born in Kansas City and dealing
with pretty bad racial injustice and civil rights upheavals in
his hometown, he was quite happy to get out on
the road and perform this new style of music for
the masses. In nineteen fifty one, while performing with the
Count Basie Orchestra Harlem's Apollo Theater as a replacement for
(53:48):
Jimmy Rushing, he was spotted by Ahmet and Nissuri Etujin,
who were contractors to get him to come over and
record with their recording company, Atlantic Records. This is one
of the first acts that Atlantic ever even signed. Turner
had great success during nineteen fifty four with Shake Rattle
'n' Roll, which significantly boosted his career, turning him into
(54:09):
a teenage favorite and also helped to transform popular music.
During the song Turner yells at his woman to get
out of that bed, wash your face and hands, and
comments that she's wearing those dresses. The sun comes shining
through on I can't believe my eyes. All that mess
belongs to you. He sang it on film for the
nineteen fifty five theatrical film Rhythm and Blues Review. Although
(54:32):
the cover version of the song by Bill Haley and
his comments used with the Riskue lyrics partly omitted, was
a greater sales success, many listeners sought out Turner's version
and were introduced to Rhythm and Blues.
Speaker 18 (54:45):
There wasn't Old Leady from Euston to Kinds and a Rooster?
Her rooster dine, Old lady cried, my hand's going in
like you used to.
Speaker 2 (54:56):
Ain't that a shame?
Speaker 9 (54:58):
Ain't that a shame? Ain't that a shame? She loves
her help of hate her next door neighbor. Oh happy,
He seemed to be very happy.
Speaker 13 (55:11):
He can plain his code.
Speaker 18 (55:12):
There will grow lone because the old roster has gone.
Speaker 2 (55:16):
Ain't there a shame?
Speaker 3 (55:18):
Ain't there a shame? Ain't there a shame?
Speaker 7 (55:23):
She loves her happy Fain.
Speaker 18 (55:27):
I know, leady, nephew O roster that you she didn't sigh.
She didn't cry. She made her a hard a step.
Ain't there a shame? Ain't there a shame? Ain't there
a shame? She loves to help of Hay.
Speaker 1 (56:04):
That's Domino was one of the more important figures in
the development and popularization of rock and roll, representing, as
he did, the bridging of the previous gap between the
black R and B market and the white mainstream commercial
pop scene during the middle years of the nineteen fifties.
His career began long before the well documented rock and
(56:26):
roll explosion of those years, but he maintained an extraordinary
longevity in the charts. That was his song, the Rooster Song.
There was an old lady from Houston. She had two
hens and a rooster. Her rooster died. The old lady cried,
My hands don't lay like they used to. It's time
for us to end today's episode on birds. And what
is it called when you quit something like a podcast
(56:49):
episode abruptly? I believe it's called quitting cold Turkey. Well,
this song from John Lennon is about drug withdrawal. Quitting
cold Turkey means abruptly stopping your drug use. It wreaks
havoc on the body because it suddenly has to adjust
to not getting the drugs. John Lennon quit Cold Turkey
(57:11):
because he wanted to get off drugs and start a
family with Yoko, who also quit the drugs along with him.
He wrote the song about that experience. Lennin wanted to
record this with the Beatles for their Abbey Road album,
but the other Beatles rejected it. Lennon recorded it with
a group of musicians he called the Plastic Ono Band
and released it as a single. It was not available
(57:32):
on an album. Lenin performed this on September thirteenth, nineteen
sixty nine, at the Toronto Rock and Revival show, where
he was introducing his Plastic Ono Band. At least the
configuration of it for this show it changed all the time.
Eric Clapton was on guitar for that show, Klaus Vorman
was on bass, and Alan White was on drums. Yoko
(57:52):
Ono was also, unfortunately part of the act, and she
made an impact during Cold Turkey. As the song played,
she emerged from a bag on stage, stepped up to
the microphone and just really made loud Turkey sounding noises,
which wasn't out of character for her.
Speaker 4 (58:08):
Well.
Speaker 1 (58:08):
I hope that you enjoyed this episode. I hope, of course,
as always, you turn this last song up, and I
also really hope you recommend this podcast to a friend
and come back next week.
Speaker 23 (58:29):
Temperatures rising, fevers. I can't see no future. I can't
see no Scott.
Speaker 3 (58:46):
I feed our so heavy.
Speaker 16 (58:50):
So is my head.
Speaker 3 (58:54):
I wish I was a baby. I wish I was stay. Oh,
Turkey has got me? Oh long.
Speaker 7 (59:19):
My body is aching gustin foot bone.
Speaker 3 (59:28):
I can't see nobody leap me. Is lone's a wide open?
I can't get to sleep. One thing. I'm sure I'm
(59:49):
in at the deep free.
Speaker 2 (59:52):
O.
Speaker 3 (59:53):
Turkey has got me.
Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
Thank you for listening to listen to this, Please recommend
to a friend, and don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe.
Speaker 24 (01:00:08):
For more podcasts and online content, please visit this isfunner
dot com.
Speaker 3 (01:00:12):
This is Funner
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